All 6 members of each qualified team attending the RMR will be reimbursed for expenses incurred during their participation
BLAST, the organizing body of the Paris Major and its qualifying Regional Major Ranking tournaments, has reissued an official email to amend a previous memo, allocating additional budget for the coaches of the qualified teams. This came in response to collective criticism from the community from coaches, fans and other community members that’s been floating around on various social media such as Twitter.
Recently, BLAST had notified each team at the RMR that it would only be covering the expenses of the five core members, which meant that coaches would be on their own.
The first Tweet, which brought in a sea of reproval, came from the head coach of Detonate, Joshua “m1cks” Micks. In his Tweet, he expressed exasperation about the fact that Valve would not be paying coaches for flying all the way to Copenhagen to attend the Major RMR.
Valve no longer paying to send coaches to the RMR, only paying for 5 players 🙃🙃🙃🙃
when does the pain end
— m1cks (@joshm1cks) February 23, 2023
More criticism from industry stalwarts such as Imperial’s Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fluxo head coach Wilton “zews” Prado, and OG team manager Vladyslava “Vladyslava_Z” Zakhliebina served to enrage the community even further.
The elimination of coach expenses from their budget for the upcoming RMRs is not the first time in the history that Valve’s disdain towards such figures has been apparent. There have been several cases where tournament-related restrictions have been placed solely for coaches, including modes and timing of interaction with the rest of the team.
Following the dramatic social media repercussions of their questionable email, Dust2.us reached out to Valve and BLAST for a comment. Instead of putting out a statement, the tournament organizer opted for an official email to reinstate reimbursements for expenses such as visas, flights, accommodation and catering for 6 members of a team instead of 5.
BLAST has sent out an updated email saying they are now accommodating 6 people
thank you to Valve/BLAST for reacting and changing it to 6 people 🥰🥰 https://t.co/ajGWJ3l7pa
— m1cks (@joshm1cks) February 23, 2023
In light of this immediate action ahead of the Paris Major, m1cks has written another Tweet thanking both Valve and BLAST for their prompt action.
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