Trang Le · @TrangLe92
9th Aug 2019 from TwitLonger
Concerning the Vietnamese SC2 team for SEA Games.
If you guys follow my twitter, you probably have seen me being unhappy earlier today. It took us a while to get all the details out but to anyone interested, here goes.
First of all, what's SEA Games?
It's like the Olympics, but for South East Asia. Same deal, same style. Except that this year, some games will be at SEA Games in the first-ever esports category. StarCraft 2 is one of them. And we are talking about real medals here, not the ceremonial one like at the last Asian Games. Each country is allowed to send 2 players to compete in StarCraft 2. It will take place in November.
We all know the 1st slot is going to MeomaikA. No one complains, no dispute. He's the best player in Vietnam and we all agree. We were even happy that Meo won't be in the qualifier because some unlucky souls would meet him early and end their runs.
So how about the 2nd slot? Here comes the problem.
The esports representative of the General Department of Sports has assured us over and over and over that there will be a qualifier. The players and I kept asking if we needed to prepare for anything, when the dates will be, etc. The answer was always "don't worry, there will be a qualifier, I will inform you guys and organize it to the best of the players benefit." Never did he tell us a date or a single detail.
For the last 8 months or so, Vietnam has quite a few players trying hard for this. 3 notable players: JusticeSimon, Uply and HuySolo.
They might sound somewhat familiar to you. That's because JusticeSimon just recently reached Ro16 WCS ANZ and is playing in many tournaments. Uply is more of a ladder hero with 5,5k on KR and also playing tournaments. HuySolo is on a slightly lower level but he is also in the top 5 of Vietnam. All 3 of them are up for consideration on the NationWars vote right now.
Here's the link to DrAeromi's google docs of all NW players that has their info in it: https://twitter.com/DrAeromi/status/1158288441882435585
Most notably, Uply and Justice Simon quit their jobs to play on very little money. There were days that Uply couldn't afford food and MeomaikA had to buy him a sandwich. But they were willing to take the chance because they wanted to represent the country and also win prize money for a medal. They told me that if they get eliminated in the qualifier fair and square, they will accept it because they tried their best.
Yesterday, at 1:48PM Vietnam time, a player, MissFanta, messaged Uply, Simon and a Diamond 1 (???) player on Facebook, telling them that they have a few hours to send over all of their personal information + scan of passport or they would get instantly disqualified.
Uply and Simon, who never travelled outside of Vietnam, don't have them. Making a passport in Vietnam is quick, from 5 days to 2 weeks. If you pay more it can even be 2 days. But not quick enough for 2 hours. For the fact that we never knew when the qualifier was, and SEA Games is actually 3 months away, and Uply and Simon were frankly broke, they delayed doing the passport until there was proper qualifier information to pay for other things first. BAM, disqualified because they couldn't magic up a passport in 2 hours.
HuySolo wasn't even messaged. He only knew it via Uply and Simon, he immediately sent the application (with passport btw). "Too late," they said, "also who are you? We only picks highly ranked players". Also disqualified, despite the fact that he is a top player and certainly reached GM, NOT Diamond 1.
Suddenly the road is free for MissFanta who belongs to the team that is owned by the representative. I don't want to point fingers but this smells foul af.
Uply made a post here on behalf of all 3 players: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sc2vn/permalink/1207092922822086/ (also has English below) and all they got back was "didn't have time" (lol he had since the beginning of the year, the community could even run the qualifier for him?) and "the qualifier would have asked you for a passport anyway, it's your fault for not having it" (said by whom? He never once mentioned it) and to HuySolo "who the hell are you".
Shit's done. The list is now sent to the officials. The guys wasted their time and effort. It's upsetting but being mad doesn't help them anymore. They also cried all the tears they could and we also brought this news to the Vietnamese community. If anyone wonders why Vietnam won't field their best team, here's why. Just a side note, MeomaikA has been nothing but supportive in this so he is completely not at fault here. He himself is incredibly disappointed.
All I ask of you guys is to support them. The boys are very sad right now, but they will still be playing. They are not sure yet of the path ahead. Show their support if you see them playing in a WCS ANZ tournament, cheer for them. If you have a team that is looking for players, please consider them, they are all good player and very well-mannered. You can also vote for them in NationWars (I won't link here since it would look like this whole thing is made up to beg for votes).