Why did Carolina Royal Ravens get disqualified from Esports World Cup 2025?

The Esports World Cup 2025 has only just begun, but a controversy pertaining to it is already making headlines. Popular esports organization Carolina Royal Ravens has been disqualified from the EWC's Call of Duty Black Ops 6 tournament. This unexpected move has shocked fans, and many of them might be wondering about the exact reason behind it. Multiple sources have now confirmed that the club's removal was due to it having broken the roster-changing rules set by the Esports World Cup Foundation.

On that note, here’s everything you need to know about the Carolina Royal Ravens situation.

Carolina Royal Ravens disqualified from Esports World Cup 2025 over roster rule violation

The Carolina Royal Ravens squad was officially disqualified from the Esports World Cup 2025 after failing to meet roster requirements. This issue began right after the Call of Duty League 2025, when TJHaLy and Gwinn left the team after their contracts expired. The expiry had happened before the Esports World Cup for Black Ops 6 was even announced, and the players soon signed with other teams. TJHaLy joined Vegas Falcons, while Gwinn moved to Cloud9 New York.

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This left the Royal Ravens squad with only two players from their original roster when the Esports World Cup 2025 was announced, and they tried to sign three new players: Afro, FDot, and Cobra. However, the EWC only allows one roster change per team, which is why the Ravens got disqualified. If the squad did not sign multiple teammates, it would have been ineligible to participate in the event anyway, due to a lack of players. Thus, the team was unfortunately ineligible either way.

One of the players involved, Afro, publicly expressed his frustration, saying that the disqualification made no sense because no original players were dropped. The disqualification was further confirmed by Team Notorious, the team that loaned Afro and FDot to Ravens. Notorious pointed out that its full roster remains under contract and that it is ready to step in if needed.

As of now, no official replacement for the Royal Ravens has been confirmed for the Esports World Cup 2025. Most likely, it would be either FireFears or Royal Spartans, based on Pro Points.

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About the author

Harshit Singh is a gaming journalist at Sportskeeda, with Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2, and Marvel Rivals being his areas of specialization. A final-year B.Des (Visual Communication) student at Delhi Technological University, he is always eager to pursue creative endeavors. Harshit aims to deliver news and up-to-date content promptly to players around the globe. To that end, he acquires information from reliable forums and social media pages and religiously tracks the latest coverage of Fortnite — a game he has been playing since 2018. He is often found testing the new meta in-game or spectating competitive tournaments.

Harshit holds a deep love for video games, which stemmed from the hours he spent playing GTA Vice City, NFS Most Wanted 2005, FlatOut 2, and Total Overdose in his school days. Currently, he is veering towards story-driven, single-player games, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being one of his favorites.

Harshit is an ardent fan of esports titles like CS, Rocket League, and Valorant, with Fnatic, EDG, G2, and Astralis being a few of his favorite orgs. Counter-Strike pro Xantares and Benjifishy, an esports athlete who has mastered both Fortnite and Valorant, are inspirational figures for him.

Harshit works as a music producer under the alias Hysaze. He is extremely passionate about EDM and has garnered over 40 million streams across all platforms. He is also a regular contributor to Fandom’s EDM Wiki.

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Edited by Niladri Roy