Ruling on Firecake:

Firecake was contacted with almost a full 24 hours to provide a response, but has chosen not to (relevance of this statement in a moment to do with punishment). For those who don't know, while it wasn't publicized, after the qualifier incident for this tournament, he was given a formal warning / strike against him for his previous actions regarding sortof. This in mind, Firecake during the Ro16 chose to throw games, provide public misinformation via twitter, disrespect the fans, the broadcasters, and most importantly, the sponsors of this event. It is this last point that concerns us the most, as it's become more difficult over time to secure sponsorship for Starcraft 2 in general, and to have the amazing, generous folks at Ting treated this way by a player scares us of future involvement with him. We do not want to risk accusations of match fixing, letting the fans down, or deal with general misinformation from this player in the future. Thus, firecake has officially been banned from all BaseTradeTV related events for the next 9 months. He was offered the opportunity to have this sentence significantly reduced in exchange for an apology & explanation of his actions, but chose to argue instead.

+ Show Spoiler +

Please understand that this was discussed internally for several hours, and even during the broadcast you can see both Rifkin & Zombiegrub try to brush off and avoid discussion of the incident to keep it from being a heated decision such as the one made in the qualifiers (we're learning!)

BasetradeTV

Canada1307 Posts

March 11 2016 05:35 GMT

#273

In happier news some cool Ro8 Info:

There's at least 1 North American player (MaSa)
There's at least 1 Protoss player (MaNa)
Prior to the last group being played, there is currently an equal Foreigner to Korean ratio 3:3
If we classify Polt as North American, there's a chance we have a 4:4 ratio for the Ro8

Regarding times for the Ro8/Semi-Finals & Finals:
We've had to postpone posting times because we didn't want to commit to something that would work against the players schedule's, but it's safe to assume at this point we will most likely begin the Ro8 at Saturday, Mar 12 3:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00), and have Masa's (and possibly Polt's) matches play later in the morning. Since these are not typically NA friendly hours for play, we plan to run rebroadcasts in the afternoon for those that miss the games!

blade55555

United States17423 Posts

March 11 2016 05:53 GMT

#274

On March 11 2016 14:30 BasetradeTV wrote:
Ruling on Firecake:

Firecake was contacted with almost a full 24 hours to provide a response, but has chosen not to (relevance of this statement in a moment to do with punishment). For those who don't know, while it wasn't publicized, after the qualifier incident for this tournament, he was given a formal warning / strike against him for his previous actions regarding sortof. This in mind, Firecake during the Ro16 chose to throw games, provide public misinformation via twitter, disrespect the fans, the broadcasters, and most importantly, the sponsors of this event. It is this last point that concerns us the most, as it's become more difficult over time to secure sponsorship for Starcraft 2 in general, and to have the amazing, generous folks at Ting treated this way by a player scares us of future involvement with him. We do not want to risk accusations of match fixing, letting the fans down, or deal with general misinformation from this player in the future. Thus, firecake has officially been banned from all BaseTradeTV related events for the next 9 months. He was offered the opportunity to have this sentence significantly reduced in exchange for an apology & explanation of his actions, but chose to argue instead.

+ Show Spoiler +

Honestly I 100% agree with your ruling. Firecake was a moron, why would he play in your tournament if he didn't want to play on the NA server? If he used his brain he would know "Koreans and NA players... Oh I will have to play on NA or KR". If that was such a problem for him he shouldn't have signed up.

I can't imagine you getting flak for this justified decision. Looking forward to watching the rest of the tournament

Big J

Austria16289 Posts

March 11 2016 07:17 GMT

#275

Honestly, I couldn't care less about the Firecake incident. Such behaviour is outside of your control. The tournament so far has been going great and I have truely enjoyed it, keep it up TING and BasetradeTV!

JoeCool

Germany2520 Posts

March 11 2016 08:34 GMT

#276

Wow wow wow... Naniwa my boy, what happened?!

((

Quakie

Norway725 Posts

March 11 2016 09:02 GMT

#277

The games will be uploaded on youtube, right? Must see what happened with Nani.

Stormhoof

Serbia182 Posts

March 11 2016 09:21 GMT

#278

Naniwa plays protoss, why are you even asking yourself what happened.

NEEDZMOAR

Sweden1277 Posts

March 11 2016 09:36 GMT

#279

On March 11 2016 18:21 ZeRoX_TV wrote:
Naniwa plays protoss, why are you even asking yourself what happened.

you mean he played protoss in hots where it took no skill and now when it takes skill he cant handle it? :D

Stormhoof

Serbia182 Posts

March 11 2016 10:11 GMT

#280

On March 11 2016 18:36 NEEDZMOAR wrote:

Show nested quote +

you mean he played protoss in hots where it took no skill and now when it takes skill he cant handle it? :D

Im current patch it is obvious that Protoss players are in huge disadvantage compared to T and Z counterparts. Calling him skilless is pretty dumb :D But you must admit balance atm isnt greatest. Nani wouldnt struggle with Masa for sure.