Fnatic at The International

Era is a much better player with a much wider pool of heroes than xcalibur. This is another thing where similar in say the NFL where a doctor would say yes/no to whether or not someone is healthy enough to play. In this particular situation, the organization is invested in Era so his long term health should be prioritized, yet Valve should also consider the human factor, and allow them to play with xcalibur. If Era is suffering from depression this bad, I wouldn't think the international would be very good for him, highest stakes ever, and he's still young with many years to play,.
I'm not going to base my opinion on this solely, because I agree that we don't know what was going on behind the scenes, Era is a young dude, mental health specialists should dictate whether or not he's ready to go, and Valve should allow them to play with a stand-in considering the players health. With the way esports are blowing up more and more, I feel like situations like this will be dealt with better in the future.
On the flip side, I can see why Valve is ruling in this fashion,

Might be, but xcalibur has much better individual play than Era.

i dont agree, he might be good on tinker and a pretty good meepo, but his shadow fiend for example was ****ped on all game by dendi brewmaster, and he played poorly in many other games.
and if era comes back then h4nn1 can make plays in mid again.

his allaround skill is far behind many pro players, but he has potential ofcourse since he is only 16.

Doesn't n0tail play a good Meepo already? Xcalibur has good synergy with Fnatic, but I'm sure he will find another team after having showed off his potential. And I think Era is a very good player, so they don't even have to substitute him for that matter.

Didn't know Xcalibur was only 16 though.

Xcalibur is kind of a weak mid. He lacks real depth in his hero pool. I read in another forum post that he was kinda like how AdmiralBulldog was last TI. Yet, unlike Bulldog, he's playing the more important mid role instead of offlaner role. He also isn't that big of a play maker compared to other mids.

So far I have only seen him play three heroes well. Tiny, Tinker, and Meepo. Each with their own set of problems.

Tiny usually will only get picked up with a Wisp. Which most teams are smart enough to ban right off the bat. Fnatic has made a name for themselves with their Tiny Wisp combo when they had Era.

Tinker pretty much needs farm quite early to stay revelant into mid and late game.

Meepo needs farm and levels. He is so reliant on the snowball.

Would be nice if Valve will allow them to bring both Era and Xcalibur to TI. Just in case Eras' mental state deteriorates enough to the point that he can't play.

When are you going to see Era do this kind of stuff? This is what I meant by better individual play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-TERvHkuBE

when are you going to see Era feeding 3 kills mid in 5 minutes or dieing 10 times as shadow fiend? or instead of farming trying to fight and die?
you dont, id rather have a stable carry then someone who jukes once in a while.