PGL reverses its decision on American Goons’s disqualification

After receiving strong criticism, PGL decided to reverse its earlier decision and reinstated the North American team American Goons into the DPC.

PGL made the decision to overturn American Goons’ disqualification and put the North American team back in Division II of the Dota Pro Circuit 2023. The North American Dota 2 team was initially disqualified from the DPC NA Division II series owing to allegations of match-fixing. The team members and the community, however, spoke out against the “uninformed decision” and their lack of compelling proof, asserting that the incident in question was merely a lighthearted Steam discussion.

Why PGL disqualified American Goons in the first place

GateKept’s Kobey “Napkin” Eimers and American Goons’ Jose “esK” Coronel had a nice exchange on Steam after GateKept lost to American Goons in the closed qualifying finals.  In a light-hearted exchange, Napkin asked esK if his team had deliberately lost to GRIN Esports in the upper bracket finals so they could go on to play GateKept. The American Goons’ esK replied with a sarcastic “Yes.”

Since then, many well-known individuals from the NA Dota 2 community have come forward to challenge the validity of the accusations made against the North American team. They contend that the decision to exclude the squad from the competition is rushed and unreasonable in the absence of strong evidence. Kurtis “Aui 2000” Ling of Tundra Esports, Peter “ppd” Dager of the old Evil Geniuses, David “MoonMeander” Tan of TSM, and Quinn “Quinn” Callahan of the Gaimin Gladiators have all stood up for American Goons.

American Goons share their side of the story 

The manager of American Goons, known as “logical,” also responded to the disqualification, sharing the team’s perspective with the fans. The manager questioned the rationale behind the disqualification, emphasizing that it seemed irrational and lacked evidence. The post claimed that over the course of the investigation, PGL had only ever sent him five messages in total and that, aside from notifying them that their squad had been disqualified, no one from PGL’s administrative staff had ever come in touch with them. 

The communication in question, according to logical’s post, was a fun conversation between gamers who were already familiar with one another. Additionally, the post affirms American Goons’ dedication to fair play and guarantees that it will never jeopardize its competitive integrity. However, now that PGL has reversed its decision, American Goons can concentrate on their upcoming matchups at the NA DPC as their quest to earn a spot in the highly sought-after TI qualifications goes on.

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