BLAST disqualify Victory Zigzag; TheMongolz to miss Showdown

The winners of the European qualifier have been disqualified and Alliance will play in their stead.

TheMongolz will miss out on the Showdown due to visa issues

BLAST has announced two changes to the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, one in the European bracket and the other in the Rest of the World's.

The first of the changes is the disqualification of Victory Zigzag, who have been embroiled in one scandal after another, due to an ongoing ESIC investigation — ostensibly the one regarding Joel "⁠joel⁠" Holmlund for match-fixing during his time in GODSENT, before the BLAST qualifier.

Read more

joel sidelined for BLAST Fall Showdown; Victory Zigzag coach Hardwell to stand in

Initially, BLAST announced that the team's coach, Ivan "⁠Hardwell⁠" Alekseev, would play in his stead, but he was then FACEIT banned and therefore rendered ineligible.

Read more

BLAST bar Victory Zigzag coach from Fall Showdown following cheating ban

Then Mikkel "⁠lund⁠" Lund, who HLTV learned was supposed to actually be Victory Zigzag's initial substitute for joel, and who had already played with the team in the Pelaajat Nordic Masters open qualifier, was given the green light by BLAST to compete at the Showdown, according to Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz.

Now, in an ex post facto decision, BLAST has announced that it will rescind Victory Zigzag's spot in the Showdown due to the initial ESIC investigation and is instead giving it to Alliance, who finished runners-up in the Pelaajat Nordic Masters qualifier while under the 416Olsk tag.

The second change to the team list is the replacement of The MongolZ, who have not been able to secure visas in time to travel to America, in the Rest of the World bracket.

The runners-up in the Asia qualifier, 5yclone, were left without enough time to secure visas of their own and Party Astronauts have been invited as the runners-up in the North American qualifier.

The teams set to compete in Europe are:

ENCE
G2
Cloud9
BIG

9INE
Movistar Riders
OG
Alliance

The Rest of the World roster is:

Liquid
Imperial
Complexity
FURIA

Evil Geniuses
Forsaken
Legacy
Party Astronauts

HLTV reached out to BLAST and Kamen "⁠bubble⁠" Kostadinov for comment regarding the team's disqualification. The Bulgarian player didn't wish to comment because he signed BLAST's Team Participation Agreement and the tournament operator has yet to reply to the inquiry.