Ineligible Brazil mix flies to Mexico
The South American qualifiers for the IEM Rio Major may have ended, but that hasn't stopped a group of five Brazilians from trying to find their way into the Jeunesse Arena. A mix-team of five Brazilians have made the unprecedented move of flying to Mexico to try and clinch a spot through the North American open qualifier. However, for Paulo "land1n" Felipe, Alef "tatazin" Pereira, Matheus "mawth" Gonçalves, Denis "dzt" Fischer, and Matheus "prt" Scuvero, the rulebook is likely set to cut their IEM Rio dreams short.
According to Dust2 Brasil, the players went to Mexico without knowing if they'd be able to compete as their participation would go against numerous parts of the IEM Rio rulebook.
The primary issues with the player's eligibility revolves around their attempts to leave their home region for the sole purpose of playing the qualifier. By traveling to Mexico just for the qualifier, it very likely goes against the letter of the law in rule 2.7.4 which states that Brazilian players may only play the NA qualifier if they can show the intent to stay in the region for a prolonged period of time. Additionally, the rulebook favors teams from South American playing the North American qualifier that can demonstrate that traveling would be detrimental.
In particular, the rules state:
There are no qualifiers in the home region(s) for the participant and they are willing to travel to the region of the qualifier to play it.
The team is taking part in a competition(s) in a region other than their home region(s) and has matches to play there before and after and in such close proximity to the time of the qualifier(s) in their home region(s) that travelling back for that qualifier(s) would be unreasonable.
The participant is staying in another region for a good reason (esports related) for a prolonged time that spans the time of the qualifier for their home region, and it can be clearly shown that this situation has not been created in order to take part in a qualifier that might be easier to qualify from.
The last line is very explicit in that the players must clearly show they have not traveled to Mexico in a situation clearly crafted in order to take part in a qualifier that might be easier to qualify from. Additionally, mawth played in the first South American open qualifier with Los Grandes, which explicitly disqualifies him from playing in the North American qualifier.
In response to the Dust2 Brasil story from yesterday morning, IEM released a statement claiming they are currently investigating the situation and are in contact with the players. While it is unfortunate that this team are likely to eat the cost to fly to Mexico for nothing, its another example of players needing to read the rulebook.
