SK Gaming have been disqualified from the GosuCup HoN #1 after using a 'ringer' in their match against Reason Gaming.

The American side have been on an upward surge after a few months in decline and are now considered one of the favourites in almost every tournament they enter. Yet recently they have been struck with some roster problems, seeing long time member Bdiz as well as new recruit Korok leave for pastures new. The team were fast to replace their departed stars and quickly acquired the services of THE JoshP and highly rated support player Sender, this didn't stop them hitting another wall last night though.

Point in question: Their group stage match against European upstarts Reason Gaming. The Americans had requested that they be allowed to use DotA legend Merlini for the match as they would be without JoshP and Cardinal who were occupied with mothers day. The admins agreed that they would be allowed to do so and the side took the first game without much hassle, seeing off Reason Gaming in relentless fashion, that's where things got complicated.

As game two got underway people were shocked to see SK player Fogged pick Soulstealer - a hero he's not renowned for playing given his normal roll as support. After performing well in the middle lane eyebrows were raised, and it turns out it was for good reason. During one of his Justin.tv streams another well known American player swindlemelonzzz discovered that SK Gaming were in-fact using European star Era in place of Fogged, with the player in their ventrilo channel throughout the game.

The revelation came to light towards the end of the second game and the admins announced that SK Gaming would be forfeiting the set against Reason Gaming, however just a few hours afterwards they had announced that SK Gaming were to be disqualified from the tournament entirely. The team had attempted to break the rules and deceive the admins by telling Era to use the account of Fogged and this fact seems to be the reason they have been disqualified from the tournament.

SK answered back with the following Statement:

To SK Gaming, Gosugamers.net and fans,

As most of you probably know, SK.HoN was disqualified from the GosuCup HoN #1 tournament yesterday during our 2nd match against Reason Gaming.

Due to inconsistent schedules and it being Mother's Day weekend, we were put in a position to find a ringer to replace Fogged after winning game 1 against Reason Gaming. Since we were given the 'OK' to use Merlini, a well-known dota figure, in the line-up I mistakingly assumed that it would be okay to use a ringer in the 2nd match. We chose Era, a well-known solid European player from team mtFu and a good friend. We had him jump on Fogged's account to speed up an already delayed match.

Our intentions were not meant to dupe anyone from GosuGamers or Reason Gaming - we were not trying to put together a "secret dream-team" - it was literally a scheduling conflict with Fogged, and other members (Cardinal and Joshp) were idle and gone due to prior commitments.

With that being said, on behalf of SK Gaming and everyone on the team we are sorry about what has happened, and can assure that different actions will be taken in the future so that this doesn't happen again.

Regards,
Mark 'Tralfamadore' Seidl