ESL's Shaun "Apollo" Clark posted the following statement on Reddit:
Okay this took a while to write, sorry for the wall of text but needed.
Firstly, I really apologize for being distant in recent times. Our workload at ESL has been incredibly high and there's been a thousand moving pieces spread across our team as we are try to adapt to a different world. Evidently we haven't been paying enough attention to the details which has led to some strange decisions in recent months. In this post for you, I will cover all important topics that you as a community deserve to have insight into. I will start with our approach around the ESL Pro Tour point allocation, moving into the TakeTV situation, followed by the Super Tournament decision and then our outlook moving forward.
ESL Point Allocation
Firstly, to understand our intent around point allocation, it's important for you to understand our philosophy. Upon launching the ESL Pro Tour we had a very exclusive approach to our point system, prioritizing tournaments with the fairest possible conditions for players with the most equal opportunities. Within the last couple of weeks I spoke to some trusted friends within the SC2 community to discuss how we can start to adapt our philosophy to be more inclusive of other tournaments, cross server play, less ideal conditions etc. Our priority was to keep the ESL Pro Tour the central point of competitive play and an important pillar within the community. With that said, that gives you insight to our approach & intent behind working with TaKe & others around point allocation that would have been more challenging originally.
TakeTV situation
Now with understanding our intent. TakeTV approached us 2 weeks ago for point allocation. Our mistake here was simply oversight, we didn't go into enough detail focusing too much on the intent, we concentrated on the outcome rather than the process. We agreed & communicated to TakeTV ahead of their qualifiers that their tournament would receive points and that the distribution of points would be figured out once we understood their exact format details - once that was done, we communicated their point allocation which then went public almost instantly. I personally didn't even go into detail on the ratio of invite/qualifiers as I was pushing my team to find a solution to make the outcome we wanted, work. We rushed a decision while under pressure elsewhere and I see the consequences now, however I understand our mistake. I'll talk more about how we will fix that, along with other items at the end.
Super Tournament decision
Now to the Super tournament situation earlier this year. This one has a few angles, so bare with me please. Firstly I'll talk on awarding and then removing points & then I'll go into the decision on whether the tournament should have had points or not. Firstly, before any information was made public, we were in a healthy discussion with both Blizzard & AfreecaTV on our thought process and our decision which was that we wouldn't award ST points. Unfortunately we made a mistake to publish an outdated rule book which had an allocation for the ST despite our decision to not allocate. Once our team realized the mistake, we simply uploaded the correct rule book without the allocation and communicated accordingly. This timing and execution was poorly handled and I apologize to all players for this. Now let's talk about why the Super Tournament wasn't allocated points in the first place. At the time of the decision we simply made a mistake, it should have awarded points and I've addressed this internally and moving forward we will ensure mistakes like this don't happen again. However with hindsight the decision is even simpler, the Super Tournament should not have awarded points because it was not communicated to players ahead of qualifiers beginning, this is a critical item for us that players are given notice and will be a requirement for the ESL Pro Tour moving forward.
Outlook moving forward
I think its very clear we need to set some internal & external guidelines on how we need to work together with much better transparency and communication on our decisions. We will be rolling out changes in the next 1-2 weeks to make sure these situations don't happen again. Another piece of information I wanted to leave with you, is that we are working on some adjustments to the ESL Pro Tour and will be releasing information on some revamps in the coming weeks.
Apollo out here still saving StarCraft, communication is key and it seems like the ESL team understands that and realizes they have been lacking a little bit in some areas and instantly address the issue. This clears up a lot that I was confused about and makes me happy being reminded how much passion and work is getting put into StarCraft right now.
So EPT points will only be awarded if that is announced before the qualifiers for a tournament, both retroactive (SAHSC and ST1) and going forward? Sounds perfectly fair because before the qualifiers is when players have to decide whether to try to qualify.
Great job ESL and Apollo! We know you’re working hard during these wild times and we appreciate you.
I don't quite get why Super Tournament isn't getting its points back, though, if ESL is admitting that it SHOULD have awarded points. If you can retroactively take them away, it seems simple to retroactively add them back after realizing the error.
I get that TECHNICALLY not announcing points before an event can affect participation, but PRACTICALLY speaking everyone who played in Super Tournament qualifiers was going to have played regardless of the info.
On April 10 2020 05:58 Waxangel wrote: I don't quite get why Super Tournament isn't getting its points back, though, if ESL is admitting that it SHOULD have awarded points. If you can retroactively take them away, it seems simple to retroactively add them back after realizing the error.
I get that TECHNICALLY not announcing points before an event can affect participation, but PRACTICALLY speaking everyone who played in Super Tournament qualifiers was going to have played regardless of the info.
They decided in advance there would be no points. Blizzard and Afreeca knew, the players should have known through Afreeca. Only we as fans and viewers couldn't have known (as usual) because it wasn't communicated to us, all we had was an incorrect rulebook. So the players weren't stripped of any points, they weren't meant to receive any in the first place. With that in mind I think it's fine.
On April 10 2020 05:58 Waxangel wrote: I don't quite get why Super Tournament isn't getting its points back, though, if ESL is admitting that it SHOULD have awarded points. If you can retroactively take them away, it seems simple to retroactively add them back after realizing the error.
I get that TECHNICALLY not announcing points before an event can affect participation, but PRACTICALLY speaking everyone who played in Super Tournament qualifiers was going to have played regardless of the info.
Apollo says why: It wasn't communicated to the players before the qualifiers. This is very simple principle. All players should know beforehand exactly what is at stake.
On April 10 2020 05:58 Waxangel wrote: I don't quite get why Super Tournament isn't getting its points back, though, if ESL is admitting that it SHOULD have awarded points. If you can retroactively take them away, it seems simple to retroactively add them back after realizing the error.
I get that TECHNICALLY not announcing points before an event can affect participation, but PRACTICALLY speaking everyone who played in Super Tournament qualifiers was going to have played regardless of the info.
They decided in advance there would be no points. Blizzard and Afreeca knew, the players should have known through Afreeca. Only we as fans and viewers couldn't have known (as usual) because it wasn't communicated to us, all we had was an incorrect rulebook. So the players weren't stripped of any points, they weren't meant to receive any in the first place. With that in mind I think it's fine.
Based on the Twitter chatter, some if not all of the players thought there were EPT points on the line, so there was a communication breakdown at the very least.
On April 10 2020 05:58 Waxangel wrote: I don't quite get why Super Tournament isn't getting its points back, though, if ESL is admitting that it SHOULD have awarded points. If you can retroactively take them away, it seems simple to retroactively add them back after realizing the error.
I get that TECHNICALLY not announcing points before an event can affect participation, but PRACTICALLY speaking everyone who played in Super Tournament qualifiers was going to have played regardless of the info.
Apollo says why: It wasn't communicated to the players before the qualifiers. This is very simple principle. All players should know beforehand exactly what is at stake.
hence my last line
I understand the technicality the points were removed on, but given the history of the ST always having points, and the other stakes of the super tournament (money, prestige, blah blah) the practical reality is that ESL points probably would have had zero impact on participation (i.e.: There's no player who didn't try to qualify for ST because there were no points announced at the time)
A lack of organization recruitment and team up in ESL is simply unfair to players. April 2020. The season has begun. But the mighty RULE-BOOK was not even updated? What a b*llshit story they have trying to sell us. Obviously a mistake has been made. ESL must give back all points to Super Tournament. What is the point of organization that can't even do a simple rule-book in the begging of year?
On April 10 2020 09:10 Morbidius wrote: How can a seasoned esport organization fuck this up so badly? The super tournament situation was extremely unprofessional.
It's unfair that Super Tournament players were not awarded ESL points just because they were not notified beforehand. ST is a Premier Tournament.
God-level Korean titans and foreign players in Korea will work hard and die for it winning the ST. The qualifiers alone are stacked and looks like hell.
They treated ST1 as garbage tournament as if it was just a Wood and Paper League that nobody cares about. Yes, we all know it's a mistake, but a despicable one that caused this injustice.
I don't think the right way of fixing the mistake is taking the points away from the players who probably read the rulebook and just practice afterwards, this kind of mistake shouldn't be done. And any change should be told to the public but not just change it and not notify anyone and waiting for people to check the rulebook again.
Simple principle: no points if it wasn't communicated before qualifiers. Consequently, the ST won't get points. If the players would have been notified, the ST would have gotten points.
Sad situation, but it is reality. I think the principle is good. Even if it is sad, it is the correct call.
On April 10 2020 10:00 greyhoundz wrote: It's unfair that Super Tournament players were not awarded ESL points just because they were not notified beforehand. ST is a Premier Tournament.
God-level Korean titans and foreign players in Korea will work hard and die for it winning the ST. The qualifiers alone are stacked and looks like hell.
They treated ST1 as garbage tournament as if it was just a Wood and Paper League that nobody cares about. Yes, we all know it's a mistake, but a despicable one that caused this injustice.
I think they secretly hate Korean SC.. seriously... At this point there shouldn't even be a region lock, still coming up with excuses to shit on Koreans..
There isnt ANY good reason why in 2020 the ST gets NO points.
I'm seeing now being in charge of SC2 breeds stupidity..
On April 10 2020 05:58 Waxangel wrote: I don't quite get why Super Tournament isn't getting its points back, though, if ESL is admitting that it SHOULD have awarded points. If you can retroactively take them away, it seems simple to retroactively add them back after realizing the error.
I get that TECHNICALLY not announcing points before an event can affect participation, but PRACTICALLY speaking everyone who played in Super Tournament qualifiers was going to have played regardless of the info.
The law is powerless to help you, not to punish you.
On April 10 2020 05:58 Waxangel wrote: I don't quite get why Super Tournament isn't getting its points back, though, if ESL is admitting that it SHOULD have awarded points. If you can retroactively take them away, it seems simple to retroactively add them back after realizing the error.
I get that TECHNICALLY not announcing points before an event can affect participation, but PRACTICALLY speaking everyone who played in Super Tournament qualifiers was going to have played regardless of the info.
Apollo says why: It wasn't communicated to the players before the qualifiers. This is very simple principle. All players should know beforehand exactly what is at stake.
hence my last line
I understand the technicality the points were removed on, but given the history of the ST always having points, and the other stakes of the super tournament (money, prestige, blah blah) the practical reality is that ESL points probably would have had zero impact on participation (i.e.: There's no player who didn't try to qualify for ST because there were no points announced at the time)
So you don't think ESL should have a consistent policy in place first for how they hand out points tournaments, but rather hand them out to tournaments based on criteria such as "always had points before", "zero impact on participation" or "all players got a chance to participate" in the meantime?
It seems obvious ESL didn't think through this one properly. Maybe they were busy planning the season at large and whatnot. Hopefully there will be a smart policy in place that allows all tournaments to apply for handing out points. The more the merrier! But yeah, preferably tournaments get to hand out points based on a transparent process, not because of being buddies or or other subjective arguments.
On April 10 2020 10:00 greyhoundz wrote: It's unfair that Super Tournament players were not awarded ESL points just because they were not notified beforehand. ST is a Premier Tournament.
God-level Korean titans and foreign players in Korea will work hard and die for it winning the ST. The qualifiers alone are stacked and looks like hell.
They treated ST1 as garbage tournament as if it was just a Wood and Paper League that nobody cares about. Yes, we all know it's a mistake, but a despicable one that caused this injustice.
I think they secretly hate Korean SC.. seriously... At this point there shouldn't even be a region lock, still coming up with excuses to shit on Koreans..
There isnt ANY good reason why in 2020 the ST gets NO points.
I'm seeing now being in charge of SC2 breeds stupidity..
They are a lot of conspiracy theories in sc2 community. Blizzard hating on T largely shared by the twitch chat/reddit trolls and then a official caster who insults players. Blizzard wanting to kill the korean scene while they actually supported it since at least 8 years. (2016 was a bad year with a lot of insults against players coming from the purists) And now same stuff with esl. At the end of the year, I bet Apollo will be the most hated figure.
I wonder who in his right mind would organize a new sc2 tournament off circuit with all the community outrage around the ept points.
Very happy about this statement from ESL. They acknowledge the mistakes and are learning from them, and they are trying to get some principles down to make sure it doesn't happen again. This is exactly what is needed: having some guiding principles means that you can have consistency, and that fans and players can guess in advance what is going to happen. On top of that, communication is of course key, which they also acknowledge.
All in all I think we can all be confident in them going forward. Remember that the EPT is only beginning this year so it's the first season for the organizers. Many problems will pop up that they have not yet dealt with. On top of that, corona crashed the party which completely screwed up the schedule. Let's cut them some slack and give them credit for acknowledging the problems.
That said, I'm kinda disappointed that Apollo doesn't post his statement on TL.net himself
Hm, I probably can't judge how badly this affects players and tournament organizers, but four month into the year and no plan? seems very disorganized. I always felt ESL was more professional. Notably, Apollo did not apologize for messing up (just for not communicating timely and for writing too much now )
So they basically created a new rule in order to justify their ridiculous decision not to award points for ST. Instead of correcting their mistake they again screwed the Koreans over. Very disappointed with Apollo...
On April 11 2020 18:06 MarianoSC2 wrote: So they basically created a new rule in order to justify their ridiculous decision not to award points for ST. Instead of correcting their mistake they again screwed the Koreans over. Very disappointed with Apollo...
Since the ETP points are divided in two regions, South Korea and the rest of the world, how do you figure the Koreans were screwed over again?
The WCS rukebook already had rules about handing out the WCS points, such as invites can be max 25% and contestant count must be 16 or more. Hopefully ESL redifines their rules now to have a similar clear section to make it easier for everyone to know what they consider EPT point worthy.
At the end of the year we will have people adding up the points and finding out if anyone would've made the cut if only they had awarded points in ST. We'll get over it.
Glad that ESL and Apollo took some time aside to explain the what the situation is and what's going on for them. From these statements it's clear ESL made quite a few mistakes (maybe we can call it mismanagement) in handling events and point distribution. However, given that they've spoken to the fans it also makes sense that they really not blunder further or this becomes a much larger mess. Glad they're focusing on getting guidelines out and properly updating their stuff.
Anyone who has ever tried to organize anything even half as complex as what Apollo and his team are doing will have some understanding here.
It sometimes takes a while to iron issues out with new projects, especially ones that are expected to run at 100% scale from day 1 with a team that is still getting used to working together.
I feel like they've made the right call regarding ST. Even if, to Waxangel's point, the absence of allocation didn't influence participation, it might have changed which strategies players deploy or how hard they prepare for it. If, as Apollo says, players were under the impression that there would be no points earned in the tournament, they should stick to that for the first one.
That aside, let's try and support the ESL team working hard to bring us some good Starcraft in the years to come. It's fine to call them out when they are screwing shit up, but when we fire off needless accusations, wild speculation, and careless assumptions after they've given us an update, it's embarrassing for all of us who are part of this otherwise quality community.
Thanks for the communication, Apollo. Unforeseen challenges are expected at the beginning of any huge project like this. I'm very excited to see what ESL can do for Starcraft in the years ahead.
To Starcraft fans: this stuff isn't easy, and they're picking up Blizzard's slack for us. Let's be grateful for that.
In a way, it's the beginning of a new landscape for SC2, and it’s going to take a strong community to keep this going for another 10 years. So let's work together yeah?
EPT
) 
