Valve responds: “Our offer to the original five invited players still stands for Fnatic.”
Valve has released a statement clarifying the reasoning behind their decision to not allow the Fnatic Dota 2 team to substitute their carry player Adrian ‘Era’ Kryeziu. The Seattle based company has stated that they believe that being transparent is the best way forward about the situation.
The decision to not allow Fnatic to substitute Era has been a hot topic in the Dota 2 community, with many alluding to the disparity between this and the company's previous decision of allowing the American team Evil Geniuses to substitute Clinton 'Fear' Loomis with Mason 'mason' Venne.
Valve states that cases like the aforementioned are done on a case by case basis with the aim of making the best possible decision for the players and the fans. However, their default position is to protect the invited players and allow them to participate in the tournament that they were invited to.
For this particular case, the company states that they were contacted by Fnatic's Chief Operating Officer Patrik Sättermon on a potential issue with Era via the following email:
From: Patrik Sättermon [mailto:<removed>]
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 8:31 AM
To: Icefrog; Erik Johnson
Cc: Danijel Remus; Sahil Deva; Anne Mathews
Subject: Fnatic Dota 2 – Concern
Dear Erik and Icefrog,
First of all, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Patrik Sättermon and I work as the COO at Fnatic here in our HQ in London, UK.
I’m today reaching out to you regarding an unforeseen and inconvenient situation in our Dota 2 team. We would really appreciate the highest grade of confidentially on the matter I’m about to address, so we can guarantee the integrity and understanding of the player in question that we are currently having issues with.
A few days ago I had to take the decision to urgently send Adrian “Era” Kryeziu back home to Sweden from our pre Summer bootcamp here in London. This was made out of health concerns of the player in question, as Adrian has recently suffered from a lot of anxiety, that the past weeks has grown to severe panic attacks and a full-blown depression. As you can imagine this has put Adrian in an extremely fragile mental state, which obviously requires immediate professional healthcare.
Yesterday I had a follow-up call with Adrian’s family regarding his first contact with the psychiatrists in Sweden and the verdict is that Adrian must be admitted into a programme, as well as being put on anti-depressive drugs that for the first 3-4 weeks will make his mental condition worse.
This for Fnatic, and obviously our Dota 2 team, means that Adrian will not be capable of exercising his profession in the nearest future. Since we have an upcoming tournament in a few days (BTS), we are therefore forced to look into a replacement player so we can not only secure a five-man line up, but also get back to practice which is a must considering we are steadily moving towards the busiest Summer season of all time.
Now, several of our players have raised concerns about what implications our situation can result in when it comes to our participation at TI4. As you can imagine it’s still quite up in the air whether Adrian will be able to return to our team during the Summer season. For the sake of us being able to prepare for the future, and guaranteeing success for our team, we must turn around every stone in order to be as ready as possible for the biggest eSports competition till date.
Finally, I’m hoping to hear back from you as soon as possible so we can explore what options we have. My colleague Danijel has already put me in a Skype chat with you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out there as well.
Best regards,
Patrik Sättermon
Chief Gaming Officer
FNATIC
Valve's response follows:
From: Erik Johnson
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:45 PM
To: Patrik Sättermon; Icefrog
Cc: Danijel Remus; Sahil Deva; Anne Mathews
Subject: RE: Fnatic Dota 2 – Concern
Hi Patrik,
Thank you for your mail. We’re upset to hear that Adrian is having a tough time right now. To the extent that you’re talking to him and his family, please pass along our concern for his health.
It sounds like things are somewhat fluid right now, but we appreciate you letting us know what is happening currently. We will of course keep this confidential.
Let us know how things develop in the coming weeks and we can talk through different options if we end up needing to explore them.
Erik Johnson
Valve
Valve states that they were concerned about the difficult situation that Era was facing and asked for them to be kept in the loop. They also state that on the 13th of June, Era had personally contacted them with the following email:
From: Adrian Kryeziu [mailto:<removed>]
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2014 7:19 AM
To: Icefrog; Erik Johnson
Subject: The Internation 4
Hello guys, as you both probably know already I am Era from Fnatic, the reason why I’m writing this mail to the two of you is due to very bothering situations. About 2 and a half weeks ago I was sent home from our Bootcamp in London due to anxiety issues, as I wasn’t able to see a doctor nor therapist there. I’ve now been home and I’ve seen both a doctor and a therapist. These anxiety attacks has occured before, either a day before or just when I’m about to fly out to a different country. It only got worse with the time, hence the reason why I wasn’t in Vegas aswell as this Summit. After two weeks at home without a PC and meetings with professionals regarding the issue, I’ve been told that my current state is very positive, and that I would be ready to play and participate in Dreamhack, ESL aswell as The International – however they also said that I should just stay home and relax for another week or so, meaning that I wouldn’t be able to travel back with the team to the bootcamp after Dreamhack.
With all this said, I had a skype coference with the team 2 days ago when they returned from LA. They said that they don’t trust my health state and think it would be a risky and bold move to take me to TI as I can’t go back to the bootcamp with them, therefore, they pretty much had me fired of the team (still contract signed) for the rest of the summer, as they think they can do “better” with a Standin. So, my question here is, are they allowed to do that? Espicially knowing that I CAN play at TI 4.
Best regards, Adrian
After being told that Era believes that he is fit to play, Valve sent this email to Fnatic:
From: Erik Johnson
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2014 11:45 AM
To: ‘Patrik Sättermon’
Cc: Danijel Remus; Sahil Deva; Anne Mathews; Icefrog
Subject: RE: Fnatic Dota 2 – Concern
Sounds like there has been some communication around this issue recently. I wanted to make sure our position was clear.
When we invite a team of five players, we are specifically inviting those five players. The final decision about whether a player can compete in our tournament is solely controlled by that player. If there are real medical issues, we will review those on a case by case basis, but the final decision still rests with that player.
Aside from specific rules, our job is to make sure that we are making good decisions on behalf of the community. The Dota audience has a well understood moral compass and sense of ethics around professional player management, and we will always make sure that our decisions around specific issues are reflective of that.
I hope this helps to clear up any potential confusion about how we’re running The International. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Erik
Fnatic's response:
From: Patrik Sättermon [mailto:<removed>]
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 5:48 AM
To: Erik Johnson; Adrian Finol; Icefrog
Cc: Danijel Remus; Sahil Deva; Anne Mathews
Subject: Re: Fnatic Dota 2 – Concern
Dear Erik, Icefrog and Adrian,
I’m now returning to you after having discussed this matter thoroughly with our Dota 2 team, and also Era’s family.
As you know this period of time has included a lot of turmoil and frustration for everyone involved. This unexpected situation has severely halted our preparation going into what is the most busy and competitive Summer in the history of Dota. The decision the team has now come to, with blessing from Era(Adrian Kryeziu), is that Steve Ye aka. Excalibur will step in as our carry player for the upcoming events, including EMS Frankfurt, and more importantly in this dialogue: The International 4.
We lifted on every single stone around to try work out a solution that would involve Era, since we strongly believe his experience and skill sets would be very needed at the Summer’s events. But as you already know at this stage, Era’s health issues does not only hinders us to prepare accordingly(LAN practice), but also and more importantly, it is risking his own well-being during travelling, something that thus far has lead us to go through two urgent calls for stand-ins just days before two important events, D2L and BTS.
After we have hopefully gotten your approval for the late player change, I believe it’s very important that we together determine a solid strategy when it comes to how to communicate this so it’s done in a manner that protects the integrity of our team, with emphasize on Era. To add additional transparency, I would like to mention that the team wants to reward Era in the event of financial success, this specifically means that him and the replacement player will share any prize money winnings.
Finally, please let me know if any additional information is needed from our end at this point, and on behalf of the team and the Fnatic organisation I want to thank you for your understanding during this stressful period of time.
Best regards,
Patrik Sättermon
Chief Gaming Officer
FNATIC
After the following email from Fnatic, Valve stated that they had enough data to reach their conclusion: Fnatic would have to play with Era.
The general summary from the conversations seems to be that Fnatic were unimpressed with the condition of Era and wanted to substitute him out for The International, but Era believed that he was in a condition to play in Seattle.
Valve believes that they should protect their invited first and foremost and therefore have requested Fnatic to play with Era.
Source: Valve's official post about the situation
