ESL disqualified Astral Authority from the Fall Regional #1 Qualifer #3 for the Los Angeles Championship after a Reddit post showed evidence of a Astral Authority player exploiting a bug with Tyrael, Archangel of Justice in a Qualifier match against Chu8 my Hotdoge.

"ESL, in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment has reviewed replays of Astral Authority's matches as well as other matches involving Tyrael from today's Heroes Fall Regional #1 Qualifier #3," said ESL product manager Chris Negrin in a statement. "After review, it was determined that a player on Astral Authority exploited a bug with Tyrael. There is enough evidence to show this was not an isolated incident and that the intent was to abuse a specific set of commands in order to gain an unfair advantage."

"ESL's ruling is as follows: Astral Authority is disqualified from the Fall Regional #1 Qualifier #3 due to breaking ESL Rule 1.10 and 5.6. They will be replaced by the match winner of Imported Support and Chu 8."

I think this is a little more than what it should be doing. If that's not purposely abusing a bug... pic.twitter.com/uSYUzjRRJE — Ben Hosford (@Hosselote) July 25, 2016

The bug involved uses the Talent "Even in Death" with the ability "Archangel's Wrath." Even in Death increases the damage of Archangel's Wrath's explosion and allows basic abilities to be used before death, but they aren't supposed to deal damage. The intent of the talent is to allow Tyrael to gain the utility benefits of his basic abilities before the explosion, but there's a window where Tyrael's damage abilities are working just before the explosion allowing him to do unintended damage.

Astral Authority's CEO, COO, coach Kristine "Vaalia" Hutter and manager Mellina "Mel" Kong have all tweeted against the ruling, Vaalia claiming the players "had no idea" about the bug but that it is "accepted" in Korea and the EU.

Looks like a perfectly accepted bug in Korea and EU, that @AstralAuthority had no idea about, is now worth a disqualification. Disappointed. — Kristine Hutter (@Vaalia_) July 25, 2016

Nothing hurts more as a manager than seeing your players practice and work hard everyday, and have their dreams crushed. Fucking hurts. — AutumnDreamwhisper ♡ (@MellinaKong) July 25, 2016

The best-of-three match for Astral Authority's slot between Chu 8 and Imported Support has yet to be announced.

Sasha Erfanian is a news editor for theScore esports. Follow him on Twitter, it'll be great for his self-esteem.