Nails Banned from Playing in the WESG Tournament, This Time By the Chongqing Government

Remember the Kuku case and The Chongqing Major? A few weeks after the Major tournament, the case was not finished.

For those of you who don’t know, before The Chongqing Major, Kuku from the TNC Predator team had issued racist remarks to Chinese players in public matchmaking Dota 2. Rumors surfaced that the Chongqing government had banned Kuku from coming and competing at The Chongqing Major. But in the end it was Valve who banned Kuku from competing.

Yesterday, Kuku was once again banned from coming to Chongqing to compete in the WESG tournament. The difference is, this time it was not Valve that issued the decision to ban the game, but the local government. Quoted from Cybersport, WESG announced the following:

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“Following requests from the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of security in Chongqing, we announce that Kuku is not allowed to enter Chongqing city to compete in the WESG tournament in accordance with the local municipal government’s decision.”

“As the organizer, WESG will follow the instructions of the local government. This is the final decision.”

Hands Off, Valve Again Gets Complaints

In thread Reddit, DanielJ of Valve then gave the following explanation.

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“The information available at the time (The Chongqing Major) was that the local government expressed its concern about security and the uproar on social media. However we have not received an official ban and we still have room for discussion to improve the situation. We weren’t that worried about security at the time because we had faced various problems with local government, and there were many ways to address those concerns. However we took no action because we felt that Kuku was unfit to attend given how his team tried to cover up their official apology. Until then (before The Chongqing Major), we had heard absolutely no further news. This means that the situation in Chongqing may change. However we do not anticipate there will be problems in Shanghai (venue TI9).”

The news of the ban plus a statement from a Valve representative drew negative responses from the player community on Reddit. Unless the Chongqing government completely changes its mind after The Chongqing Major, Valve’s statement that the Chongqing government has never issued a ban on Kuku is seen as a cover-up for the hosts.

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Apart from that, the fact that the local government could override Valve for this is a cause for concern especially for The International 2021 which will be held in Shanghai. The statement “did not anticipate any trouble in Shanghai” was also not well received by community members. Many want Valve to be more proactive in ensuring security in venue their tournament.

Not the First Case

This isn’t the first time Valve has been involved in PR and communication-related issues. They have long been known to rarely open their mouths and tend to let go unless they really have to intervene. Even when they intervened their statements were sometimes ambiguous and non-specific.

In 2021, for example, they released a statement regarding the rights to create content from the tournament third party. In that case one tournament organizer regretted several streamer which broadcasts the tournament content of the organizer on channel personal.

The statement is a little confused with the call for play nice. It wasn’t until early 2021 that they made a more specific statement. But even then after ESL who broadcast their tournament on Facebook reported a copyright infringement lawsuit and made several streamer on Twitch hit tire.

Once again, approach hands off until the very end is nothing new from Valve. However, this case has made many worried and doubted the integrity of Valve and the fate of The International 2021.

Granted, WESG is not a Dota Pro Circuit tournament so it’s possible that Valve won’t take immediate action. But if it turns out that there are parties who can step over Valve and prohibit players from competing just because of one sentence inside public games, we don’t know what will happen next especially at The International 2021 in Shanghai.