Team SMG CEO Steps Down Following Disqualification From The International 2022 Qualifiers

Team SMG has announced on Twitter that their Dota 2 division has been disqualified from The International 2022 Southeast Asian Qualifiers as the organisation failed to register their new players ahead of the cut-off time for the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit.

Regarding our status for the TI11 qualifiers.#TheInternational #Dota2 #TI11 pic.twitter.com/LQodn05apS

— Team SMG (@TeamSMGofficial) September 2, 2022

The team’s plans to play at the first The International in Southeast Asia have been entirely derailed meaning that their two new recruits, Singaporeans Daryl “iceiceice” Koh and Wilson “poloson” Koh, will not play in front of the home crowd. Iceiceice has only missed one other TI in 2017.

TEAM SMG WILL APPOINT INTERIM CEO

Kenchi Yap, CEO of Team SMG, has stepped down, and an interim will take his place.

“Several reasons contributed to the unfortunate situation, including communication breakdown between the team manager and players as well as the late confirmation of finalised DPC roster,” the statement wrote.

Team SMG applied for an appeal but was quickly denied by Valve. Both the players and management have discussed the issue, and “acknowledged that there were mistakes made that were uncalled for.”

“We accept full responsibility for what has happened and our lapse in judgement that caused our disqualification,” the organization wrote.