Steven R. July 19, 2019
StarLadder is helping out MiBR.
According to a report by HLTV, the organizer behind the upcoming Berlin Major has rewritten the event’s roster rules. Though the change was not explicitly made to help MiBR, the news certainly has the look of the organizer giving one of the most popular teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive preferential treatment.
Per HLTV, StarLadder amended the roster rules for the major to allow organizations to sub in a coach for a player at the team’s discretion. At this point in the major cycle, the previous rules would have exclusively reserved this option for an emergency situation. Once the coach is substituted in, the decision is irrevocable.
Though StarLadder stated that the change came because the previous rules "created a lot of chaos" and were "unnecessary and unhealthy,” the actual reason may come from the ongoing divorce proceedings between MiBR and Marcelo "coldzera" David.
Rumors about strife within the Brazilian organization have lingered for years, but those issues became a matter of public record earlier this month when reports circulated that Coldzera had requested to be benched by the organization. These issues were largely confirmed on Twitter by Epitácio "TACO" de Melo, which was followed by the team publicly acknowledging that he had been benched per his request days later.
The team’s plan was to bench Coldzera and have coach Wilton "zews" Prado compete on MiBR’s roster through the StarLadder Berlin Major, at which point the organization would begin seeking a full-time replacement. The hiccup to that plan was that Coldzera requesting to be benched didn’t qualify as an “emergency situation,” meaning the organization would have to bring him along to Berlin or be forced to withdraw from the major entirely.
This rule change will allow MiBR to follow through on its plans, a fact that may not sit well with other organizations. While StarLadder seems to have jumped through hoops to help MiBR, other teams have been burned by uneven enforcement of the rules.
North American organization Lazarus Esports was forced to play with stand-ins in the Americas Minor qualifier and were later ejected when they were unable to retain the players and were barred from bringing in a substitute. They were replaced by Luminosity Gaming, who conversely were allowed to use substitutions.
Additionally, Ninjas in Pyjamas was forced to add Maikil "Golden" Kunda Selim on loan from Cloud9 due to Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora being previously registered to the major competition as a player for Team Ancient.
Though this will undoubtedly irk some fans, things seem to be set in stone at this point with Fernando "fer" Alvarenga confirming that Zews will play with the team in Berlin.
The event kicks off on August 23.