Sleep is for the weak, they said, and it seems that David ‘Parker” Nicho Flores has some assessment to work on his game as he suddenly fell asleep during Mosquito Clan’s push for a big campaign in the FISSURE Special for Dota 2. So far, it has been a trending topic in the esports world, and many people are even calling it “the Parker incident” as of the time of writing.

Online tournaments mean being at home and playing the game you love. However, that isn’t the case for Parker as he unceremoniously fell asleep right even before the match began. This was one of the rare incidents in the game, and one can say that this is indeed an isolated case that may not ever happen again – at least for now.

So far, Mosquito Clan ended up with a promising run in the tournament, but it seems that it will be starting to make some second thoughts on playing Parker again at the very least. After all, you can’t actually expect someone to win big games if they keep on falling asleep in key games, let alone before it even begins.

The Parker Incident

Coming in as a substitute player for Mosquito Clan’s Dota 2 esports team after he had to replace Yheremi ‘payk’ Arroyo, Parker was expected to be a boost for the team with a crucial showdown versus OG brewing hot in the third day of the FISSURE Special. However, the game admins would later initiate a 10-minute pause after Parker was reported to be AFK.

Estimated to be around the time of the draft phase in which players get to select their heroes and ban potential opponent picks, Parker was not responding and Mosquito Clan claimed that they could not contact him at the time. After 41 seconds of in-game run time, MC would go on to forfeit the match, forcing to hand OG an easy 2-0 win without any blood spilled.

Mosquito Clan released a statement later regarding the incident.

“By the time of the match against OG, it was already around 5 AM in Peru, and Parker wasn’t prepared in advance to play Dota all night,” Mosquito said in the social media platform X. “Unfortunately, at the most crucial moment, he simply didn’t have the energy to finish the game – the human factor is always unpredictable. We would also like to apologize to the organizers of Fissure Special for this accidental technical loss, as well as to the fans who were looking forward to the match.”

Who is Parker?

Unfortunately, Parker has a reputation of not being able to compete well at a high level. Formerly a player for HEROIC, Parker was benched last year after the team claimed that he showed a lack of desire to win when they played in the grand finals of the South American regional qualifier for ESL One Bangkok 2024.

It was reported that Parker argued with the strategy that the team employed in the middle of the game against beastcoast, which was a pivotal part that proved to be the defining moment of the championship.

After that incident, Parker would eventually leave HEROIC as he did not take the benching move lightly. It can also be remembered that he left Infinity by his own decision after the team opted to designate him as a substitute after he displayed “a lack of commitment to his teammates and staff."