EPT-GSL January Code S Ro8 took place on the evening of the 19th. Problems with soundproofing was revealed when one of the winners, Jonathan Walsh from Sweden, announced through his interview that he noticed something was up in the 4th set of the series after hearing the commentators cry out.
In 1 vs 1 matches, players enter a booth to play out their games. In this booth, music is played as a measure of soundproofing. Sure it differs from station to statin on how they do this whether it be seperate computers installed or just speakers with music being controlled by the control room but in the end, the general rule is that music must be played during any matches.
In the case of outdoor venues, it is inevitable that some of the noise gets in but when things get going, they tend to reduce the volume of the commentary to lessen it's impact on the players. In genres like FPS, where there are too many people to use booths, some organisers resort to turning off all sound except the background music or even handing out special radios to the spectators so that they can tune in to the broadcast without bothering the players. However, GOMTV studio seems to have not taken this precaution which resulted in a player being able to hear the commentary. This seems to have been compounded by the fact that a shocking strategy was revealed during the beginning moments of the game in which the commentary volume got even louder.
In other live venues, it is possible that players can notice the crowd's expression or movements and react to that but since GOMTV's booths does not face the crowd but are angled outwards we can assume the fans play no part in a player's decision making. There is also a special layer of film applied to the booth windows that blur the image from inside it.
However, it is difficult to escape the fact that GOMTV failed to protect the most important aspects of parity in competitive sports. Issue like these are very difficult to address since only the player knows what has transpired and therefore difficult to involve a referee or get a third party judgement. If Jonathan hadn't revealed this in his interview, this problem could've completely been overlooked and it is feasible that already some players have benefited from this.
GSL rules state that 'In the event where you can hear the outside noise clearly due to the booth sound being off, a player can ask for a pause or stoppage to the play for fear of it distracing them'. The communities and its people who already know about his are waiting to see what they will be doing to solve this issue. The spotlight is on GOMTV to see how they will navigate this big problem which surfaced even before the 1st season of 2011 GSL Sponsorship comes to an end.
Now here's the response from Chae Jung-Won (채정원) from GOMTV.
- We acknowledge the problems stated and are currently working on ways to increase the booth sound and also using earset + headsets that will completely cover the ear.
So far, we've only been using headsets due to some players complaining that using both in-ear/headsets was uncomfortable. Also there were some complaints about the booth music being too loud which is why we toned it down. It seems like Jonathan was able to hear us because the speakers carrying the commentary was right behind his booth. However, there was no official complaint from the players and it is quite far-fetched to say Jonathan defended the rush due to him hearing a little portion of the commentary (if he knew it was a 6 pool, he would've immediately walled the entrance off). There is no evidence that he benefited from this so there will no rematches. Thank you.
We are sorry this issue ever came up. The probationary period for GOMTV for this will be infinity. (T/N: LOL)
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