Breaking: Hot Sauce disqualified, Mindfreak qualify for Contenders Australia

It was announced earlier today that Hot Sauce had been fielding ineligible players in their online qualification matches, with Blizzard’s official Australian esports account confirming the unsigned team would be removed from regular season participation following an investigation.

We have updated and finalised the Contenders Australia Season 1 Trial results: https://t.co/ibVd9foLtU

Due to the investigation, @LegacyOCE and @Mindfreak will move forward to Contenders Australia Season 1.

— Blizzard Esports ANZ (@BlizzEsportsANZ) February 19, 2019

Hot Sauce had an explosive campaign in the Trials series, earning their qualification over Mindfreak with a 3-2 victory in the seventh and final round. Legacy Esports were the only team to finish higher, securing their qualification a round earlier with a 4-0 against Paradigm Shift.

Mindfreak announced on Twitter after the ruling was revealed that they would “make the most of this opportunity” despite the qualification “not [being] the way that we wanted to get it done”.

The disqualification of a team found to be cheating has occurred in the Oceanic scene before – just over six months ago INTerstella were found to be using ineligible players in the online qualification matches, which resulted in PIXL Esports qualifying over Surge Esports.

Mindfreak joins the Sydney Drop Bears, Order, Athletico Esports, HEIST Gaming Club, the Melbourne Mavericks, Blank Esports and fellow trials qualifier Legacy Esports in the regular season, set to begin on Monday February 25.

Both Legacy Esports and Mindfreak held spots in the previous season of Contenders Australia, but were forced to play through trials qualification again after relegation due to league contraction in 2018.

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