Earlier this week Team Aster announced that three of their players and part of the crew had tested positive for COVID-19. In the most recent update, it has been confirmed that the entire team, along with all the crew, have the virus.

Team Aster is currently in Bucharest, Romania, after qualifying for The International 10. The tournament is set to begin on October 7 with the biggest prize pool in esport history at US$40 Million.



Team Aster co-founder BurNIng announces their status

Team Aster all have COVID-19
Credit: Tiffani “Oling” Lim

Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei is the co-founder of Team Aster and one of the most celebrated players in Dota 2 history.

In the screenshots showing internal messages within the team, BurNIng wrote, “We got team wiped, all 10 of us are tested positive.”

Team Aster isn’t the only team that has been exposed to the virus. Invictus Gaming player Thiay “JT-” Jun Wen has tested positive for COVID-19 as well.

Due to the fact that all five Chinese teams who are attending The International have been staying in the same hotel, all of them are currently undergoing several rounds of testing to ensure player safety.


What will Valve do moving forward?

COVID-19 is affecting Team Aster
Credit: Valve

Valve announced in an earlier update that only fully vaccinated and masked individuals can attend The International.

With players from multiple teams testing positive for COVID-19, Valve has a difficult situation to handle. So far no announcements have been made regarding the situation.

A possible solution would be to allow players who tested positive to play their matches online from their quarantine stations.

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READ MORE: What Bucharest’s COVID-19 Code Red status means for TI10