The Weekly CourierNo Pro Circuit event in Philippines, EG new roster
Happy Weekend!
Galaxy Battle loses Major status due to privacy concerns
Two weeks before the Galaxy Battles Major was set to take place, Valve has rescinded the tournament's Major status, thus lowering the prizepool from $1,000,000 to $500,000 and removing any Pro Circuit points. "New government regulations" would supposedly infringe on "the privacy of players", so Valve. Multiple news reports and a clarification from the Filipino Games and Amusement board suggest that the mandatory drug testing was the deciding factor in removing the tournament's Major status.
Following the announcement by Valve, many teams are expected to pull out of the event. Virtus.pro have already announced to do so to focus on Pro Circuit events and more official announcements are to be expected soon.
8 Direct Invites to ESL One Katowice Revealed
Eight of the 16 teams for the ESL One Katowice Major have been confirmed. Virtus.pro, Team Liquid, Newbee, Mineski, Evil Geniuses, Vici Gaming, Team Secret and Na'Vi have been directly invites to Poland. Eight more teams will be determined through qualifiers.
All details surrounding the event can be found on the official website official website. ESL One Katowice is set to take place from February 20th-25th.
EG replace Universe with Misery and move SumaiL to offlane
North-American powerhouse 
Shopify Rebellion have made drastic roster changes following a rather lackluster start into the season. Despite going into the holiday season as the 5th rank, EG saw it necessary to adjust their roster yet again. The team chose to remove long-term offlaner and TI5 champion Universe and added former Optic Gaming player MiSeRy. MiSeRy will take over the support position, forcing Fear into the carry role and rotating Arteezy to mid, which means that SumaiL will now play as the team's offlaner.
The new line-up had its first showing at the Captain's Draft Minor.
Immortals replace Forev with MSS
North-American organization 
Immortals has parted ways with offlaner Forev and welcome former Digital Chaos player MSS as their new team member. The Korean squad hasn't fared well in this season thus far, qualifying to only two events and only placing among the top 4 in one of them.
LGD replace 2, fy to captain
Following a disappointing Pro Circuit season thus far, 
LGD Gaming saw themselves forced to make changes to their roster. After extensive, and publicly announced, tryouts, LGD settled for Malaysian player xNova and former Team MAX offlaner Chalice. Going forward, fy will captain the team as former captain Yao has been removed from the active roster.
VGJ.Storm bring in BSJ & Monkeys-forever
[Editor's Note: Correction, both Ritsu and Sneyking chose to leave the team] North-American organization 
VGJ Storm has added two new players to their line-up, former Leviathan players BananaSlamJamma and monkeys-forever. The team had let go of Ritsu a while ago, playing with a variety of stand-ins since. Now they have found a permanent solution, while also replacing long-term member and offlaner Sneyking.
Ana returns to competitive scene in Team World
Team World
— Saksa (@Saksadota) January 5, 2018
1.@anadota99
2.@GregDota
3.@ForevDoto
4.@SVGDota (C)
5.@Saksadota
Following the conclusion of The International 2017, former OG midlaner ana had taken a break and initially set out to sit out the entire season. Now he looks to return in Team World. As the name suggests, the team unites a variety of nationalities under one banner. The team will be led by former Evil Geniuses coach SVG, who'll play support alongside former MidOrFeed captain Saksa. Ana is set to be the team's carry, while the midrole will be filled by former HellRaisers/Planet Dog midlaner Keyser. Lastly, former Immortals offlaner Forev rounds out the line-up. The team will compete in Europe.
Tournament Overview:
- The ESL One Katowice qualifiers will take place over the course of the next week. The likes of OG, LGD, compLexity Gaming and Fnatic will look to secure a spot to represent their region in Poland. 8 Spots will be up for grabs, every regional qualifier will be a single elimination playoff bracket.
Also Noteworthy
- Chinese veteran xiao8 has yet again assembled a team of former pro players. Big God 2.0 will feature BurNing, Ferrari_430 and chisbug. Rounding out the line-up will be yet another newcomer, supposedly a player who acquired a lot of MMR in a very short span of time.
- The Clip of the week goes to EG, who had to give up an Aegis but still win the fight through superior positioning!
Thanks for catching up with us. We hope you enjoy your weekend.
Wow ana!
where will uni play now?
in league of legends
damn i was hoping w33 would be picked up by a team
I understand concerns on "breach of privacy", but Philippines recognizes e-sports as "sports" now, and as such, they must hold all events to the same standards, which includes drug testing.
Didn't even know immortals was disbanded..
Wow, EG kicked out a veteran and changed one of the best midlaners in the world, to go to offlane, lets hope that Universe will be picked up by another team soon :/ Anyway: LET'S GO LIQUID!!
Its fine if you think hey drug testing teams is a normal resonable thing to do. But u also have to remember its the philippines where the government has been known to imprison people indefinately and kill people for drugs and so its a massive risk for a bunch of kids.
Virtus.pro would rather skip a tournament, than give up LSD during drafting stage
Whats the problem with the drug test? Even dota kids are already on drugs?
drug testing for dota lmao
the worst thing is the drugs tested are not performance enhancing drugs, which if you couldn't guess already, is because its not for sports, but for Duterte's drug campaign. The drugs tested are Marijuana and Methamphetamine, both drugs involved in the drug war, and neither of which are heavily, if at all, used in esports scene (the closest is Amphetamine, which Methamphetamine is a FORM OF, but there for does not include drugs like Aderall, which have been used in other esports)
I support the decision of Valve against the stupid laws of philippines. Go Summail !!
"Critics of drug-testing programs argue that employees have a basic right to privacy. Employers cannot intrude on this privacy without serious cause and in a manner that is reasonable. Routine and random drug testing, they claim, clearly violates an employee's right to privacy. First, these programs, by their nature, subject employees to humiliation and invade their privacy routinely and randomly, not because there is reasonable suspicion of drug abuse."
Source: https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/bioethics/resources/this-is-a-test-the-dilemmas-of-drug-testing/
I can't understand American logic behind these privacy concerns.
You should have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide.
Employees have the right to privacy??? Welp I apparently need to go work for Valve. I’ve never worked somewhere that DIDN’T drug test me. “We want esports to be taken seriously as a real sport” - Valve. “We do not want to do anything that any other sport does” - Also Valve.
Well at least now everyone knows. If you want to get better at DoTA just get on an amphetamine or other upper. With your new drug induced reaction speed you can make it to the top without ever having to worry about being drug tested. This is honestly horrible for the image and integrity of dota 2 as any sort of legitimate sport. It sends a signal to players “do whatever you feel that you need to so you can gain an advantage.”
"Chinese veteran xiao8 has yet again assembled a team of former pro players. Big God 2.0 will feature BurNing, Ferrari_430 and chisbug. Rounding out the line-up will be yet another newcomer, supposedly a player who acquired a lot of MMR in a very short span of time."
i feel that this new player will bring a storm to the dota scene.
" I’ve never worked somewhere that DIDN’T drug test me."
rofl. you realize the difference between one drug test that you volunteer for and continuous drug testing? probably not.
Omg no I didn’t realize that difference! You’re so smart! Even though where I work does random drug test every month how would I possibly know such a thing exist?! Also if you read the article they were going to be drug tested one time? So I’m not even sure what your point is. Thank you though for being so enlightening. Your wisdom on the topic has been noted even if it was completely irrelevant to the discussion of the article.
EG rooster changes are the most interesting... Old man Fear back to carry and i think this is for the best, RTZ to mid ROFL, and SumaiL dont have any option left so he is the offlaner. Wish them luck tho...
The main problem, is that they'll test for drugs that occur in marijuana. Marijuana may be illegal here, but it's not illegal in other countries. So what happens? The tournament winners are stripped because one of their players is a pothead? Please show me how weed is a Performances Enchancing Drug, lol.
ana is back