CS:GO: Team Titan and Epsilon eSports have been disqualified from Dreamhack Winter

Yesterday we learned that Hovik “Kqly” Tovmassian from Titan has been banned by Valve’s anti-cheat service which lead to him being suspended from the team. With only one week to go until Dreamhack Winter 2014 Titan was in a pretty rough spot as the team was one player short and their fate in the tournament remained uncertain. Sadly, earlier today it was decided that Titan will no longer participate in the tournament as they have been disqualified because of the ban. Even more concerning is that they are not alone in this because yet another French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player has been banned by Valve. The player in question is Gordon “Sf” Giry from Epsilon eSports, the second team that has been disqualified from Dreamhack Winter.

Valve’s tournament rules state that any player who gets VAC banned will no longer be able to participate in tournaments sponsored by them. Unfortunately the rules also say that teams that have banned players on their roster must be disqualified, so Dreamhack had no choice but to let them go. In order to replace Titan and Epsilon eSports, the organization will be hosting a “Last Call Qualifier” for Dreamhack Winter this Saturday. “Earlier today the CS:GO community learned that a Titan player and an Epsilon player were VAC banned,” a post on the Dreamhack website reads. “This has been confirmed and, as a result of the team members’ actions, Titan and Epsilon’s places in the tournament were revoked. As a result, the Last Call Qualifier was designed to fill those spots in the tournament.”

The LAN qualifier will take place at Inferno Online in Stockholm, Sweden and will feature four European teams that will duke it out to fill the two spots. Valve themselves will fund the travel and accommodation expenses for these four teams. Following this recent news, Groups B and D will undergo the following changes at the main Dreamhack Winter event:

Group B: Team Dignitas will receive the top seed and face Penta eSports in the first game while iBUYPOWER will meet a team from the Qualifier in their opening match.
Group D: Epsilon will be removed from the group and NaVi will meet a team from the Qualifier in their opening match. VP and myXMG stays the same.
Group A & C won’t be affected by this.