Jenn · @MLGQueen
12th May 2019 from TwitLonger
My final two cents on the situation yesterday
Some of you may have seen me "complaining" about the Swat Nation Female 2v2 yesterday and how Katey and I got cheated. For anyone who has said "get over it" or "just be grateful that they even hosted a tourney", then you truly do not understand what happened to us and how mistreated we were. The purpose of this twitlonger is to show you why (if you care).
Yesterday I was at a LAN center in Boston competing in a H3 tournament, which many of you know is my preferred halo currently. I have not touched H5 in months nor have I ever played swat, but I was still confident that Katey and I could win hence why I decided to play in both.
In one of the earlier rounds of the Swat tourney, Katey and I were DQed because I didn't join the lobby on time. I believe I was 15 min late to the match. This is because I was finishing the finals of the H3 LAN tourney, and we were told by the Swat Nation refs that they would not wait for me.
Shortly thereafter I won the H3 tourney, went back to playing in the Swat tourney and won our next few rounds. Then we came up to PinkHenshurts' team in what I believe was the losers finals. We have had numerous past experiences with this girl where she has had her boyfriend, Henshurts, play for her. She failed cam checks in 2 other female tourneys in the past and was DQed from both. The Swat Nation refs did not know this, but I tried my best to explain to them. So before our match, we asked for a mic check. The refs immediately became defensive and said "why now? it's already been done". This was untrue and we asked for them to please carry on with the mic check.
They invited myself, Katey, PinkHenshurts and her teammate Azcai to a party chat for the mic check. We all spoke except for Azcai, who did not even join the party. One of the refs, MephBear, told her "That's ok PinkHenshurts, you're good, just go enjoy some swat" and then we proceeded to play the tournament. The refs were essentially fine with her not performing the mic check.
We won game 1 and lost games 2 and 3 in a bo5. We then stopped again and said something is seriously wrong. Azcai was a Plat and Silver in every playlist, yet she was moving around the map like Shotzzy and spring jumping multiple times even during battles. No one is trying to say that is impossible for a girl, but if you compare her rank and the clips on her account to the level of gameplay yesterday, it was strikingly obvious that it was not her playing. At least 10 other females in the twitch chat agreed, as well as many male players. That along with the already failed mic check and the history of them cheating in previous tournaments was enough to be suspicious. Although we had every reason to be upset, the refs constantly became defensive, with one in particular telling me I was insecure with my femininity for cam checking them and that I was making myself look trashy. Yes, he actually said that to me.
After 1 hour and 30 minutes of PinkHenshurts and Azcai making excuses as to why they couldn't cam check, we finally get them in a Skype call but they refuse to speak. They had their phones in their lap pretending like they couldn't hear us. When Obviously Queen (who was running the cam checks) asked them to prop up their phones so we could see their monitor in-game, their excuse was "we don't have anything to prop it up with". You can literally use ANY object to prop up a phone.
The refs at this point are still refusing to DQ the girls who are obviously cheating and we are forced to play the next map, barely losing 25-23.
The cheaters move on to the finals against Mynx and Veronickuh where after several games, the refs finally DQ them after realizing that they were in-fact cheating. Instead of allowing teams to replay for their obvious mistake, the refs decide to give the Mynx and Veronickuh the win and they said that "at some point", my team and Obviously Queen's team can play each other for 2nd/3rd.
My question is - how is that fair? If the cheaters were DQed when they should have been based on our evidence, then we should've been playing Mynx and Veronickuh for 1st place. I honestly feel as though the refs didn't like us and therefore played favoritism. It seemed as though the refs chose to DQ the cheaters at a point in the tournament that was more preferable to them. Even before that series, one of refs who said nothing poorly about any other player in the tournament said on stream "Wow, why is Queen playing like this is matchmaking? This is swat" or something like that. This same ref was the same one who made the comments that I alluded to earlier, as well as suggesting that if mic checks weren't sufficient enough for us then maybe we should just ask for nudes. Yes, he actually said this on stream.
Long story short: I don't care about the money. I'm disappointed that I wasted my time when I was at a LAN center and could've been doing other things like playing in the H3 2v2 tournament which I actually had a shot at winning. I'm mad at how poorly Katey and I were treated and how defensive the refs were and angry at us for voicing our valid suspicions. MephBear was the ref in our party chat for the series and he was actually physically yelling at Katey and I, even after I had already started the game. I'm mad that I'm a competitive person and lost a tournament over a poorly run system.
I feel as though if the Swat Nation organizers want to have any credibility with the female halo community going forward, then they need to find a way to make this right with all of us who were essentially cheated out of a win.
Appreciate everyone who has been supportive and hope that things like this don't continue to discourage females from playing in tournaments.