Swisher criticizes Valve for letting Wildcard abuse BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 MRQ loophole

Michael "Swisher" Schmid has raised concerns about a loophole in the Major rulebook after Wildcard used it to qualify for the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 via the Americas Valve Regional Standings (VRS).

Wildcard used Jake "Stewie2K" Yip as a stand-in for the PGL Astana 2025 Closed Qualifier last month in place of Swedish AWPer Love "phzy" Smidebrant. That temporary substitution guaranteed Wildcard were considered a team from NA, and therefore they didn't have to risk attending the Europe Major Regional Qualifier (MRQ).

Here's what Swisher wrote on X on Tuesday, April 15th:

Breaking down Wildcard’s path to the NA RMR is wild... they used a NA stand-in to force a region lock change from NA/EU to just NA, avoiding the risk of ending up in the EU MRQ.

The player they replaced [phzy] was actually in NA during the event and had no issues playing. They switched their region to NA before the VRS update and accepted the NA invite — but are still allowed to use their EU player and original lineup, which would’ve had them playing in the EU MRQ.

Not hating on the team or the players, but the rules and Valve for letting this happen. If the rule literally says: 'Team roster may optionally include 1 substitute player that, were they to replace any core player, would not alter the Regional Assignment of the Core Lineup'— and that’s exactly what happened changing from NA to NA/EU then what the frick are you guys doing @CounterStrike?

While neither Valve nor Wildcard replied to Swisher, Tim "susp" Ångström, one of Wildcard's European imports, told Swisher that Wildcard helped North America get an extra slot at the BLAST.tv Austin Major thanks to their placing at the Perfect World Shanghai Major last year.

M80 and Wildcard both qualified for the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Stage 2 via the Americas VRS earlier this month.