Detonate to miss RMR
Detonate has withdrawn from the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR as a second player is set to miss the event.
It was reported early today that Jack "micro" Ryan would miss the RMR due to an unfortunate mishap with his passport application, however, it is now also understood that a Brett "brett" Rhein is unable to travel to Mexico due to a medical emergency, leaving the team without a full roster even if Detonate's coach, Joshua "m1cks" Micks, were to play as a stand-in.
While the loss of two players wouldn't normally be an insurmountable hill to climb for a team, Dust2.us has also learned that Valve and BLAST have denied Detonate's request for an emergency medical exemption to bring in a stand-in. However, it is understood Valve did not elaborate on the reasoning for the denial in communications with the team.
Valve's decision to deny the team's request despite the legitimate circumstances marks a heart-breaking end to the underdogs run to the RMR. On their way to Mexico, Detonate shocked everyone by taking down Nouns, ATK, and timbermen twice, a great success for a team of Detonate's stature.
Dust2.us understands based on BLAST's rulebook for the Major cycle, that Evil Geniuses are the next replacement in line for Detonate due to this clause in the rulebook;
Appendix 3 - Rule 2.1.2
If a team declines an invitation, or is no longer intact, the next-highest ranked team receives their invitation. If there are no additional teams available, then the remaining slots are to be determined by a last-chance regional qualifier.
One interesting wrinkle for Evil Geniuses is that if they accept the invite, they would need to field Jadan "HexT" Postma instead of their rumored addition of Ismail "refrezh" Ali. This would be an interesting spectacle as the main EG team haven't played a single match together in over a month.
