motm out as Wildcard stand-in due to EPT roster restrictions

Wildcard have announced that Ian "motm" Hardy will no longer be a stand-in for the organization due to the ESL Pro Tour's roster restrictions. The exclusion of motm from continuing to compete with Wildcard comes after he was seen playing in Gage "Infinite" Green's place in ESL Challenger League Season 47 after the latter player was cut from the lineup.

motm's inability to continue playing for Wildcard is a result of Rule 2.21 in the ESL Pro Tour Roster Restrictions, which prevents a player from returning to a former team within a 120 day window. While motm was never a permanent member of Wildcard, he stood in for the team during the first IEM Dallas Open Qualifier in February, with Wildcard becoming his "new team" in the eyes of the EPT.

Then, not knowing the move would leave him ineligible to continue with Wildcard, motm played the ESL Challenger Jönköping Open Qualifier with a Bad News Bears mixteam. While it was for only one day and never a serious project it was enough to forbid a return to Wildcard per the rulebook.

The situation is especially unfortunate as motm of course lack clairvoyance and could not have possibly known he would have an opportunity to play for Wildcard on a longer term basis post-Americas RMR. Additionally, Dust2.us understands that motm and Wildcard had initially been under the impression he would be able to play for the team long-term due to an error on ESL's part.

Sources say that Wildcard had inquired about fielding motm for the foreseeable future in ESL Challenger League and other EPT events. This request was initially granted and motm was spotted playing for Wildcard in ECL S47 against M80 and Take Flyte last week.

However, this only happened due to it going unnoticed that he had played for Bad News bears for the Jönköping Open Qualifier. Upon realizing their mistake, ESL informed Wildcard that motm would be unable to continue playing for the team, dashing his hopes of a return to the server. This is incredibly unfortunate for motm as he had been performing well for the team and the possibility of a long-term stay with Wildcard was seemingly in the realm of possibility.

With motm out of the picture, Wildcard are now:

• Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz

• Josh "JBa" Barutt

• Keller "SLIGHT" Nilan

• Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek

• João "horvy" Horvath (Coach)

Wildcard will need to find a replacement for motm, permanent or otherwise, ahead of their next match in ESL Challenger League Season 47 on March 26th.