The Swedish team of CLG continues pulling out of leagues due to time problems of some of their players. Last week, the team already asked to be removed from StarLadder. This week, CLG also draws back from The Premier League, for which the third season is about to start.
TPL management has now invited Moscow 5 to participate in the league. The Russian team previously had expressed its disappointment about not having been invited right away. According to TPL, M5 was initially not invited to avoid the risk of seeing teams dropping during the tournament. Now Moscow 5 gets invited eventually because of a team dropping from the tournament.
TPL3 starts this Wednesday with the match Quantic against Team Empire, at 18:00 CET.
Statement by Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall, CLG:
"As people might have seen, we just withdrew from StarLadder and I'm sorry to say we have to do the same with TPL. Hopefully this issue will be solved soon and we will be back on track, but meanwhile it's best for everyone if we for now take a step back. Best of luck to all the teams participating!"
"As people might have seen, we just withdrew from StarLadder and I'm sorry to say we have to do the same with TPL. Hopefully this issue will be solved soon and we will be back on track, but meanwhile it's best for everyone if we for now take a step back. Best of luck to all the teams participating!"
Statement TPL Management:
"The Premier League management would like to correct the fault it may have done regarding participation of the M5.BenQ Dota 2 team in the Season 3 tournament. The reason for the initial drop was not the age of the players, as it may have been implied by a literal interpretation of the official statement on their website, but rather our wish to provide a quality experience by minimizing the chance of having to substitute teams within the duration of the tournament. Unfortunately though, considering the current phase the Dota 2 competitive world is going through, this is obviously something even harder to predict than we perceived and the present turbulence of one team we actually did invite to the competition serves only as proof to the error of our ways. We sincerely apologize for this.
However, for every bad there is a good and with CLG's decision to withdraw, we feel that there is no better way of extending our apology for the possible injustice we may have caused by inviting M5.BenQ to fill the open slot. Even though the team is rather fresh, they are a force to be reckoned with and will surely bring an additional edge to the level of rivalry between this season's competing teams. In hope we can put this whole thing behind us and start focusing again on what's most important – the tournament itself, we will take this opportunity to invite you for the opening clash of the season between Empire and Quantic, today at 18:00 CET, with refreshing commentary from our very own A_Spec."
"The Premier League management would like to correct the fault it may have done regarding participation of the M5.BenQ Dota 2 team in the Season 3 tournament. The reason for the initial drop was not the age of the players, as it may have been implied by a literal interpretation of the official statement on their website, but rather our wish to provide a quality experience by minimizing the chance of having to substitute teams within the duration of the tournament. Unfortunately though, considering the current phase the Dota 2 competitive world is going through, this is obviously something even harder to predict than we perceived and the present turbulence of one team we actually did invite to the competition serves only as proof to the error of our ways. We sincerely apologize for this.
However, for every bad there is a good and with CLG's decision to withdraw, we feel that there is no better way of extending our apology for the possible injustice we may have caused by inviting M5.BenQ to fill the open slot. Even though the team is rather fresh, they are a force to be reckoned with and will surely bring an additional edge to the level of rivalry between this season's competing teams. In hope we can put this whole thing behind us and start focusing again on what's most important – the tournament itself, we will take this opportunity to invite you for the opening clash of the season between Empire and Quantic, today at 18:00 CET, with refreshing commentary from our very own A_Spec."
Statement Moscow 5 Management:
"We support this decision of The Premier League. Even though the management wanted to neglect the offer to come back, we realize that acting on principle will only harm our players, for whom every official match is a step up. Therefore we have contacted them and every single one of them expressed the desire to participate in this league. We would like to thank TPL organizing committee for making a wise decision. Moreover we would like to thank everyone, who has supported us on this matter."
"We support this decision of The Premier League. Even though the management wanted to neglect the offer to come back, we realize that acting on principle will only harm our players, for whom every official match is a step up. Therefore we have contacted them and every single one of them expressed the desire to participate in this league. We would like to thank TPL organizing committee for making a wise decision. Moreover we would like to thank everyone, who has supported us on this matter."
| The Premier League 3 Teams |
 Absolute Legends compLexity dignitas Quantic Team Empire Virtus Pro fnatic Skånes Elit Shakira Moscow 5 |
Source: TPL
