Disqualification of Azure Ray from ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023: did the team violate the rules?

The Chinese team Azure Ray suddenly lost three players from their roster, which was supposed to compete in the first major tournament after The International 2023 – ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 in Malaysia. A few hours later, the club announced a new Dota 2 roster to replace the departed players.

Azure Ray's Roster:

• Lou "lou" Zheng

• Go "Xm" Hunchen

• Lin "Xxs" Jin

• Zhao "XinQ" Zysin

• Jiang "天命" An

However, Team Spirit quickly responded to the abrupt changes in Azure Ray. Dmitry "Korb3n" Belov, the manager of Team Spirit, accused the Chinese team of violating tournament rules, suggesting that they should be disqualified.

What are Azure Ray accused of?

As stated on his Telegram, Dmitry "Korb3n" Belov claimed that Azure Ray allegedly exceeded the allowed number of substitutions in the tournament, which, in his opinion, is a violation of the rules.

"Waiting for ESL's official announcement of Azure Ray's disqualification from the tournament in Malaysia. Since 3 substitutions are not allowed by the rules"

Did Azure Ray actually violate the rules?

The situation is ambiguous, as there remains a legal possibility that the Chinese team did not violate ESL rules. As some fans noted in the comments on Korb3n's post, the new players are not stand-ins or substitutes, but a complete roster change.

Looking at the situation from this perspective, Azure Ray may not only avoid disqualification but even penalties for having stand-ins.

Similar cases in Dota 2 history

Despite the usual limit of two substitutions at major tournaments like ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023, there was at least one instance where a team was allowed to play with three stand-ins. This occurred at DreamLeague 2014 when the Alliance roster consisted of three stand-ins.

Will Azure Ray be disqualified?

While the final decision rests with ESL and the tournament organizers, the aforementioned points suggest that Azure Ray will still compete at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 with their new roster. However, it is not excluded that some penalties or restrictions may be imposed on them during the tournament.