Bravado permitted to play in Americas Minor open qualifiers
Dust2.us has learned that Bravado have been allowed to play in the North American qualifiers for the upcoming Americas Minor, which will seed into the upcoming IEM Katowice Major next year.
As we reported last week, the IEM Katowice rulebook stated in Rule 2.7.5 only teams residing in another subregion of their own region are allowed to play participate in a different sub-region should they provide a good reason for playing in that subregion.
As the rule specifically stated that "exceptions from this rule are possible (but only in case of sub-regions)," this brought Bravado's status into question. While the South African team have been integrating themselves within the North American scene for the past few months, the nationality rules of the Major circuit looked to spell trouble for the foreign team. Despite this, it has been confirmed to Dust2.us that the South African team have been allowed to participate in the Americas Minor and its associated qualifiers.
On the IEM Katowice website, ESL states that African teams "are expected to participate in the Middle East qualifier," as many countries in the region does not have their own qualifiers. However, as they are only "expected" to play in the Middle East qualifier and Africa is not one of the four main regions stated in the rulebook, it appears that Bravado were likely given permission by ESL, as flying to Dubai and back would be unfeasible due to the team's commitments to MDL and other open qualifiers.
With the confirmation, Bravado will play in the Americas Minor circuit once again, after previously reaching the closed qualifier of the Americas Minor for the FACEIT Major. Eager to qualify for the Minor, Bravado have already signed up for the first open qualifier, which is set to kick off tonight at 7 PM EDT.
