Azure Ray Sheds Light On Bali Major Situations

Chinese team Azure Ray participated in the Bali Major and finished 7-8th place despite having no expectations coming into the tournament. However, their journey in Bali wasn't all sunshine and rainbow, as they were caught in two unfortunate situations. Azure Ray has released an official statement on the Bali Major through Weibo. Here's a summary of their statement.

Bug Abuse Versus Nouns

Azure Ray mentions that before the start of the Major, almost every participant has discovered the "Watcher" bug. When selecting the Watcher with ALT or attacking the Watcher with the A key, players can see whether the enemy is occupying the Watcher. Azure Ray claims that many professional teams have used this bug at the Major.

Before Azure Ray's match against Nouns, the tournament organizers announced that any team who abuses the bug after this announcement would be sentenced to a technical loss. 

Despite the announcement being given before their match against Nouns, Yang "Chalice" Shenyi was still found to be using the bug.

The tournament organizers decided AR would receive a technical loss, changing the 2-0 result against Nouns to a 1-1 draw. Azure Ray's management team confronted the tournament organizers saying they didn't use the bug and got them to rewatch the match replay. 

After analyzing the replay, it was seen that AR's players only selected the Watcher with their left mouse button, which wouldn't trigger any bugs and is not any basis for the penalty stated by the organizer. 

A meeting was held to make a decision that lasted an hour and a half. The tournament organizers decided Azure Ray did not use the bug and canceled the technical loss penalty. The organizers also went to AR's training room and apologized for the misunderstanding.

Elimination Match Against BetBoom

As we all know, big drama emerged when Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko from BetBoom Alt-Tabbed to a live stream of the match against Tundra Esports that he is currently playing in. This action outraged the community, and fans wanted BetBoom to be punished for Pure's actions.

However, behind the scenes, Tundra chose not to punish Pure for his actions and accepted the loss. So, late at night, the tournament organizers announced that BetBoom wouldn't receive any penalties and that Azure Ray would continue to play against Tundra in the Lower Bracket the next day at 13.45 local time.

Surprisingly, after the second game between PSG.LGD and Team Spirit, the tournament organizers changed their decision and scheduled Azure Ray to play against BetBoom with no notice. 

AR's management team pleaded to the organizers and expressly hoped that they would let their team play against Tundra according to the original schedule. Azure Ray has spent two days studying Tundra's matches and heroes in preparation for their Lower Bracket match against them. They didn't want those two days of hard work and creating a "tactical advantage" to end up for nothing because of BetBoom's wrongdoing.

The organizers rejected the request and mentioned that BetBoom didn't have time to prepare for Azure Ray either. Tournament organizers also mentioned that "According to the rules of the tournament manual, BetBoom must be sentenced to lose in the match against Tundra, and the penalty cannot be revoked," but the organizer turned a blind eye to the clear stipulation on cheating in chapter 5.2 of the competition manual that "any player who cheats in various ways will be banned." This was very weird as the organizers would follow the first rule where AR should play against BetBoom, but not the second one, where Pure should be disqualified.

Azure Ray brings up that according to the rules, if they were to play against BetBoom, Pure should be absent from the match. The tournament organizers initially didn't want to disqualify Pure. They tried to test whether Azure Ray would accept if Pure would be disqualified from the tournament after their match against them, which AR rightfully refused.

Azure Ray mentions that their team has been unfairly punished once before. If the organizers insist on making another penalty, they should strictly follow the competition manual and have Pure disqualified immediately. 

Azure Ray explicitly mentions that they have no intention of targeting BetBoom or Pure and recognize their strength, but AR should have the right to say no to any unfair penalties.

After communicating with BetBoom, the organizers decided to suspend Pure from the Bali Major. Azure Ray's statement continues by saying, "The organizers maliciously intensified the conflict between our team and BetBoom, clearing their own responsibility by transferring the blame and guiding the public opinion to point the fingers at our team."

Closing Thoughts

The Azure Ray team is grateful that the organizers took good care of the team's quality of life in the Bali Major but is disappointed at how they handled the competition and ruling. They mentioned that the referees provided by the organizers were very amateurish and lazy. These referees played on their mobile phones and slept through the games. The organizers had severe "lag" in dealing with emergencies, which is why these situations were a complete mess.