BloodThirstyKings will not be making it to the Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup 2023 due to many prevailing issues.
headline photo courtesy of Team OutPlay
Having won the recent North American Challengers Tournament (NACT) Spring 2023 event in a gruelling battle against OutPlay, BloodThirstyKings managed to secure their spot at the upcoming Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup. However, this spot is now disputed, as the team built around Michael “MobaZane” Cosgun cannot produce a valid roster in time for the deadline given by Moonton. What this means is that Moonton has now allocated their spot to the runners-up, OutPlay.
Late last week we learned that MobaZane has reintroduced both Ian “FwydChickn” Holh and Victor into the BTK roster, bringing back two players from the M3 World Championship roster. This came with a lot of backlash, as the team would be without certain players who worked quite hard to get them to MSC 2023, and now we have learned that the roster lock timing presented by Moonton to the NA squad cannot be met, as well as an issue pertaining to passports and legal guardian problems.
In their statement, highlighted above, Moonton cite two of the rules from the tournament, namely MSC rule 3.1.1 and 5.2.3. In essence, these rules state that teams must have a minimum of seven members, which includes a coach and a substitute, as well as the need for the same players on the squads which completed the qualifiers. They go on to add that after being unable to assist BTK, they had no choice but to give the spot to OutPlay.
While this does mean that MobaZane will not be returning to SEA for MSC 2023, we will see the NACT Spring 2023 runners-up, OutPlay, being given the opportunity to show off their skills at the upcoming event. OutPlay too features some of the ex-BTK and The Valley players, meaning that there is still a high chance for the NA team to cause some major problems at MSC, especially with their aggressive brand of playing within the Land of Dawn.
MSC 2023 kicks off in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on June 10, with 12 teams from around the globe fighting to become the champions of the event. However, the biggest difference this year is that instead of only featuring teams from within SEA, Moonton has opened the doors to international participants such as Turkey, NA, MENA, and Mekong. It will be interesting to see if OutPlay can do what BTK did back at M3, but for now, we await the Group Stage draw – which should come later this week.
