Why Arkosh forfeited in The International 2022 NA qualifiers

William Davis Published 12/09/2022

Arkosh Gaming may be an icon of North American Dota 2, but the squad won’t show up at The International 2022 after a sudden qualifiers forfeit.

The International 2022 qualifiers are the most stressful time of the year for professional Dota 2 teams. With massive stakes and numerous opponents, there’s a lot to worry about. In the case of Arkosh Gaming, the team chose to not even try. Here’s why North America’s meme team won’t be attending the biggest tournament of the year.

As a DPC lower division team, Arkosh was automatically invited to compete in The International 2022 regional qualifier. The double-elimination bracket will determine which North American teams can attend The International despite not qualifying in the DPC season. 

Instead of participating in the qualifier as expected, Arkosh Gaming instead chose to forfeit just a day before its first scheduled match against The Cut. The International 2022 will probably have an eight-digit prize pool, so it doesn’t make immediately sense why. But for Dota 2 fans who know about Arkosh players’ secret identities, the reason is rather obvious.

Arkosh Gaming forfeit qualifiers to cast TI instead

Arkosh Gaming’s players likely chose to forfeit The International 2022 qualifiers because they will probably work the event as talent.

Arkosh’s roster includes Brian “BSJ” Canavan, Kyle “Kyle” Freedman, and Andrew “Jenkins” Jenkins, seasoned Dota 2 commentators and analysts who will almost certainly attend TI11 as talent. The other players on the roster could also be involved in content for the tournament. 

If Arkosh was somehow able to make a successful qualifier run, it would be very awkward for BSJ and Jenkins. The International has a massive prize pool, but the two could earn a nice guaranteed payday by attending as talent. As part of this, Arkosh members could also view a potential TI berth as a waste since it would mean a different North America team would be denied a spot at the lucrative event.

The situation is actually similar to Vegetable Esports Club, a rolling stack that competed in multiple DPC qualifiers in 2016 and 2017. That team, which included Austin “Capitalist” Walsh and Kevin “Purge” Godec at times, once made the grand final of the 2016 Boston Major open qualifiers. Fans accused the team of throwing the grand final to Prodota Gaming so qualifying wouldn’t interfere with their talent gigs. By bowing out early, Arkosh doesn’t have to deal with the messy implications of a deep run.

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