IEM Singapore: Why Dota 2 Team Armaggeddon Was Chosen Over The Singapore Sentinels

No event is ever perfect, and Intel Extreme Masters Singapore has generated its own share of drama through the inclusion of Singapore Dota 2 team Armaggeddon for its League of Legends playoffs.

The local League of Legends community is up in arms asking why Armaggeddon were chosen over the Singapore Sentinels, Singapore’s only professional League of Legends players and by that extension, unquestionably the best local team.

Armaggeddon was called up at the ninth hour to replace qualified international teams who for various unforeseen reasons could not make it for the tournament’s Singapore tour stop. A source told us that Armaggeddon were asked to fill in the final slot in the Intel Extreme Masters Singapore’s League of Legends tournament at midnight on Thursday morning, leaving them with just nine hours to spare.

Turtle Entertainment’s Michal Blicharz called the circumstances surrounding Armaggeddon’s participation “extremely unfortunate”, and said: “I apologise to the Singapore League of Legends community for it.”

The Singapore Sentinels are understood to have a commitment to Garena this weekend for the Garena Carnival. Michal added that being on unfamiliar ground – this is Turtle Entertainment and the Electronic Sports League’s first foray into Southeast Asia – with extremely short notice to fix put them under pressure, and they simply didn’t know who best to approach for advice or results.

“We made a mistake and I apologise for it,” Michal said once more. He added that Singapore was indeed supposed to hold qualifiers for Intel Extreme Masters, but that he did not know the details as the qualifying tournament was the onus of the ESL’s Asian partner, located in China. We will be reaching out to Michal for more information on this following IEM Singapore’s conclusion.

During our conversation, Michal repeatedly apologised to Singapore’s League of Legends community, and said that he hopes the community can forgive the ESL.

“Anyone who is offended can come this weekend (to Intel Extreme Masters) and give me their name and email address. If we come to Singapore or have a qualifier around Singapore next time we will certainly contact them and make sure we do a better job next time,” he finished off.

Intel Extreme Masters Singapore  is happening this weekend at SITEX 2012, Hall 4B of the Singapore Expo. This premier e-Sports experience runs from 11am to 9pm.