On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
On January 30 2012 12:59 Canucklehead wrote: I think stephano got off lucky here. The correct decision should be to DQ him entirely from the tournament and give him no ranking and therefore no prize money in such a situation. What he did was unforgivable and a slap in the face at the tourney that invited him.
Was about to post the same thing. He should not be moved to 4th, that is far too nice. He should be DQ'd and fined even. That was horribly disrespectful. I don't see myself supporting Stephano at all in the future.
On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
Do you really need it in writing? Don't go all legal over this.
Stephano did not earn 2nd. He didnt lose to Kas, he quit. He didnt earn ANYTHING tbqh. It wouldnt have been fair to illusion to lose to a player who has no interest in competing for 1st place. The organizers made the absolute best possible choice by allowing catz and illusion to play for a chance in the finals.
On January 30 2012 12:46 shaberu wrote: Obviously both sides are lacking in professionalism. Sure, Stephano could have played; he certainly couldn't have cheesed out of the series, because he'd then face the same reprisal Naniwa faced. Either that, or he could forfeit. It's really not his fault that the tournament hosts hadn't provided in advance for this sort of situation. Either way, he forfeits, he takes the community damage and damage to his reputation in terms of future events inviting him. Even if Stephano doesn't care about the fans, he still placed 2nd in the tournament.
Unfortunately, ONOG showed a serious lack in judgment (on top of a lack of professionalism). Stephano legitimately placed 2nd in their tournament, yet they refused to payout to Stephano? Unless they have a signed contract claiming that Stephano will play all games out in full, what are they even thinking? Even for a snap judgment, it makes absolutely no sense. You could ask the other players if they wanted to play out some matches for the viewers, etc., but how could you be as completely unprofessional as to take a player's rightfully earned winnings, especially after the player had logged off and you had (which is your fault for lack of foresight, as if Stephano wouldn't have given you his phone number had you asked) no way of contacting him?
Disappointing on both sides, but for people running the tournaments, this is absolutely shady and works into the same sort of absurdity as not paying out to winners. Absolutely disgusting. It wouldn't even logically make sense to spite him by forcing him into 4th place; if your logic is that the winner of 3rd/4th plays for 2nd, then shouldn't Stephano logically get at least 3rd place, considering he beat at least one of the 3rd/4th place players? If he forfeited and you had some sort of terms to offer him no money for whatever reason, fine. But what sort of sense does your decision make?
I don't understand how you couldn't possibly have had some sort of alternative -- even the largest tournaments have had severe outages. What if Stephano or Kas' internet had gone out for the remainder of the night? No alternatives planned? No contact information for the players to speak to them through a more reliable medium? Unprofessional. Before you start complaining about the professionalism of the players, we also need to uphold the same standards on the "organizations" involved as well.
Also, this also brings into question the professionalism of casters. Some of them are terrible and should be upheld to the same standard we expect of others in the community, eg: Tumba.
I agree with many of the things you have said. I personally think all tournaments should have a clause that says if you forfeit you get DQ'ed. In this particular case it was a really tough decision for the tournament, put yourself in their shoes. Their whole tournament just got destroyed(not by an act of luck like power outage, but by a player you're paying) with I'm sure future tournaments depending on the success of this one (our last tournament got X viewers, etc). As far as the casters go, yes 100% casters are far too unprofessional
TLDR: its a sad situation
It's the tournament organizer's fault for not having something planned in case of a disruption. Considering how often tournaments (even the big ones) have experienced random problems, it just makes sense. You can't really complain about money-related anger/how hard you worked to organize this/etc. if you had no acceptable backup plan in case something were to have gone wrong.
Unless Stephano agreed to have his prize forfeit upon forfeiting, or if it was clearly stated in some sort of rule, this was highly unprofessional of ONOG and an absolutely disgusting way of treating players. I would be very wary of dealing with an organization like this in the future, just as organizations should be wary of dealing with Stephano (or any number of unprofessional SC2 players).
Also, ONOG isn't a kid who made a bad decision after playing for a period of time, and, having already secured a second place finished, decided to bow out rather than play substandard games (Stephano has been criticized for this before, remember). Everyone knows Stephano is only in things for the money, etc. and his reputation precedes him. ONOG should have taken this into account as well. ONOG as an organization made a terrible decision; last minute or not, unless they had some sort of specified contractual clause, they really should have no reason for stripping valid winnings from Stephano, unless, of course, he was being paid to attend and play all of his games (which I'm sure he wasn't).
On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
Do you really need it in writing? Don't go all legal over this.
You want to fine a player for getting to the final of a tournament then going to sleep?
I wish people in the thread realised that when told he could play with Kas now and have the games cast from replays he could have agreed to that, six pooled and failed four times, submitted the replays in ten minutes, gone to bed and come second in the final to Kas, taken an extra $600 and given all of you an awful final.
On January 30 2012 12:59 Canucklehead wrote: I think stephano got off lucky here. The correct decision should be to DQ him entirely from the tournament and give him no ranking and therefore no prize money in such a situation. What he did was unforgivable and a slap in the face at the tourney that invited him.
Because asking him to play his finals series at 4am is reasonnable right ?
Have a better schedule for the tournament and that would never happen. When players are too tired to play, they're "unforgivable", but it's fine for an organization to save time and money by having such terrible schedule...
On January 30 2012 12:59 Canucklehead wrote: I think stephano got off lucky here. The correct decision should be to DQ him entirely from the tournament and give him no ranking and therefore no prize money in such a situation. What he did was unforgivable and a slap in the face at the tourney that invited him.
Was about to post the same thing. He should not be moved to 4th, that is far too nice. He should be DQ'd and fined even. That was horribly disrespectful. I don't see myself supporting Stephano at all in the future.
Who the fuck is gonna fine him? The sc2 police? Who's gonna enforce it? How much will it be? Stephano will throw your fine money at you and laugh while he's on his way to the bank from the other tourney he won this weekend
Gimmie a break here people, stephano doesn't give a fuck. People can bitch all they want nothing is gonna happen. Stephano is a great player, we all love to watch him play but If people are gonna whine and cry about this type of shit he's just gonna say fuck it and quit earlier then he intended to.
Jesus christ, give it a rest already. this community is a bunch of little bitches
On January 30 2012 12:46 shaberu wrote: Obviously both sides are lacking in professionalism. Sure, Stephano could have played; he certainly couldn't have cheesed out of the series, because he'd then face the same reprisal Naniwa faced. Either that, or he could forfeit. It's really not his fault that the tournament hosts hadn't provided in advance for this sort of situation. Either way, he forfeits, he takes the community damage and damage to his reputation in terms of future events inviting him. Even if Stephano doesn't care about the fans, he still placed 2nd in the tournament.
Unfortunately, ONOG showed a serious lack in judgment (on top of a lack of professionalism). Stephano legitimately placed 2nd in their tournament, yet they refused to payout to Stephano? Unless they have a signed contract claiming that Stephano will play all games out in full, what are they even thinking? Even for a snap judgment, it makes absolutely no sense. You could ask the other players if they wanted to play out some matches for the viewers, etc., but how could you be as completely unprofessional as to take a player's rightfully earned winnings, especially after the player had logged off and you had (which is your fault for lack of foresight, as if Stephano wouldn't have given you his phone number had you asked) no way of contacting him?
Disappointing on both sides, but for people running the tournaments, this is absolutely shady and works into the same sort of absurdity as not paying out to winners. Absolutely disgusting. It wouldn't even logically make sense to spite him by forcing him into 4th place; if your logic is that the winner of 3rd/4th plays for 2nd, then shouldn't Stephano logically get at least 3rd place, considering he beat at least one of the 3rd/4th place players? If he forfeited and you had some sort of terms to offer him no money for whatever reason, fine. But what sort of sense does your decision make?
I don't understand how you couldn't possibly have had some sort of alternative -- even the largest tournaments have had severe outages. What if Stephano or Kas' internet had gone out for the remainder of the night? No alternatives planned? No contact information for the players to speak to them through a more reliable medium? Unprofessional. Before you start complaining about the professionalism of the players, we also need to uphold the same standards on the "organizations" involved as well.
Also, this also brings into question the professionalism of casters. Some of them are terrible and should be upheld to the same standard we expect of others in the community, eg: Tumba.
I agree with many of the things you have said. I personally think all tournaments should have a clause that says if you forfeit you get DQ'ed. In this particular case it was a really tough decision for the tournament, put yourself in their shoes. Their whole tournament just got destroyed(not by an act of luck like power outage, but by a player you're paying) with I'm sure future tournaments depending on the success of this one (our last tournament got X viewers, etc). As far as the casters go, yes 100% casters are far too unprofessional
TLDR: its a sad situation
It's the tournament organizer's fault for not having something planned in case of a disruption. Considering how often tournaments (even the big ones) have experienced random problems, it just makes sense. You can't really complain about money-related anger/how hard you worked to organize this/etc. if you had no acceptable backup plan in case something were to have gone wrong.
Unless Stephano agreed to have his prize forfeit upon forfeiting, or if it was clearly stated in some sort of rule, this was highly unprofessional of ONOG and an absolutely disgusting way of treating players. I would be very wary of dealing with an organization like this in the future, just as organizations should be wary of dealing with Stephano (or any number of unprofessional SC2 players).
Also, ONOG isn't a kid who made a bad decision after playing for a period of time, and, having already secured a second place finished, decided to bow out rather than play substandard games (Stephano has been criticized for this before, remember). Everyone knows Stephano is only in things for the money, etc. and his reputation precedes him. ONOG should have taken this into account as well. ONOG as an organization made a terrible decision; last minute or not, unless they had some sort of specified contractual clause, they really should have no reason for stripping valid winnings from Stephano, unless, of course, he was being paid to attend and play all of his games (which I'm sure he wasn't).
On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
Do you really need it in writing? Don't go all legal over this.
You want to fine a player for getting to the final of a tournament then going to sleep?
I wish people in the thread realised that when told he could play with Kas now and have the games cast from replays he could have agreed to that, six pooled and failed four times, submitted the replays in ten minutes, gone to bed and come second in the final to Kas, taken an extra $600 and given all of you an awful final.
Yes. A player who gets to the final and doesn't want to play should be fined..... why doesn't that make any sense? You didn't even defend why you disagree.
On January 30 2012 12:59 Canucklehead wrote: I think stephano got off lucky here. The correct decision should be to DQ him entirely from the tournament and give him no ranking and therefore no prize money in such a situation. What he did was unforgivable and a slap in the face at the tourney that invited him.
Because asking him to play his finals series at 4am is reasonnable right ?
Have a better schedule for the tournament and that would never happen. When players are too tired to play, they're "unforgivable", but it's fine for an organization to save time and money by having such terrible schedule...
The bigger question is how the tournament organizers felt that it was unacceptable for Stephano to forfeit, yet it was perfectly acceptable to remove his earned prize money (he did play all of the games required up until 2nd place, right), and demote him to earn the prize of a player he had already beaten. It's hypocritical to act in this way, and in this case it isn't a kid, but an organization hosting a tournament.
On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
Do you really need it in writing? Don't go all legal over this.
You want to fine a player for getting to the final of a tournament then going to sleep?
I wish people in the thread realised that when told he could play with Kas now and have the games cast from replays he could have agreed to that, six pooled and failed four times, submitted the replays in ten minutes, gone to bed and come second in the final to Kas, taken an extra $600 and given all of you an awful final.
Yes. A player who gets to the final and doesn't want to play should be fined..... why doesn't that make any sense? You didn't even defend why you disagree.
Did he sign a contract that would allow him to be fined? Did ONOG sign a contract saying they could go back on their advertised prize pool for whatever reason?
On January 30 2012 12:43 mvtaylor wrote: Hahaha Kas making Illusion look silly, talk about embarrased, so erm... yeah I've got eight bases, standard.
MVP also made MKP look bad. Both are great players, it's just that Kas is better.
Erm, what? illusion finished second in a craft cup once, that's it, this is his best ever finish and even then it's only as Stephano dropped out.
look at his IPL team arena results and his recent run through the sao paolo qualifier
Yeah I'll look far more closely at his performance at IEM Sao Paulo rather than a qualifier. To state that illusion, who has one TLPD honour to his name is close to Kas, who has 81 is... a bit off. You can hype and big up players a lot, goswser beat Polt at MLG and Gatored came fourth at IEM New York and beat Ganzi at Providence, what have they done since?
goswer did have one good series against Polt and has dropped off. But Gatored is a legitimately good player, as he has beaten top Koreans (DRG, Top, Ganzi) multiple times. Illusion is also a good player who has also beaten top players multiple times. If anything, guys like Gatored and Illusion are not overrated, but underrated.
Keep an eye on Illusion in 2012. He has a huge amount of potential.
On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
Do you really need it in writing? Don't go all legal over this.
You want to fine a player for getting to the final of a tournament then going to sleep?
I wish people in the thread realised that when told he could play with Kas now and have the games cast from replays he could have agreed to that, six pooled and failed four times, submitted the replays in ten minutes, gone to bed and come second in the final to Kas, taken an extra $600 and given all of you an awful final.
Yes. A player who gets to the final and doesn't want to play should be fined..... why doesn't that make any sense? You didn't even defend why you disagree.
You want some reasons as to why he shouldn't have been fined?
As there were no rules in place from ONOG, they made this up on the spot, it's not like they signed a contract with Stephano and instead relinquished on their pre-announced prize pool. The fact they they expected Stephano to originally stay up and finish playing at 5AM his time even though he played his first game in a tournament 14 hours ago in the same day and was awake before then. As Stephano could have done far worse than just logged off, he could have also provided a bo7 final lasting about ten minutes that would under the rules ONOG were making up on the spot "legit". As Stephano met all the conditions needed to reach the final and beat all players in front of him and had this award taken away.
On January 30 2012 12:59 Canucklehead wrote: I think stephano got off lucky here. The correct decision should be to DQ him entirely from the tournament and give him no ranking and therefore no prize money in such a situation. What he did was unforgivable and a slap in the face at the tourney that invited him.
Because asking him to play his finals series at 4am is reasonnable right ?
Have a better schedule for the tournament and that would never happen. When players are too tired to play, they're "unforgivable", but it's fine for an organization to save time and money by having such terrible schedule...
Sure because stephano knew the time of the tourney in advance. Polt played Stephano in the finals of some $100 tourney a few days ago 7am KR time, which meant he was playing in that tourney all through the night. Polt lost, but he didn't quit cause he was "tired" which I'm sure he was.
You know why Polt didn't forfeit? It's because he's 10x more professional than stephano will ever be.
I'm not surprised you would defend stephano though because you're both from France, and your former team kicked you off it for your own lack of motivation and professionalism.
I like Stephano as a player, but some of you have to get real: There's no defending leaving a tournament hanging in the finals of something they spent months planning because you're tired, especially after you just made them wait an hour because you were playing in another tournament. That's just a plain dick move to everyone involved. It's like you went to class all semester long and then when it came time for the final exams you told your professor "Nah, too tired, can we take them tomorrow?" and expected a good grade still.
As for ONOG's solution to the issue, I can dig it, albeit the finals were definitely not up to what a Stephano-Kas finals would have delivered, sadly. They did the best they could with what they had.
On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
Do you really need it in writing? Don't go all legal over this.
I have to, since people are mixing up formal and informal misbehavior. Of course I was dissappointed of not having a Stephano vs Kas finals. Of course it has damaged the event. Of course it adds into the image of Stephano being a diva. But at the end of the day it's about a player waiving a game for whatever reason.
But tournament rules are a way more serious matter. How should players know when it's appropriate to forfeit or not? Up to which stage of a tournament? Finals, Semi's, round of 8,16,32,64,128? How should it be decided to burn a player or not?
Will you act as judge for all running events? Or should it be clarified before a player agrees to the terms of the tournament? Is forfeiting even a fundamental right they should have? Which event format should allow forfeiting and which shouldn't?
On January 30 2012 12:59 Canucklehead wrote: I think stephano got off lucky here. The correct decision should be to DQ him entirely from the tournament and give him no ranking and therefore no prize money in such a situation. What he did was unforgivable and a slap in the face at the tourney that invited him.
Because asking him to play his finals series at 4am is reasonnable right ?
Have a better schedule for the tournament and that would never happen. When players are too tired to play, they're "unforgivable", but it's fine for an organization to save time and money by having such terrible schedule...
Well, they did ask Kas to play his finals series at 5am, and had the illusion/catz series gone on longer, it very easily could have been even later.
On January 30 2012 12:24 HappyChris wrote: The funny thing is LiquidTyler also forfeits but he didnt say any reason whatsoever but nop the TL posters got np at all with it. However when Stephano does it hole TL goes abeshit..
I seen this for so long time now it got nothing todo with what stephano did. It got everything todo that he beats players so horrible that there fans gets angry and he make so much money and people just cant accept it.
jealousy thats the word..
you see no difference between forfeiting in the finals after playing the tourney vs forfeiting before the tourney starts?
If speaking of professionalism yourself, no there should be no difference. You can argue whether the ability to forfeit should be a principal player's right or they'd be forced to play for your pleasure with a gun held onto their head.
Yes, with respect to professionalism there is a difference... If in your business you blow off a minor meeting with a boss its different than blowing off the quarterly meeting with the board.
Except Stephano was under no obligation to play. He surely dissatisfied organizer and fan expectations but surely didn't misconducted in any way regarding standard tournament regulations.
Do you really need it in writing? Don't go all legal over this.
I don't think anyone is saying Stephano should go to jail for this. I think disinviting him from -- or not inviting to -- a few tournaments so that he can reflect on his actions would probably be enough
On January 30 2012 12:46 shaberu wrote: Obviously both sides are lacking in professionalism. Sure, Stephano could have played; he certainly couldn't have cheesed out of the series, because he'd then face the same reprisal Naniwa faced. Either that, or he could forfeit. It's really not his fault that the tournament hosts hadn't provided in advance for this sort of situation. Either way, he forfeits, he takes the community damage and damage to his reputation in terms of future events inviting him. Even if Stephano doesn't care about the fans, he still placed 2nd in the tournament.
Unfortunately, ONOG showed a serious lack in judgment (on top of a lack of professionalism). Stephano legitimately placed 2nd in their tournament, yet they refused to payout to Stephano? Unless they have a signed contract claiming that Stephano will play all games out in full, what are they even thinking? Even for a snap judgment, it makes absolutely no sense. You could ask the other players if they wanted to play out some matches for the viewers, etc., but how could you be as completely unprofessional as to take a player's rightfully earned winnings, especially after the player had logged off and you had (which is your fault for lack of foresight, as if Stephano wouldn't have given you his phone number had you asked) no way of contacting him?
Disappointing on both sides, but for people running the tournaments, this is absolutely shady and works into the same sort of absurdity as not paying out to winners. Absolutely disgusting. It wouldn't even logically make sense to spite him by forcing him into 4th place; if your logic is that the winner of 3rd/4th plays for 2nd, then shouldn't Stephano logically get at least 3rd place, considering he beat at least one of the 3rd/4th place players? If he forfeited and you had some sort of terms to offer him no money for whatever reason, fine. But what sort of sense does your decision make?
I don't understand how you couldn't possibly have had some sort of alternative -- even the largest tournaments have had severe outages. What if Stephano or Kas' internet had gone out for the remainder of the night? No alternatives planned? No contact information for the players to speak to them through a more reliable medium? Unprofessional. Before you start complaining about the professionalism of the players, we also need to uphold the same standards on the "organizations" involved as well.
Also, this also brings into question the professionalism of casters. Some of them are terrible and should be upheld to the same standard we expect of others in the community, eg: Tumba.
I agree with many of the things you have said. I personally think all tournaments should have a clause that says if you forfeit you get DQ'ed. In this particular case it was a really tough decision for the tournament, put yourself in their shoes. Their whole tournament just got destroyed(not by an act of luck like power outage, but by a player you're paying) with I'm sure future tournaments depending on the success of this one (our last tournament got X viewers, etc). As far as the casters go, yes 100% casters are far too unprofessional
TLDR: its a sad situation
It's the tournament organizer's fault for not having something planned in case of a disruption. Considering how often tournaments (even the big ones) have experienced random problems, it just makes sense. You can't really complain about money-related anger/how hard you worked to organize this/etc. if you had no acceptable backup plan in case something were to have gone wrong.
Unless Stephano agreed to have his prize forfeit upon forfeiting, or if it was clearly stated in some sort of rule, this was highly unprofessional of ONOG and an absolutely disgusting way of treating players. I would be very wary of dealing with an organization like this in the future, just as organizations should be wary of dealing with Stephano (or any number of unprofessional SC2 players).
Also, ONOG isn't a kid who made a bad decision after playing for a period of time, and, having already secured a second place finished, decided to bow out rather than play substandard games (Stephano has been criticized for this before, remember). Everyone knows Stephano is only in things for the money, etc. and his reputation precedes him. ONOG should have taken this into account as well. ONOG as an organization made a terrible decision; last minute or not, unless they had some sort of specified contractual clause, they really should have no reason for stripping valid winnings from Stephano, unless, of course, he was being paid to attend and play all of his games (which I'm sure he wasn't).
In a way, they did him a favor, they could just as easy disqualified him, and he would get nothing, atleast he gets 150$ now. hit them where it hurts.
EPT
