Slime 4kT No Longer A Nigerian Team - Why?

23, Aug - 2022 - 4 likes Seven

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Nigerian PUBG Mobile competitive scene have been left scratching their head at 10N8E’s General Managers most recent announcement, as the three(3) times Nigerian Pro League Champions and current defending champions get their invitation pulled for a second time.

What is the Nigerian Pro League (NPL)?

The NPL is the PUBG Mobile league organised for the Nigerian community by the PUBG Nigeria Community to give community members the opportunity to compete against each other to determine who will be crowned the champions of Nigeria.

Started in 2018, NPL has been one of the fastest growing communities in West Africa with the aim of promoting PUBG mobile esports in Nigeria. They are currently on their 5th season with Wildbreed winning the first season ,and Slime4kT(now Akatsuki Esports) winning the next three(3) seasons back to back.

It has always been 4kT vs NPL Board with controversies surrounding 4kT dominating the Nigerian Pro League due to their players supposedly having ping advantage over other Nigerian player. As noticed by a community member:
"Every NPL season, the NPL board attempts to remove Slime 4kT from its league due to one reason or the other, with their popular slogan being - Time for 'a new champion' ".

Fast forward to NPL Season 5, where Slime 4kT semi final invitation got revoked due to "Slime 4kT not following the instructions mentioned in their mail". Later on, the NPL board announced that Slime 4kT will be invited to the finals of the NPL Season 5, and will be required to follow the instruction stated in their mail to participate in the LAN event scheduled to hold in Lagos State, Nigeria.

No 4kT, No LAN !

Cancellation of the offline event and the conditions in which current defending champions invitation was revoked for a second time.

While the cancellation of the LAN event is completely understandable due to increased difficulties in hosting the offline event in a qualitative and secure manner as highlighted by the 10N8E General Manager, majority of the community still believe more could be done in making the online event as enjoyable and fair as a LAN event would be.

Now, regarding the revoked invitation of previous season champions Slime 4kT(now Akatsuki Esports), the Nigerian community and fans alike have been left more confused as Slime 4kT would be 100% eligible to participate in an online event. With 4kT failing to accept the invitation (as stated in the announcement), 4kT fans believe this was due to the event being LAN which 4kT players won't be able to travel to Lagos State just for a day event.

A lot of the community members views the cancellation of LAN and revoking of Slime 4kT's invitation announcement as a scheme to prevent 4kT from participating in the NPL Season 5 Finale. A team member's reaction to the announcement was, “perfect timing”, while another community member commented, “They had 5 months and only knew they couldn’t afford LAN 7 days to the finals”.

Bizarrely one of the staff has been quoted saying, “People got talk but they’ll still play”.
10N8E & NPL are yet to make any other official announcement regarding Slime 4kT and their NPL Season 5 Finale slot.

Now we're left with unanswered questions:

• Are we going to witness a finale without the defending champions?

• Is this hate towards Slime 4kT? or is it finally time for 10N8E to crown a new champion?
  
  Let us know what you think in the comment section.

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