EPTOpen bracket winners round 1 takes 4 hours alone to complete. There are over 200+ players trying to play matches on 35 or 40 stations. Open round 1 is like 4 rounds, if you play in the first wave of round 1 your usually told to come back in 3 or 4 hours, most of the time players will go eat, rest in hotel room, go elsewhere to clear mind or escape noise of the main playing area. Now after a 4 hour break sometimes you might be slightly late for a match or something happens, especially with such a fan friendly player like white-ra. He could have given himself 15 minutes but as he's walking in 5 fans ask for autographs, you know white-ra, there's no way in hell he'd deny autographs. ever. There have been other issues where somebody gets stuck in an elevator which makes them 10 minutes late for a match, gg no re...
In Columbus Catz and Pokebunny were actually notified to show at the wrong time by (someone, mlg ref or friend?) Pokebunny shows up what he thought was going to be early for his match and Agh has already been awarded the win because he was told his match was at noon local time when it was actually 11am. Catz was slated to play JulyZerg but shows up 20 minutes late because there was a communication issue when his match start time was. These are just the notable names that have had issues. There are plenty of unknown players who get screwed too. It's especially bad sometimes early on Saturday in the losers bracket if a local player gets stuck in traffic even for 10 minutes that means elimination from the event. Losers round 1 is scheduled to start in a couple hours from now, how many people get stuck in an elevator or show up 1 minute late for their match this morning? O_o
As major top tier players keep getting disqualified out of MLG events for things like this I wonder to myself, should MLG rethink their disqualifying procedures? White-ra explains his situation in this vid + Show Spoiler +
Now looking at it from MLG's point of view, it's imperative to stay on schedule, when you have hundreds of matches to play in a 3 day event, you cannot get delayed too far behind schedule. Day 1 open bracket action always stretches into 2am local time as it is when things proceed on schedule. I think MLG should consider White-Ra's recommendation and also consider how dreamhack and WCG operate with players showing late. After 15 minutes treat it like 1 game was played and award the player waiting with a 1 game forfeit win, after another 15 minutes it's a 2-0 forfeit. 10 minutes for the entire match seems a little absurd to me. Each round is given a 1 hour slot to play so if a player does not show and is a full 30 minutes late they will be marked with a 2-0 loss and the match is still done long before the rest of the round and even longer before avilos match is avilo if playing in the event. (rofl) Sure this means the player waiting has to sit around for 30 minutes but hey browsing TL for 15 minutes while getting a win at an MLG event not too bad right?
Sure if you don't show up for a match you ought to be disqualified but I really think MLG should rethink their disqualifying procedures, also EVERY MLG ref should know the schedule inside and out and any schedule changes should be CLEARLY communicated to all. When Catz and Pokebunny left the convention center in Columbus asking what time to show up for the match tomorrow and the ref(or a friend of ref?) tells them an incorrect time, this is just a problem of miscommunication. Clearly its hard keeping everyone on the same page but I feel its quite important to prevent things like this because these players WANT to play their games they fly in from all parts of the world, they have fans who are following their progress in the bracket...that want to see games played! DQ's like this is a lose-lose for everyone (except maybe the guy who whitera was supposed to play... lul) Events like this are huge and insanely difficult to run even with an army of staff members, but I think MLG should review their DQ policies to help make future MLG event's successful for all. I don't think anyone on MLG staff wanted to see something like this happen but rules are rules every competitor should be treated equally.
Edit: also an interesting quote from thorzain about playing in the open bracket:
+ Show Spoiler +
"Well on the first day we played until 3 AM and had to be at the venue again at 9-10 the next day, so we could only sleep for around 5 hours.
Their schedule wasn't followed at all. It could say that you would play in 5 minutes when you in fact would play in 55 minutes. It could also say that you had to play in 1 hour but you could have to play in 5 minutes. That lead to the constant fear of leaving the venue because even if it said that it was an hour until the next match i risked being DQd every time i left.
Also we werent very well respected by the admins. For example when i was gonna play vs qxc in the open bracket I had just finished another bo3 and was called to go play vs him. I went to the station and just said that I had to go to the bathroom and get something to drink because I was dehydrated (There was only dr.pepper in the venue and since it was unsafe to leave that's all i drank that day), but they told me I wasn't allowed to and had to play immediately, even though the game wasn't showed anywhere. There were no time to warm up before any of the games, we only had time to do our settings and then jump right in the game, even at those times we were ahead of schedule.
The only break we had was on the first day, friday, for around 1 hour. There were no breaks on Saturday or Sunday so I couldn't even eat. All i had on Sunday was french fries which i bought right after one of my games at the food court just outside the hall, and even then I was told that I was late when i returned.
At the last day, Sunday, i bought a lot of water and had in my backpack so that made it a lot easier, and made me actually able to play good on that day.
Some guys that have been at other MLGs told me that it was the worst MLG so far, organization-wise.
The seeded players had it better, they had computers to play on, places to sit and water and food inside the venue. Of course it's understandable that they can't do that for everyone in the open bracket, so I'm not complaining about that.
That's why I probably won't go to MLG Anaheim unless I'm seeded."
Their schedule wasn't followed at all. It could say that you would play in 5 minutes when you in fact would play in 55 minutes. It could also say that you had to play in 1 hour but you could have to play in 5 minutes. That lead to the constant fear of leaving the venue because even if it said that it was an hour until the next match i risked being DQd every time i left.
Also we werent very well respected by the admins. For example when i was gonna play vs qxc in the open bracket I had just finished another bo3 and was called to go play vs him. I went to the station and just said that I had to go to the bathroom and get something to drink because I was dehydrated (There was only dr.pepper in the venue and since it was unsafe to leave that's all i drank that day), but they told me I wasn't allowed to and had to play immediately, even though the game wasn't showed anywhere. There were no time to warm up before any of the games, we only had time to do our settings and then jump right in the game, even at those times we were ahead of schedule.
The only break we had was on the first day, friday, for around 1 hour. There were no breaks on Saturday or Sunday so I couldn't even eat. All i had on Sunday was french fries which i bought right after one of my games at the food court just outside the hall, and even then I was told that I was late when i returned.
At the last day, Sunday, i bought a lot of water and had in my backpack so that made it a lot easier, and made me actually able to play good on that day.
Some guys that have been at other MLGs told me that it was the worst MLG so far, organization-wise.
The seeded players had it better, they had computers to play on, places to sit and water and food inside the venue. Of course it's understandable that they can't do that for everyone in the open bracket, so I'm not complaining about that.
That's why I probably won't go to MLG Anaheim unless I'm seeded."
The schedule times are always changing yet if you're ever 10 minutes late you're done. Such a small window given for players. T_T
