Lynn Vision lose next Tier-1 spot due to last-minute EPL withdrawal
In the last minute news before ESL Pro League Season 22 Stage 1 kicked off, Lynn Vision and Virtus.Pro were ruled out of the tournament as they were unable to field their complete roster. ESL dug into the matter, and have now revealed their findings.
In the case of Lynn Vision, the roster informed ESL on the day of travel that several players did not check-in for their flights, which came as a last minute surprise to ESL who had been receiving repeated confirmation from Lynn Vision that all visas were in place. With no exception allowing this mistake from Lynn Vision, they have been penalised, and will be forfeiting their invite to the next Tier-1 ESL event that they will receive VRS invitation for. The earliest tournament would be IEM Krakow in January if they qualify.
As for Virtus.Pro, the players were denied entry in Sweden, which qualifies as a Visa complication under their exceptional circumstances clause. ESL were able to verify that all travel documents for Virtus.Pro were in order. Therefore, no penalties were issued for Virtus.Pro.
ESL Rulebook
2.14.1 Withdrawing from the event
Participants are considered to have withdrawn from the event if they leave during the ongoing stage, between the two stages of the event, including its qualifying stage (e.g., qualifier and main event), or if they leave after accepting the invitation. In such cases, the participants will forfeit all prize money accumulated for the event and will be penalised with a ban from the next event of the same tier (e.g. if a team withdraws from a Tier 1 event, they will be banned from the next Tier 1 event they would have been invited to). The team that withdraws will also be fined to cover the cost of their replacement (including, but not limited to, flight expenses for the replacement team and any additional costs incurred). If ESL is unable to find a replacement, the original matches assigned to the team will be forfeited.
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