SEC officials informed all players that they should wear the official Samsung Euro Championship 2008 shirts during the prize ceremony, but Fnatic took them off to show their Fnatic t-shirts.

According to SEC's official statement, the players wore the SEC shirts when they grabbed medals but did not wear them at the time they were reinvited to the stage for the final group picture. SEC staff held talks regarding the issue. One option was to ban them from the next SEC tournament, and second to decrease the prize money the players received.

"We had some discussion, what to do. The possibilities would have been a deduction of the prize money or a ban of the players for the next SEC. because the Event is already gone, this would have been the only Options for us," the official statement unveils.

"We came to the decision, that the Auto berth for Fnatic for the national Final 2008 will be denied. That means, they have to fight through the normal qualification like any other team."

Fnatic's explanation

"After coming off the stage we were asked for an interview and as customary we took off our shirts to wear our Fnatic jerseys. We were then all invited onto the stage in a rush for a group photo and so the guys straight out of their interview ran on the stage for the photo in their Fnatic shirt," Fnatic's Managing Director Samuel Mathews explained.

"It was a mistake and we are sorry. However it was a very harmless one!"

Samsung Euro Championship's officials intimate that the incident "will not be the standard penalty for harming the rules". This was the first time, when such thing happened in the tournament.

"Next time doesn’t matter who it will be, we will be talking about deduction of Prize money or banning the players again."