Health Issue Sparks DOTA 2 Controversy

There’s been some controversy over the weekend surrounding Valve’s big DOTA 2 tournament, The International, and how the company (and one team involved) has handled the roster of one of the competing teams.

That team is Fnatic, and the player at the centre of the mess is Adrian “Era” Kryeziu (pictured, below), who suffers from what sound like pretty severe anxiety attacks. These attacks have reportedly affected his ability to attend and compete in recent tournaments, so in order to maintain a consistent roster across competitions Fnatic have recently replaced him (temporarily) with Steve ‘Xcalibur’ Ye.

Which is a move that, while allowed for other tournaments, has run into a problem with Valve. The developer has told Fnatic that unless the team competes with the five players originally invited to The International months ago – a lineup that includes Era, not Xcalibur – it won’t be able to compete.

Following expressions of outrage amongst the community regarding the decision (the line on what constitutes a fair replacement of a nominated team member is a blurry one that’s been fudged a few times in the past), both parties have issued lengthy statements seeking to clarify the situation, Fnatic’s here and Valve’s here.

The latter makes for interesting reading, since it includes a dump of all correspondence made between the team, Valve and Era, including an email where Era claims he was “fired” by Fnatic, and questions the legality of the move since his doctors had actually cleared him to play.

A public statement issued over the weekend by Era, however, casts doubt on that email. Walking back his accusations, he says his email was “irrational”, and adds that after further sessions with doctors “it was concluded that travelling would be too stressful and may prolong recovery and it would be better to stay home”.

Regardless, Valve’s stance – included at the end of their transcripts – remains the same: