Official: PARIVISION's RMR disqualification overturned

Tournament organizer Perfect World cite a "newly communicated ESIC appeal process" that meant F_1N was allowed to be around the PARIVISION squad.

PARIVISION will compete at the Shanghai Major EU RMR after their disqualification was overturned by Perfect World, confirming a report by HLTV.

The decision means the EU Last Chance Qualifier, scheduled for August 27 featuring the three 2-3 teams KOI, Monte, and BLEED, is no longer required and has been cancelled.

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PARIVISION disqualified from Europe RMR over banned coach involvement*

PARIVISION were initially barred from flying to Shanghai by Perfect World after posting celebrations on social media that showed coach Ivan "⁠F_1N⁠" Kochugov, then believed to be serving a permanent ban from Valve events, present with the team.

F_1N was one of 37 coaches suspended in 2020 for using the infamous coach bug in six official matches for 34 rounds. That was enough to earn a permanent ban from Valve, while the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) barred him from their member events for nearly nine months.

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Sources: PARIVISION's RMR disqualification overturned after appeal**

His ban has now been cut short after what ESIC called a "special evaluation of the significantly out-of-time appeal."

The appeal, posted four years after the sentence was handed out, proved successful after a review by ESIC's Independent Appeal Chair "based on the appeal’s merits and the compelling evidence provided by him."

"This change has been communicated to and accepted by Valve."

This process was not made public until today, but F_1N's status was not communicated to Perfect World immediately upon its conclusion. Upon receiving this information, the TO overturned PARIVISION's ban and re-instated their place at the EU RMR.

Valve's Major rulebook, section Stage Integrity, sub-section Team staff restrictions says:

"In the case of any matches where event admins are not physically present (e.g. online matches), no team staff, including the coach, may be physically or virtually present or communicate with the players at any time during the match."

Having any staff other than players present in the room during online matches is still against the rules, according to the excerpt from Valve's Major rulebook above. This alone, however, was not the reason behind the original decision to bar PARIVISION from participating in the RMR, with Perfect World focussed on F_1N's status as a banned individual.

HLTV has reached out to ESIC to inquire about when the appeal process was completed and when it was communicated to Valve, but did not receive a response at the time of the article's release.