9Pandas revealed the reason for the severe punishment from Valve at The International 2023

Valve fined 9 Pandas for being late for an interview during The International 2023, although the team itself disagrees with the decision.

Aldar "Jamba" Dzhambinov, the manager of 9 Pandas, revealed this in a new vlog on the club's YouTube channel.

"PGL and Valve have certain rules related to media activity, which is as important at the tournament as everything else. We had a makeup session scheduled for 9:15, and the interviews were planned for 9:30.

We arrived for the makeup at 9:28, the girls got the guys ready in two minutes, and there wasn't much to do there. At 9:32, we arrived for the interview, and they told us, 'You're 15 minutes late.' I started to argue and say that we arrived for the interview on time, but they started talking about the makeup. They imposed a penalty that was completely disproportionate to the offense"

It is worth noting that 9Pandas faced severe punishment before the start of the TI12 playoffs. In the first game against LGD Gaming, they were deprived of an additional 110 seconds in the draft stage. Perhaps this set the tone for the entire match, leading to the team's elimination from the tournament. The club believed that the punishment for their offense was too harsh.