eXTREMESLAND addresses Alter Ego situation

After severe backlash from the community towards eXTREMESLAND's regional validation for Alter Ego, the tournament organizer has addressed the situation and provided a statement on social media. The organizer issues an apology to all participating teams and admits that the situation was a result of an "oversight in drafting and enforcement of tournament rules."

eXTREMESLAND has come under quite a bit of scrutiny in recent times for changing tournament slot allocations multiple times. On this particular occasion, Alter Ego, a regular name in Southeast Asian events was the cause of the commotion. The squad boasting one Indonesian player, one Polish player, one Korean player, one Lebanese player and one Singaporean player at the time, registered for the Southeast Asian regional qualifier for the event. The tournament organizer had restricted this qualifier only to teams from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Alter Ego's eXTREMESLAND qualifier roster

BnTeT
tomiko
b1lal
kaito
ImpressioN

eXTREMESLAND had stated that the regional validation would depend on the residency status of the team's players and the majority had to reside in an eligible region. Meeting none of the criteria mentioned by the organizer, Alter Ego travelled to Malaysia and set up a bootcamp to register for eXTREMESLAND's Southeast Asian qualifier. eXTREMESLAND approved Alter Ego's participation, enraging the community, resulting in a backlash.

Alter Ego proactively expressed their interest in participating. In the spirit of our commitment to enabling more teams to compete, we initially permitted their registration.
eXTREMESLAND

After the backlash, eXTREMESLAND reverted their decision. The organizer mentions that Alter Ego withdrew from the tournament after the TO had a discussion with the team's management over a phone call. eXTREMESLAND even thought about introducing a additional qualifier at the last moment but binned the plan after receiving strong opposition from other teams competing at the event.