eXTREMESLAND Official Statement: Regarding Alter Ego's Withdrawal

First and foremost, we would like to extend our deepest apologies to all participating teams, players, and the community for the controversy surrounding the eligibility of Team Alter Ego during last weekend's Southeast Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia) regional qualifiers. The confusion and inconvenience were a result of an oversight in the drafting and enforcement of our tournament rules.

After the announcement of the regional qualifiers, Team Alter Ego proactively expressed their interest in participating. In the spirit of our commitment to enabling more teams to compete, we initially permitted their registration based on the third clause of Rule 2.4.1, which states: "the residence of the majority (equal to or greater than 3) of the team's players." This decision was made after the team had self-funded a one-week training camp in Malaysia.

However, just before the qualifiers began, we received strong protests from other teams. Upon internal re-evaluation, we concluded that a training camp alone does not qualify as residency. We determined that a minimum of three months of residency is required to meet this eligibility condition.

Therefore, after communicating with Team Alter Ego, the team ultimately agreed to withdraw from the competition. This decision was a result of our error in rule interpretation, and we would like to specifically apologize to Team Alter Ego for the outcome.

Over the weekend, we also had a phone discussion with Alter Ego's management, who expressed a desire to hold an additional national qualifier for Indonesia. We carefully evaluated this proposal. However, after communicating with the teams that have already qualified, they expressed strong opposition. Additionally, we had to consider that such a last-minute change could jeopardize the Grand Finals' status as a Tier 2-rated event.

Given these considerations, we have decided to revert to the initial regulations: the Southeast Asia region for this event will only include Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Making a temporary change to the tournament format would be unfair to the teams that have already qualified or are currently competing. However, for next year's tournament, we will actively solicit feedback from all parties and re-evaluate the regional and slot allocations to ensure a more comprehensive and fair participation mechanism.

We thank all players, teams, and the community for their understanding and support.