BLAST stand by cadiaN substitution in new statement
It looks like Casper "cadiaN" Møller will still be allowed to play in the BLAST Premier Fall Final later this week despite protests coming from opposing captains over what they believe is an exploitation of the emergency substitution for Alexander "br0" Bro.
The captains, which includes Liquid IGL Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, issued an open letter earlier today condemning the decision and have called upon BLAST to reverse order.
BLAST released a statement this afternoon in a six-part thread on X where they have stated that the organizer found no "no reason to question Astralis’ original statement" and will let the decision to use cadiaN instead of br0 stand.
That particular statement has raised eyebrows after br0's agent, Fabian Broich, stated on X that "Alex is fully healthy and ready to perform".
The organizer did issue a warning that should Astralis be found to have lied, they reserve there might to impose severe sanctions which includes disqualification and further prize pool penalties.
You can read the full statement below.
Regarding the emergency substitution used by Astralis at the Fall Final:
BLAST’s policy has always allowed such substitutions for health-related reasons that are beyond a team’s control when no other eligible player has been registered.
As of the 2024 Fall Final, BLAST’s rulebook does not bind a team regarding who they appoint as their emergency substitute. From 2025, we will look into ensuring our rulebook is more aligned to the Majors and the parameters of emergency substitutes are better clarified.
Per our rulebook, any use of an emergency substitution results in a 25% deduction of prize money and a seeding penalty. This will be the case for the 2024 Fall Final.
In the past we have denied emergency substitutions when the root cause is visa issues. Per our rulebook, visas are typically the responsibility of the teams and are not considered valid grounds for emergency substitutes in the vast majority of cases.
When it comes to player health, we take team statements at face value. As a general rule, if these statements were subsequently proved to be false, we reserve the right to impose severe sanctions such as denying World Final qualification and/or additional prize pool penalties.
In this 2024 Fall Final case, we have been given no reason to question Astralis’ original statement to us and the decision to allow them to use an emergency substitute stands.
