Moon Studio, a tournament organizer based in both Kyiv and Singapore, currently hosting their largest tournament to date with a $55,000 prize pool. The Moon Studio Mid-Autumn League features a spread of 10 tier 2/3 teams from the Chinese server, and BOOM Esports starring among the 9 Southeast Asian teams. On October 2nd, the second day of the group stages, Team Black was initially given a disqualification after there seemed to be conflicting data with their roster. After review, the disqualification was overturned, and the match was rescheduled. On October 11th, Phoenix Gaming withdrew from the event. Then October 13th, Team Black was disqualified and given a lifetime ban from Moon Studio events after “suspicious gameplay”. Later that day, Team Phantasm in the SEA group withdrew from the event.
That fateful day.
Team Black was the winner of the Moon Studio Asian League, the predecessor of the Mid-Autumn League. After winning the Asian League Chinese regional qualifier, Team Black was able to take the top of their group over the likes of TNC Predator, Execration, and Neon Esports. They went on to defeat iG Vitality twice in the playoffs and finally beat Execration in the grand finals 3:2, to win their first Tier 2 event. As the returning champions, there were the highest of expectations, but those expectations would get spoiled.
Penalty given to Team Black after their disqualification was overturned.
In their first encounter with iG Vitality since their lower bracket finals match in the Moon Studio Asian League, Team Black made a request to play on the Guangdong server instead of the Shanghai server which is primarily used for the inter-regional games. Team Black had a sub from Malaysia and was not able to communicate it with the administration. Moon Lim, the one spearheading the large endeavors of the last two tournaments disqualifies the team live on air.
After a review of the disqualification, it was overturned, and a draft penalty was given to Team Black for not providing information about their substitute in their rematch against iG Vitality. Team Black was also requested to provide live stream feeds to the admins for the next two series.
On that fateful rematch, it was deemed that after several occurrences of “suspicious activity” in games featuring Team Black, they would receive a disqualification from the Moon Studio Mid-Autumn League and a lifetime ban from all Moon Studio Events.
Team Black receive lifetime bans
Prior to the disqualification, Phoenix Gaming withdrew from the tournament. They were the current leader of the Chinese Group. Though no public statement was made about the matter, and no Chinese tournaments have been announced, after a 4th place finish at the last China Pro Cup S1, it might be scheduling issues. BTS recently announced the Dota Summit 13 featuring events for all regions but China, starting October 21st. So, it’s possible that the China Pro Cup S2 will be coming soon.
And most recently Phantasm withdrew from the event. With Hustla being loaned to 032, it could have just been roster issues after some unsuccessful group stage matches. Leaving 7 teams still in contention for the top 6 spots, with 496 Gaming currently on the bottom of those potential 7.
After all the commotion, with 5 days left in the group stages Neon Esports, Galaxy Racer, Motivate.Trust Gaming and BOOM Esports all sit comfortably at the top of the group, while the top SEA representative of the Moon Studio Asian League, Execration, is already eliminated. On the Chinese server, iG Vitality maintains a small lead over an otherwise difficult group, with every team still in contention, with only 2 eliminations available.
Moon Studio Mid-Autumn League
CEO of Moon Studio official statement.