natu to miss ESL One Katowice qual

3DMAX attended the second european qualifier and got all the way to the semi-final, where they lost to WinneR, and were supposed to play for the remaining slot in the third place decider with LGB.

Earlier today though, Valve handed bans to fourteen players revolving around Epsilon and ex-ESC, as well as disqualify both teams plus WinneR, whose investigation is still pending.

By that the Finnish side got their slot at the main ESL One Katowice qualifier taking place in a little over a week on February 14-15. 

After that news came out, the team captain Joona "⁠natu⁠" Leppänen revealed that he would getting married on the first day of the qualifier, meaning that he will not be able to attend, naturally.

"After another painful online qualification, a bit of drama and controversy - we are one of the teams to fight for a spot in the first major of the year, ESL One Katowice $250,000 tournament. It's a shame things got tricky in the end but as far as I know, they don't give style points in our sport either." Leppänen posted on Facebook

"The qualification will take place at Angelo Hotel Katowice a week from now, with 16 teams around the world going head to head in two groups of 8 teams in a Best of one Double-Elimination system for one of the eight spots for the actual event taking place March 12th onwards.

Unfortunately it so happens that I'm getting married on the very same day as the qualification starts, next Saturday the 14th - which obviously means I'm unable to participate in the qualifier tournament. We'll be using a standin - who will be announced very soon. Obviously this will make things a little tricky but I'am 100% confident the guys will pull through and we'll have a Finnish debut at a major tournament next month.

Much love <3,

natu"

He also emphasized that his replacement for the tournament would be announced "very soon", so stay tuned to HLTV.org for more information on the matter.