Brian "dkt" Flander has been announced as the replacement for Cyrus "proZaC" Malekani at the IEM World Championship.ESL have confirmed the absence of the player known as "the p1mp" following days of speculation on Twitter and a number of news sites. Malekani, who blamed his college responsibilites for the decision, becomes the second player to drop out after qualifying as a non-national in a foreign qualifier. Dutch player Sander "vo0" Kaasjager also turned down the opportunity to represent North America after stating similar reasons.
Brian "dkt" Flander has been drafted in to take the place of the Swede after ESL were unable to secure an Asian replacement. The compLexity star placed joint last at the North American finals in Edmonton but is still considered a formidable talent after a strong showing at last year's QuakeCon. He will now line up in group B alongside EU champ Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky and EG rival Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty.
ESL's Maxime "xou" Roucel defended the addition of the American, stating that "his rank in the NA finals can be considered better than [for example] calipt's rank in the Euro finals overall." Flander becomes the fifth North American at the global finals and will be under pressure to produce a strong performance despite the short notice.
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love this game <
edited 2010-02-21 12:44:55
Don't really agree with this considering the European Championship had more players than the NA one.
Anyway gl, will be a great event ;b
or it would also be fair to give to another asian player since it was 2 asian slots to begin with
read plz sugarpuff xD^^