Update: DK without scrim partners: a misunderstanding

Update: Mushi has tweeted out an apology to Xiao8 as well as NewBee, claiming that it is his fault and he will reflect on his actions.

Update: Mushi's Facebook page has just updated with a text apologising for their previous post, which was done without the knowledge of Mushi. It has been quoted in full below.

Regarding the post earlier, the team admin would like to apologise to all the people out there. That post was post without the knowledge of Mushi himself. Our admin posted because before this incident happen, we heard a lot of rumours that start to boycott Team DK. As a fren and also a fan We are pissed off regarding this matter. We hereby say that we are sorry for any inconvenience cause to anyone. Mushi himself will post regarding this matter soon.



Sorry and thank you once again.

At the same time, BurNing and Mushi have deleted their weibo posts that slam xiao8, which suggest that it was a misunderstanding blown out of proportion. LaNm has also tweeted a direct apology to xiao8, to end all rumours and explain that what they had heard was spread via word of mouth.

Update: LaNm has just tweeted that DK have not scrimmed iG since returning from StarSeries Season IX LAN Finals, and the situation with NewBee is evidenced by the screencaps of the chatlogs, which showcases DK asking NewBee multiple times when they would scrim, with NewBee ignoring their requests, and stating that they would only scrim after elimination from WPC-ACE. Moreover, xiao8 has sworn on his entire family's lives that he in no way had influenced any team to boycott DK. LaNm has then said that this could be a misunderstanding if it really is as Xiao8 has explained.

Update: Xiao8 has tweeted chatlogs between DK's manager and NewBee that feature dated messages which show that DK and NewBee had been scrimming until 21st May, which were the two nights where Xiao8 was at the hospital taking care of his wife. Following which, they had to attend the MarsTV tournament followed by participation at WPC-ACE LAN Finals, which explains why they have not scrimmed since.

A Facebook post by Mushi as well as a few tweets by DK members seem to suggest that they have been boycotted by Chinese teams in the run-up to The International 2014. The Facebook posts alleges that DK has no scrim partners other than Vici Gaming and CIS, as the other teams have been manipulated by NewBee's captain Xiao8 to boycott them.

The cause of this boycott seems to be attributed to xenophobic tendencies amongst the Chinese teams, led by xiao8. The current Captain of NewBee is suggested to be the ringleader of the boycott, which has DK isolated from the other top tier Chinese teams, be it LGD, NewBee or Invictus Gaming.

The Facebook post is quoted in full here:

DK has been boycott by China team (don't want to train with them) for quite some time because of xiao8 (Newbee) asking other team not to train with DK, just want DK to fall, stop them from improving, saying that DK is not truly a China team(because of Mushi & iceiceice), don't want them to be champion. I know many of u will ask for prove, I just can tell u, they got this news from a very reliable person & DK aint a person who will simply flame a person.



Other than training with VG, CIS, they can only train with public, or 2v2 among themselves.

The Weibo tweet from Mushi has spawned two other responses, one from the normally quiet BurNing, who has chastised xiao8: "Leader of the scene, who dares to disobey?", as well as a response from Penny '71' Tang, DK's current coach of legendary EHOME fame. He tweeted, "As I have said, without any training partners you cannot blame us for failure: I'm not a Prophet, I can't provide salvation. No scrimming in the clubs, no scrimming at the ACE Alliance, you don't need to be a scientist or Detective Conan to find the truth."

Xiao8 has issued a reply, in which he replies that NewBee have scrimmed quite a bit with DK, and have scrimmed the least with LGD. He states that they had scrimmed 2 matches before the MarsTV League, and had not scrimmed more since his wife was not feeling well during that period. He also clarifies that he has never agreed with any team to not train/scrim with DK.

If the boycotts are true, they seems to mirror the boycotts that EHOME faced back in 2010, when ACE called for a boycott on EHOME for not acceding to ACE Alliance's contract rules. However, this time the boycott appears to be player-led, and focuses more on xenophobic tendencies. This is not out of the blue, however, since other NewBee players such as Hao and Mu have been documented to be rather nationalistic in their outlook on the Chinese Dota scene.

Previously, Hao had tweeted that teams should play with a .CN tag to highlight their Chinese origins, which was met with severe backlash in the online Chinese community, prompting him to retract his words and issue an apology.

Our insider source has also informed us that there is nothing that ACE can do to resolve this situation, as scrimming opponents is not an issue regulated by ACE.

Source: Mushi's Facebook page, Mushi's Weibo, BurNing's Weibo, Penny '71' Tang's Weibo, Xiao8's Weibo