ESIC give Astralis a slap on the wrist for BLAST Fall Final integrity violation

ESIC imposed a $15,000 penalty and forfeiture of prize money from the BLAST Fall Final.

ESIC has made a ruling on their investigation into Astralis' emergency substitution at BLAST Premier Fall Final, handing Astralis a $15,000 penalty and the forfeiture of their $10,000 prize earnings from the event.

Astralis were embroiled in controversy when they added Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller to their Fall Final roster as an emergency substitute by stating that Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro was "unfit to play," which BLAST understood was a medical emergency and thus fell under the eligibility rules of an emergency substitution.

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It was then found that br0 did not have a medical emergency, and Astralis, who had just worded the request ambiguously, did not correct BLAST after the announcement was made public.

The substitution was allowed to go through anyway, prompting community outcry and the seven in-game leaders of all teams attending the tournament, other than Astralis, to protest the decision.

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ESIC's report states that there was a procedural failure on BLAST's part by accepting "Astralis' substitution request without sufficient validation, relying solely on representations made by the team. This procedural oversight led to a miscommunication, with BLAST announcing the substitution as medically motivated despite no supporting evidence."

The watchdog's report also mentions the organization's conduct: "Astralis benefitted from the misunderstanding and did not promptly correct BLAST’s miscommunication. This behavior breached ESIC’s Integrity Program by failing to uphold the transparency expected of a professional esports team."

In their conclusion, ESIC states that "while Astralis’ actions did not affect the competitive results, the lack of integrity in their conduct underline the importance of robust governance in esports. ESIC remains committed to ensuring fairness, transparency, and accountability within the industry."

Despite the soft penalty imposed, Astralis doubled down after ESIC's disciplinary action was made public with the following statement: "We take the ruling into account, but we maintain that our actions were in line with applicable Danish employment laws. We are disappointed that ESIC's ruling and decision does not include the employer’s legal obligation to protect its employees in a sensitive situation.

"In light of the ruling, we have decided to donate $15,000 to the Danish Mental Health Foundation (Psykiatrifonden)."

BLAST, the tournament operator, has committed to improving its processes for emergency substitutions.