Tournament organizer BLAST has issued an official statement regarding the decision to allow Astralis to make an emergency substitution at the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024. Despite protests from team captains and community dissatisfaction, the organizers emphasized that they “were not given any reason to doubt Astralis' initial application.”

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The decision remains in force

BLAST stated that their policy has always allowed for emergency substitutions for reasons related to player health if a team is unable to provide another registered player. “Our policy allows such substitutions for health reasons if it is beyond the team's control and no other player has been registered,” BLAST said in a statement.

Protests by team captains

This statement was a response to an open protest by seven team captains who participated in the tournament. In the letter, they demanded that tournament integrity be maintained and compared the current situation to previous BLAST tournaments where coaches had to play instead of players due to a ban on substitutions.

The captains emphasized that the Astralis coach, Casper “ruggah” Du, should have replaced Alexander “br0” Breaux if he was unable to play. They also spoke out against using physical or mental health issues to justify substitutions.

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BLAST's position on previous cases

BLAST also commented on its policy on substitutions in the past: “We have refused substitutions when visa issues were the reason, as this is usually the responsibility of the teams.” However, in the case of players' health, the organizers trust the statements of the teams and emphasized that if such statements are found to be false, severe sanctions can be applied, including denial of qualification for the World Finals or fines.

BLAST's final opinion

Despite the protests and community pressure, BLAST continues to stand its ground, claiming that it sees no reason to doubt Astralis' claim of br0 health. The BLAST Premier Fall Final tournament will begin on Wednesday at 13:00.