Singapore Major: Team Aster's BoBoKa out due to 'personal reasons'
Chinese organisation Team Aster announced on Friday (26 March) that their Dota 2 team's position 4 support player, Ye "BoBoKa" Zhibiao, who also plays under the tag "Borax", will be missing out on the ONE Esports Singapore Major due to "personal reasons".
Team Aster said in a statement on their official Weibo page that team coach Cheng "Mad" Han will be filling in for BoBoKa, who will return to the roster following the conclusion of the Major.
Team Aster is one of the four Chinese representatives in the Singapore Major, joining Invictus Gaming, Vici Gaming, and PSG.LGD. After finishing the upper division of the Dota Pro Circuit's Chinese regional league in second place, Team Aster were directly seeded to the Group Stage of the Major.
BoBoKa is now the 15th player that will miss out on the Singapore Major. Two teams and four other players have withdrawn from the tournament due to positive coronavirus cases and other health-related issues.
Natus Vincere and Beastcoast withdrew from the Singapore Major after some of their players tested positive for COVID-19 and risked exposure to the rest of their teammates. Quincy Crew's Arif "MSS" Anwar, and Team Nigma's Ivan "MinD_ControL" Ivanov are also out of the tournament after they contracted the virus.
Neon Esports' John Anthony "Natsumi" Vargas and T1's Carlo "Kuku" Palad will also not make it to Singapore due to undisclosed health problems. Neon Esports and T1 have not confirmed whether the reason behind their players' absences was a positive coronavirus test or not.
Meanwhile, Virtus.pro's Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko also fell ill but did not produce a positive test. His team has called up a substitute as a precaution but still intends to participate in the Major with him in the lineup.
The Singapore Major's rules state that players who have tested positive for the coronavirus prior to the event, even if they were able to recover shortly before the team's departure to Singapore, will be unable to play in order to minimise risk of exposure for other players.
Teams participating in the Major have already begun to arrive in Singapore. Foreign teams coming to the republic will not need to quarantine for 14 days, instead being required to take a COVID-19 test and undergo a 48-hour isolation period upon their arrival to the country, and follow a strictly-controlled itinerary during their stay.
In addition, teams that have been eliminated from the Singapore Major are required to leave immediately in order to minimise the risk of further exposure to them and the remaining teams in the tournament.
The Singapore Major is scheduled to start on 27 March and will run until 4 April. The event will feature 16 teams from the DPC's six regional leagues competing for the lion's share of a US$500,000 prize pool and 2,700 DPC point pool.
For everything you need to know about the ONE Esports Singapore Major, check here.
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