ESL has made the decision to disqualify popular Indian club Team Insane from the ongoing Snapdragon BGMI Pro Series 2024. While the organizer did not provide a specific reason for their disqualification, it comes after several allegations of cheating were made against their athlete Tsunami. The Pro Series is considered to be the first major BGMI event of 2024, with a grand prize of ₹1 crore up for grabs.
Replacing Team Insane in the upcoming Challenge Season, starting on January 12, will be Team Together Esports. This stage will feature a total of 32 teams vying for the 16 slots in the Grand Finals, which are scheduled to be hosted in February.
During the Snapdragon Pro Series, Tsunami and three unnamed players were representing Team Insane. The club had initially secured their slot in the Open Finals after participating in the Conquest Open, where 2,048 teams competed. Team Insane performed well in the Open Finals on January 6 and 7, finishing in fourth place with 107 points and two Chicken Dinners. They had a strong start on Day 1, winning two games out of the first six matches. However, their performance declined on the second day.
With Team Insane’s disqualification, Team Together Esports (TTE), who ranked ninth in the overall standings, has been given a spot in the Challenge Season. ESL has invited 24 well-known organizations for this stage.
In response to the cheating allegations, Tsunami has denied any wrongdoing and stated that he will upload gameplay videos of all his ESL Snapdragon Pro Series matches on his YouTube channel. He also clarified that the viral video in which he was banned for 10 minutes was not from this ESL event and was not due to hacking, but rather a network error.
It is worth noting that Team Insane recently achieved third place in the BMPS 2023, an official BGMI major tournament. However, since then, their players Aadi, Jazzyy, Darlord, and Skipzz have left the organization. Tsunami is now the sole remaining member of the club and was playing with three unsigned players in the Snapdragon Pro Series.
