[APAC] Cat Walkers Disqualified from South Asia Monthly Finals
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Indian team "Cat Walkers" has been disqualified from the Challengers South Asia Season 1 Monthly Finals following an internal investigation from JioBLAST. Announced in their Discord server at 05:48 UTC, the team was expelled from the competition after competing in the quarterfinals yesterday.
Official Notice from JioBLAST
The message released earlier today reads as follows:
"Disqualification notice
Following multiple reports, an investigation was launched into Team Catwalkers. They have been found in violation of section 6.5 of the rulebook and have subsequently been penalized with a disqualification in the Quarter Finals of the Season 1 Monthly Finals.
They will still retain their points up until quarter finals and be eligible to compete in further seasons qualifiers and finals.
Team Aether will be moving ahead and competing in Cat Walkers spot during the Semis Finals today.
@South Asia"
Why were they disqualified?
The announcement cites section 6.5 of the Challengers SAS rulebook, which reads as follow:
6.5. Monthly Finals / Regional Finals Match Procedures
● Teams are required to fully cooperate with the Administrators.
● Match Hosting: Matches will be hosted through the Matcherino platform. Teams
are required to join the relevant tournament Matcherino as directed by the
Administrators.
● Participation: Every team must ensure that all the players in their team are not
registered for or competing in any other Matcherino tournaments at any given
moment during the Monthly Finals / Regional Finals. Any team found to be
participating in multiple events at the same may be disqualified and will be subject
to further penalties.
● Tournament Check-In: Team Captains must check-in their team by confirming in
their designated team channel in Discord one (1) hour before the match day
begins. Failure to check-in will result in a ‘no-show’ and disqualification.
● Broadcast Processes: If the match is broadcasted, Players must not ‘Ready Up’
until instructed by Administrators. Any alterations to the process will be
communicated to teams via Discord announcements.
Internal reports have suggested that a member of Cat Walkers was participating in another tournament during the earlier quarterfinals matches in direct violation of this rule's section on participation. This rule is designed to ensure a smooth broadcast and that players are ready to play on a rolling schedule.
What does this mean for Cat Walkers?
Challengers Southeast Asia and South Asia (SEA and SAS) operate on identical formats and prizepools involving a competition format that mimics the global competition style of Monthly Qualifiers and Monthly Finals. Each subregion will have three seasons throughout the summer split to determine SEA and SAS' representatives to the Challengers Finals in Istanbul this September.
With this disqualification, Cat Walkers will retain their points earned by qualification, but forfeit valuable points from the semifinals and any possibility of making a deep run. As one of the favorites in the region with a wealth of experience and consistently strong results in third party Matcherino events, this is a dissapointing result for the squad. With two months left in the season, they'll need to do their best to make up this loss in future events.