On the ESL disqualification of Optic Gaming and Animal Planet

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On us (Team Animal Planet)
We super fucked up. We did not take the proper steps to message admins or attempt to confirm our disqualification/forfeit win timings through the proper channels. While there were definitely things ESL could have done better in regards to communication and admining, we definitely deserve the lion share of the blame for our part. We are a new team with a new manager and we will learn for next time.


On Team Optic Gaming
ESL made a huge mistake. I think that at least Optic should get a chance to re-play their ESL qualifier match.

Here is a screenshot of the tournament discord between the optic manager and the ESL admin. You can see that Optic is attempting to confirm that there are no problems due to the packed scheduling. This reply from the admin is insane. If you’re going to be a robot and only follow the rulebook when dq’ing teams then be a robot when talking to them about the rules too. At least take 5 seconds to copy paste the rule section or just strongly state no you will have 1 game penalty at 15 and dq at 30. I’d strongly like to appeal ESL’s decision on at least Optic gaming on the grounds that their admin’s communication was horrible. https://puu.sh/yZbFg/8ae5c08d5d.jpg


On ESL and tournament organizers
At this point I’m willing to accept a lot of the blame on our side. However the lack of communication from TO’s and admins is hurting everyone.

Sorry short tangent here. I wanted to say everyone on both sides instead of everyone there, but I realized how ridiculous that was. How can we be on opposite sides when we all want the same thing. Every player, admin and TO wants the best games played and for the scene to grow. Why does it constantly feel like a fight instead of the partnership it should be. We should be working together to make this space better.

Anyways, the one thing that irks me the most is that one complete message from an admin to either the AP or Optic managers would have resolved everything--either team would have left the double elim PGL game 3 to play in ESL. The fact that the solution to this was so simple and not done for whatever reason leaves me bitter. We also should have had our manager message the admins better, but we should both be trying to message and accommodate each other. Oh and also, after the forfeit happened ESL refused to put us in contact with anyone with any ability to make decisions. The admin they left us with had no power make any changes or decisions as the rest of their admins were unavailable. We asked them to call one but they declined. Having a person that can only say “I can’t make any decisions,” does not constitute having an admin available after the game to talk to.

Rulebooks are good for setting guidelines, but if anything comes from this situation I hope it improves the rulebooks and admin communication. I’m 100% every single team would agree to adding some flexibility clauses to the rulebook when teams have to play other tournaments. This dq situation easily has the potential to happen to every single dota team--and it probably has in the past--and at this point we should be trying to preemptively deal with these situations.
Furthermore, I want to just state that tournament organizers have some serious issues between them that have started to affect the teams. These TO’s have the power to accommodate all teams. At the start they do so and typically work well with the teams. However as events go on it gets worse and worse. TO’s have start to make statements like “we are not going to reschedule because xxx tournament wouldn’t reschedule a match prior for us” and “our schedule was posted first.” Have some empathy that your decisions are affecting people’s livelihoods as well as the enjoyment of your audience. Please stop catching the players in the crossfire of your TO egos.


On VGJ
VGJ should have no responsibility in deciding whether we get punished by the admins. The fact that the admin was still asking them if they wanted to wait longer is a joke. It’s a diffusion of responsibility and an attempt to pass along blame to someone else. Man up admins. If you want to be a robot behind a rulebook then do so without involving other parties.
With that said, I’d still like to call out VGJ because after the admins messed up I think they made the situation worse. Your attitude to the competition is bullshit. If you want the free win then come out and say we just wanted the free win. That would be completely fine. Don’t give some excuses about someone having to sleep early--you would start the series up 1-0 after 35 mins. That first game would have taken more than 35 minutes anyways. Nobody’s sleep schedule was going to be messed with because of the delay. You’re not wasting time by playing us; tournaments are the best way to learn and improve. You should be fighting to play us so you guys can improve and have a better chance to do well at the LAN. Please stop aiming at coming last at a lan by taking the easy outs. NA needs to help each other to improve. In the end, all i’m trying to say is that VGJ should have fought to play us, not for some sportsmanship reasons, but because it’s also in their long term interest.


We definitely messed up but the tournament admins did their very best to apathetically make everything end up in the worst scenario possible. At the end of the day we all want the same thing: good dota games being played and the best teams at every tournament; let’s try to work together.

Tl;dr: https://puu.sh/yZeBp/5b271f409e.jpg

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