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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 States24612 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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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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how about the very obvious solution: referee's discretion?
this isn't rocket science. i've run tournaments of various events for over 15 years and we often deviate from the strict letter of the law in favor of the reasonable "common sense" solution when everyone affected agrees.
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Pokebunny got screwed too somehow , apparently he was told a different time and showed up late, got him dq'ed out of a big match where he woulda went to winners bracket prolly
It just sucks to travel to lans and get dq'ed cuz of stuff like this. With all the technical delays and all you should be able to accommodate your players with reasonable decisions.
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Not everyone is perfect, and like you said leaving a bit earlier to a huge event would have been the correct choice. At least you made it out of the elevator and did not get hurt. Big tournaments have a lot of stuff on the go at the same time, a little bit of leniency could have been given, but who knows how many other things the ref and commissioner were dealing with at that time.
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they waited almost 20 minutes for whiplash in whiplash vs butteryllama... he didn't even have a good excuse!
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You should also mention that:
The matches didn't end at 12:30, they ended at closer to 2:30 AM.
Tournament organizers told people who had won all 4 rounds of winners bracket that their matches wouldn't start til 11 AM on day 2.
The matches then started at 10 AM, and plyaers who were on a roll like CatZ and Pokebunny both had to forfeit their first of the double elimination event, when they were told by tourny organizers matches would start til an hour afterwards.
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Should have taken the stairs you lazy bastard
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On June 05 2011 14:34 Zlasher wrote:
You should also mention that:
The matches didn't end at 12:30, they ended at closer to 2:30 AM.
Tournament organizers told people who had won all 4 rounds of winners bracket that their matches wouldn't start til 11 AM on day 2.
The matches then started at 10 AM, and plyaers who were on a roll like CatZ and Pokebunny both had to forfeit their first of the double elimination event, when they were told by tourny organizers matches would start til an hour afterwards.
This sucks worse than the OP (no offense, you definitely shouldn't have been DQ'd either).
BUT.. when MLG STAFF tell the players to show up 1 hour later than they need to and get a DQ - that is extremely unprofessional and inexcusable on MLG's part. I'm extremely disappointed with this.
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The fact that MLG is a big tournament shouldn't help the argument that people should just suck it up. They should have the ability to coordinate and treat the players right considering the money that's involved. These kinds of weird situations like Pokebunny's just serve to put players on tilt and that's already too much pressure in a big LAN.
As for OP, I know your team called the officials, but it's not as bad as for instance them saying you could play and then backing out on their word when you got there, right?
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Bummer man:/ Best of luck to you and your team in the future.
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I can understand why they have a no tolerance rule. They can't be having everyone coming up with some kind of excuse then having everyone be late, but for something like an mlg something is always going to come up with that many people. It's a big deal for people to come and compete in the events, it's not really profitable and they're doing it more for the experience. No one's maliciously trying to abuse the 15min late rule afaik so really they should let it slide.
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Even though it wasn't your fault, unfortunately I don't think you have a case here. The tournament admins have a strict schedule to adhere to, and bending the rules that were already set in stone before the season started is no bueno. Sorry bro, shit happens, and apparently it happened to you that morning.
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On June 05 2011 16:03 HeadDesk wrote:Show nested quote +On June 05 2011 14:34 Zlasher wrote:
You should also mention that:
The matches didn't end at 12:30, they ended at closer to 2:30 AM.
Tournament organizers told people who had won all 4 rounds of winners bracket that their matches wouldn't start til 11 AM on day 2.
The matches then started at 10 AM, and plyaers who were on a roll like CatZ and Pokebunny both had to forfeit their first of the double elimination event, when they were told by tourny organizers matches would start til an hour afterwards. This sucks worse than the OP (no offense, you definitely shouldn't have been DQ'd either). BUT.. when MLG STAFF tell the players to show up 1 hour later than they need to and get a DQ - that is extremely unprofessional and inexcusable on MLG's part. I'm extremely disappointed with this.
Yup, shit happens. Never leave it to the refs (MMA) and you should check with more than one official. My rule of thumb for competition is to always show up an hour early anyway so you can get settled in.
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Were they well within their rights to DQ you, as stated by their rules? Sure. Was it however a smart decision? No.
For those saying, "Well they can't change the rules every time X happens." This isn't a player showing up late because he over slept, he had a real extenuating circumstance. If he had used that elevator earlier, nothing assures the response time would be the same, or the problem.
Because it would not have held up the tournament (as a best of series takes fluctuating amounts of time, we're talking 15mins in a series where players could play three 30-40 minute games, or three 7 minute games) it seemed like a no brainer to just let you two play. You're both paying customers as well as contestants.
So yeah, getting there early is always a good idea--but in this case it seemed like it would be no harm to allow you two to play considering the extenuating circumstance (plus the fact you made the aware of it ahead of time) and the fact your opponent was fine with playing you.
Hopefully it works out next time!
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I am really really sorry dude. Sundance might be able to help, he is pretty cool and accommodating, hopefully something can be done because that just sucks.
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United States2789 Posts
On June 06 2011 14:36 Zorkmid wrote:
Stairs dude. Stairs.
He's stuck in an elevator. How's he supposed to use the stairs?
I feel pretty bad for you, but sometimes that's just how it is. With a tournament that big it's pretty much impossible to accommodate everyone. They should alter the rules to maybe give you 10-15 minutes per game for the future though.
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On June 06 2011 14:46 ketomai wrote:He's stuck in an elevator. How's he supposed to use the stairs? I feel pretty bad for you, but sometimes that's just how it is. With a tournament that big it's pretty much impossible to accommodate everyone. They should alter the rules to maybe give you 10-15 minutes per game for the future though.
I agree, starting a series 15 minutes late would cause every match after that to start late, it's a bit of a snowball effect and MLG can't really allow that to happen.
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Of course he should be DQ'ed, it's responsability of the players to show up on time, else the organizers would have to deal with ten BS excuses for every legitimate one. Not the OP's fault either though, shit happens. The warning if anything should be to leave very early for events you care about.
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On June 06 2011 14:36 Zorkmid wrote:
Stairs dude. Stairs.
Yep because elevators get stuck all the time, right?
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On June 06 2011 22:15 ChronoCat wrote:Yep because elevators get stuck all the time, right?
Infinity more often than stairs do.
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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...
They DO sacrifice a game after every x minutes. I attended mlg also and had an opponent not show up. After a while th ref's told me that I won game 1 by default. BTW this was also in loser round 1
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Man that elevator would have given me a panic attack, I wouldn't been able to play anyway! haha good job keeping cool though.
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Despite the situation being shitty for you, it isn't anyone's fault but your own. You should have been earlier. MLG just followed their procedure - you can't expect them to hold up a 256 player tournament because you were late, etc ~~
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Since its US.
Get a lawyer.
Sue the hotel for the lost of possible profit due to their faulty maintenance on the elevator.
Get rich fast....
Ok jokes aside. I fell sorry for you. That must have sucked. Good think you weren't claustrophobic
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The point is anytime you take an elevator you leave it up to chance.
Lots of people take stairs not just for health benefits.
There's always some risk involved with outside factors.
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While this sucks, and getting stuck in an elevator is definitely something you wouldn't expect, leaving with so little time before your match starts is probably poor planning.
You also have to look at it from MLG's perspective. 250 players in the open bracket. They have to get each round started only after every player in the previous round is finished. Then they have to publish matchups, get people seated, checked-in, etc... They don't have time to provide exceptions to their rules. The open brackets were running late as it was (as you stated in your first paragraph).
In my eyes, MLG didn't exactly as they should have.
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On June 07 2011 01:50 StarStruck wrote:
The point is anytime you take an elevator you leave it up to chance.
Lots of people take stairs not just for health benefits.
There's always some risk involved with outside factors.
What a stressful life you must live
O_O
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Show nested quote +On June 07 2011 00:41 Xeris wrote:
Despite the situation being shitty for you, it isn't anyone's fault but your own. You should have been earlier. MLG just followed their procedure - you can't expect them to hold up a 256 player tournament because you were late, etc ~~ Yeah OP, you should learn how to repair elevators that are stuck while being stuck in them. Jeez.
This is the typical response made by a 15 year old. Learn to think critically. Xeris is absolutely right.
- 256 players
- OP stated that he was aware open bracket was running late as it was.
- OP admitting to not even leaving the hotel until 15 minutes before his match begun.
While the situation sucks, poor planning contributed to the situation. Period.
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Wow that sucks. It's a stupid rule, but its still a rule. I think MLG should try to fix that for future events, but I think you're SOL for Columbus.
I heard about another guy was DQed because he used a PS2 keyboard with a PS2-USB adapter. So even though he had his keyboard plugged into a USB port he was still DQed for not having a USB keyboard =/
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On June 07 2011 02:11 kNightLite wrote:
Wow that sucks. It's a stupid rule, but its still a rule. I think MLG should try to fix that for future events, but I think you're SOL for Columbus.
I heard about another guy was DQed because he used a PS2 keyboard with a PS2-USB adapter. So even though he had his keyboard plugged into a USB port he was still DQed for not having a USB keyboard =/
haha that's just silly now
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Well... ouch. That's some damn rotten luck mate. I can't say I fault either you or MLG in this situation, it's just an unfortunate circumstance. But I guess you learned a life lesson out of it: never leave ANYTHING to chance.
But odds are I'll still be riding elevators just as much as I always have even after hearing your story. :3
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Don't understand why they simply wouldn't let him play 1 game down, like he offered.
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That is unfortunate. If I were you, I would ask MLG for a free entry into the next tournament. if you explain your situation I am sure they will give you something.
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Hotel should take responsibility IMHO, make them pay for next MLG?
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AW dude this really sucks I feel for you, some of these comments suck and I think your offer to play 1 game down is reasonable, sucks
EDIT: I dont feel so bad if you play terran! (just kidding)
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That sucks, OP. I'm really surprised they didn't offer some leeway because you were able to contact them ~15min beforehand instead of just showing up late going 'I was stuck in an elevator, lol~'.
The tournament they run is huge in scale, though, so I can't really fault them for enforcing their policies. Perhaps talk to a referee directly instead of just telling your friends to be your envoys - being a passionate arguer, I'd make sure that guy said 'it'll be no problem' before I hung up. :D
@ Everyone discussing planning, relax. The guy had bad luck, that's the end of it - no need to take a shot and let him know that given this particular set of variables, if he had left 30/45min earlier it would've been fine. He knows that.
It's amazing that hotel staff were able to get the elevator to recover instead of the Fire Department having to come in and perform rescue by the books which would've taken hours, not 30 minutes - what's the message then? Find out what station you're playing at the night beforehand and sleep in the chair? ?_____? So silly.
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That does stink. You know, a friend of mine who was 1 series away from playing on Sunday had his keyboard and headset taken away because they were "illegal" I myself wound up using 4 different keyboards in my 5 matches because the keyboard I used for 2 rounds had the potential to crash other computers in the area, supposedly. Other than that though, I had a good time.
Edited: By the by, I show up at 5:10 PM, and spend the next 20 minutes in 2 different lines, going back and forth between the 2 because they somehow didn't have my name on the list, and then they just slapped a competitors wrist band on me and I got to play ;D
I was on the bracket and everything, they just.. didn't have my name on the competitor list for whatever reason, so I almost missed my first round in the open bracket because of that.
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On June 07 2011 01:50 StarStruck wrote:
The point is anytime you take an elevator you leave it up to chance.
Lots of people take stairs not just for health benefits.
There's always some risk involved with outside factors.
Nice try trying to sound like a smart person when you just sound like a herp derp'er instead. I will bet you that the odds of you accidentally falling in a staircase is higher than a elevator malfunctioning.
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On June 07 2011 08:30 Mobius_1 wrote:
Hotel should take responsibility IMHO, make them pay for next MLG?
Hotel won't take responsibility now. I've worked in hotels for 6 years and can tell you if he had gone right back to them after the DQ and complained he could have gotten free night, free food, free something assuming he wasn't in a completely shit hotel. A good hotel would take responsibility on the spot if for nothing else than to shut you up. BUT, once you check out, your bargaining power in a case like this goes right out the door as they lose all ability to fact check your story or give you most forms of compensation.
Although, if it was a big company property such as a Marriott or Hilton and you go to their complaint center (usually different than the hotel as MArriott and Hilton franchise out most management contracts) the franchiser will strong arm the property into doing something for you.
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EPT
