Tournament organizer PGL has walked back its decision to disqualify a North American Dota 2 team from the Dota Pro Circuit NA Division Two series for match-fixing.
PGL's May 26 statement explained, upon receiving new information, the organizer "reassessed our initial verdict and have ultimately chosen to overturn the decision previously made." The squad 'American Goons' will be reinstated in Division Two immediately ahead of the season's start on June 7.
"After a comprehensive review, we believe it is in the best interest of the competition to reverse the disqualification," wrapped PGL.
The decision comes amidst public outrage of the decision and following a post from American Goons' team manager Adarsh "logical" Kumar on Reddit. Logical outlined in great detail the team's ordeal following their disqualification and their perspective on the matter.
Logical noted PGL's investigation was held overnight, with a decision determined as the team arose on May 25, and entirely based upon a number of chatlogs between players "jokingly saying that we lost so that we'd gatekeep them", referring to their opponent's team name, GateKept.
Related: Young NA Dota 2 squad finds itself in matchfixing scandal that actually might not exist
"We are committed to fair play and would never compromise our competitive integrity by intentionally gatekeeping a team from the DPC in such a petty manner," said logical, who also identified GateKept as the team who had submitted the chatlogs to PGL admins. "The people who are pushing for our disqualification are the same people who would receive our slot if we are disqualified," he said.
The manager said he had only received five messages from PGL in total, and allegedly at no point did a member of PGL's admin team reach out to the squad during the investigation outside of their official notice of disqualification.
American Goons player pingu was relieved following the reversed decision, saying on Twitter, "Thank you to the Dota community for having our backs and supporting us these past two days. Back to Division Two, my home."
The team's official Twitter account reaffirmed the squad's commitment to the DPC Division Two competition and thanked those who stood by the team during the investigation. "We're committed to giving our 100% in preparation for the NA qualifier for this year's International."
Some members of the community were pleased by the findings of the investigation and PGL's ultimate decision to reverse the disqualification, while others remained perplexed such a decision could be made without hard evidence. One such community member called for GateKept to be punished for making false accusations against American Goons.
The squad is set to take to the server for their DPC Division Two matches on June 7.
Dot Esports is yet to receive an official response from PGL following inquiries made at the time of this article's release.