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This is what happened to me today / a warning to anyone who is competing at MLG or planning to compete at MLG.
Let me start with a little introduction. This is the first MLG I have ever been to and I flew out all the way from Oregon to attend and play at the 2011 MLG in Columbus Ohio. Flights are long, hotels are expensive etc etc ... On day One I got knocked down to the loser's bracket by Col.Stalife and was preparing today to play in the loser's bracket and hopefully give a half decent showing.
Day one didn't wrap up until about 12:30am and by the time we got back to the hotel, told some stories and got to sleep it was pretty early. The loser's bracket games started at 10:00am and my round began at noon. I rolled out of bed and was out the door with a good 15 minutes to make the 5 minute walk to the convention center, my teammates had already called and told me what station I was going to be playing at and briefed me on my opponent. I was feeling good and ready to go.
I step into the elevator and on the way down is where things start to go wrong. The elevator loudly grinds to a rough halt a floor before the lobby and all the buttons fail to activate. I try the open door button, the close door button, the lobby button about 20 times and still nothing happens. After a minute or two of waiting I use the in-elevator alarm system and the people on the 2nd floor hear it ringing. I tell them that I'm stuck in the elevator and they say they are going to contact the front desk. I quickly call my teammates that are already at the convention center and tell them to notify the officials at the starcraft 2 section. (I am later told that all three of them went up and spoke with the officials and that they were well aware of the situation at hand.)
Approximately 15 or 20 minutes later the elevator bumps to a start and rolls past the lobby into the basement floor and opens up and I'm greeted by the bewildered hotel staff who start asking me a million questions. I get out as quickly as possible and sprint towards the convention center briefly stopping to thank the fire fighters that are rushing out of the 3 fire engines and the 1 ambulance that had showed up. They also try to ask me another million questions but I tell them I really have to be somewhere and I'm running late. I get away as fast as possible and continue to race towards the convention center, calling my team on the run and telling them to notify the officials I am out of the elevator and am going to be there in a matter of minutes.
I reach my seat all out of breath, greet my opponent who replies with "no worries" and I unpack and notify the official that I made it out of the elevator safely and we are ready to play. The officials however tell me that despite my opponents willingness to allow me to play and the extenuating circumstances at hand my match was forfeited due to me showing up 15 minutes late. I explain to them what happened but even a call to the commissioner of the event does absolutely nothing and I am forced to forfeit my match - even my opponent agreed it was a bullshit call, I had even offered to start the match 1 game down so we could be on time with the other players.
I feel as though in situations outside of anyones control there should be some leeway at offline events, especially since people travel thousands of miles to attend. I mean I would be angry at myself if I had woken up late and just missed it but instead I just feel a bit disappointed at the lack of options given in emergency situations. I feel as though I took every step necessary in letting them know I was in trouble and sure I could have been there 30 minutes to an hour early and I probably should have, and would have knowing that they were going to stick tight to the rules in spite of being notified in advance of an emergency.
I just felt as though I should write this as a warning to anyone going to an MLG and planning on participating. Get there early, way early. Don't get a ticket on the way there, don't get attacked or stuck in any emergency what-so-ever - you are going to be forced to forfeit no matter what the situation.
I am currently attempting to contact Sundance and other higher ups in an attempt to get a partial refund and a downgrade of my competitor pass to a spectator pass, I will update this when with the outcome.
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TLDR
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- Was on track to make it to my match in time
- Got trapped in the elevator and had to be rescued by the fire department
- Had my team notify the officials ahead of time
- Arrived 15 minutes late to my match
- Opponent was still willing to let me play
- Officials told me my match was forfeited
- Tried to reason, gave explanation, agreed to start match 1 game down, etc etc.
- Call was made to the commissioner
- Match was forfeited regardless of situation.
  
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This seems completely unfair. Hopefully some big cheese around TL can talk to the management about handling similar cases in the future? Alternatively, Kennigit can just break his arm.
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It sucks but you could've taken the stairs or given yourself more than 15 minutes to get to the venue before your match started. I don't think we can blame MLG here.
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Damn that sucks so bad, best of luck negotiating with sundance.
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On June 05 2011 03:46 dANiELcanuck wrote:
It sucks but you could've taken the stairs or given yourself more than 15 minutes to get to the venue before your match started. I don't think we can blame MLG here.
Wait what? I usually give myself 15 minutes leeway also... and I think thats a good amount of time.
But its not his fault he chose to use the elevator; he surely didnt expect it to stop working.
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United States24648 Posts
Yeah from your perspective that really sucks, and obviously goes to show being early always helps. Kinda sucks the competition ended late the night before but that's life I guess.
As for how MLG handled it... I really can't fault them if they were sticking to a policy they had made public before the event (assuming they were but I have no idea). Legitimate sporting events have strict rules for a reason. If a professional baseball or american football player was in the same situation/elevator with you while trying to get to a game, the game would not wait for him.
It would make sense for MLG to change their rules slightly though to be a bit more accommodating without having to sacrifice much... like having a rule where you sacrifice a game every x minutes etc...
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That sucks, but I don't know the rules of this tournament. 
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996 Posts
Wow, thats so gay, especially that you said you would start one game down. Kind of gets rid of all complaints by MLG
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I feel for you. given that you showed up so close to the time the game should have started they could have made an exception considering they seemed to be aware of the situation.
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This is just horrible =/. Especially when u offer to take a first game loss to account for u being 15 mins late. This didnt throw off their schedule at ALL if u take the first game loss. this is just people being selfish pricks who dont want to explain this situation or deal with it simply because of laziness.
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On June 05 2011 04:22 MaestroSC wrote:
This is just horrible =/. Especially when u offer to take a first game loss to account for u being 15 mins late. This didnt throw off their schedule at ALL if u take the first game loss. this is just people being selfish pricks who dont want to explain this situation or deal with it simply because of laziness.
They've got thousands of matches to worry about. You don't show up on time you forfeit your match, they can't be bothered making exceptions and doing it on a case by case basis. They've got a god damned tournament to run.
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Depending on scheduling, it is usually the loser's bracket that slows down a tournament if games are played one after the other. So delaying one match by 15 minutes potentially delays the entire tournament that much as well. It's sad that you travelled so far and got a forfeit loss for being late when it wasn't your fault.
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sucks 
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It sucks that you got there late, but it isn't like MLG didn't make their policies known. Yeah your situation wasn't one that could have been controlled at the time, but if you left say 20-30 minutes earlier you would have been fine right? This brings to mind the old saying. "Better safe than sorry." Maybe MLG could make exceptions, but making exceptions delays the event even more than it already has been which is why I don't see anything wrong with their actions. Better luck next time.
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rules be rules, Catz had to forfeit against July for being late too. This is why you always make sure you are damn early, its better to be early and sitting around for 45 minutes than 15 minutes late and get a forfeit.
Sucks for you, but MLG have their rule set well published and they have a very tight schedule to keep to. I doubt they will give you money back, might not be your fault you were late but they only really have your word for that and also its not their fault.... if you had left in time to be 20 early, you would have been well on time.... most people would say you shuld have already been there by the time you ended up leaving ;p
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United States4796 Posts
On June 05 2011 03:50 micronesia wrote:
Yeah from your perspective that really sucks, and obviously goes to show being early always helps. Kinda sucks the competition ended late the night before but that's life I guess.
As for how MLG handled it... I really can't fault them if they were sticking to a policy they had made public before the event (assuming they were but I have no idea). Legitimate sporting events have strict rules for a reason. If a professional baseball or american football player was in the same situation/elevator with you while trying to get to a game, the game would not wait for him.
It would make sense for MLG to change their rules slightly though to be a bit more accommodating without having to sacrifice much... like having a rule where you sacrifice a game every x minutes etc...
Agreed. This isn't MLG's problem. But not everything can work out perfectly every time. Sorry it didn't work out for you this time.
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It's a serious tournament, you should be getting there with time to spare, not budgeting to arrive just in time. It's like missing your flight because you got a flat tire, allow time for accidents when you're headed to something important and this shit doesn't happen. You definitely do not deserve a refund, it's your own fault you were late.
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Please don't bother Sundance personally with this. Hunting season on him should be over - he seems like a nice guy and he's giving us HQ for free all weekend.
I'm sure if you talk to him he'll give you a full refund and shit but unless you absolutely need the money, please understand that he's the CEO. We need to keep shit professional even when frustrated and so on.
Let this go through proper channels, your team should contact MLG officials and see how they can compensate you, i'm sure they'd be more than willing to downgrade your pass etc. It's force majeur, no one is really at fault here.
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This does warrant MLG to look over their rules for a little bit. Of course they only have a few days to run everything and stuff usually ends late. However, they can still have a rule where if you're 10 minutes late you lose 1 game, 20 mins late you're lost. This way won't really slow down the tournament as I'd assume most other games will be longer than 10 mins each, and still have a bit of leeway for problems.
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EPT
