Hello everyone! After speaking with TIME and KaiZi, it looks like TIME will be unable to acquire a visa in time for TSL 9, and we are looking to replace him for the event. The event was communicated as a two stage competition with an offline portion since the initial announcement in June. In this situation, the player did not properly apply for a visa in time and was unable to travel to TSL.
Similar to our previous ruling on Neeb, we will have HeRoMaRinE and Astrea compete for the final spot, and move Lambo from the Lower bracket to the Upper Bracket in TIME’s place. Rotterdam will be covering it on his stream, scheduled to start at Sunday, Aug 21 1:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
In more positive news, if you happen to live in or near the UK, we’ve had interest from several bars in holding barcraft events for our finals on September 4th! We’re sending them each care packages of Team Liquid, TSL 9, and some other goodies from our partners to hand out to attendees! Those that attend can expect to have an awesome time meeting other SC2 fans, and we’ll be looking to get some crowd shots as well. Here are the locations we're planning on officially supporting:
We're also happy to support other locations, given enough notice! If you want to organize a barcraft in your area, please reach out once you have a venue and rough guesstimate on headcount.
I thought it was already confirmed that Time would be allowed to play online if he couldn't make it? I distinctly remember that being said somewhere and I thought it was an official source.
Also for Lambo in the upper bracket wouldn't it be more fair to have a playoff between Lambo/Gumiho/herO since they all lost in the same round (would include Neeb as well but he already dropped out)? Giving him a bye because his opponent got DQ'd is odd.
On August 18 2022 04:45 JJH777 wrote: Also for Lambo in the upper bracket wouldn't it be more fair to have a playoff between Lambo/Gumiho/herO since they all lost in the same round (would include Neeb as well but he already dropped out)? Giving him a bye because his opponent got DQ'd is odd.
Agrred. It would be the exact same approach as for Neeb's replacement in that case. Not doing so is kinda inconsistent.
On August 06 2022 02:46 Elentos wrote: So will TIME play top 12 online or be forced to forfeit? Or does TSL cover flight costs that exceed the prize money for 2nd place?
We're working with TIME and KaiZi Gaming to go through all the proper channels so he can make it to Utrecht, with Team Liquid covering the travel expenses. If it's unfortunately not possible, we will allow TIME to play online.
I guess if it's been determined that it's Times fault rather than due to logistics or expenses it makes sense. Still disappointing. Out of the upper bracket players he was the one I was most interested in seeing how they did in the offline portion.
I know it's a lot of work to organize events and I'm thankful for the TSL crew to keep us updated, but at the same time, I feel like this is an issue that really could have been address earlier.
On August 18 2022 08:39 Vindicare605 wrote: And Aligulac will continue to be biased against him for reasons like this. He was far and away the best non-Korean Terran at this tournament.
As much as I think Clem is overrated, I still don't think TIME is better; that said, I think he might be the second best non-Korean Terran, maybe roughly equal to HM
On August 18 2022 08:39 Vindicare605 wrote: And Aligulac will continue to be biased against him for reasons like this. He was far and away the best non-Korean Terran at this tournament.
As much as I think Clem is overrated, I still don't think TIME is better; that said, I think he might be the second best non-Korean Terran, maybe roughly equal to HM
HM isn't playing very well recently and Clem also seems to be going through a rough patch, so TIME is arguably the best non-Korean Terran atm. Sadly we probably won't know for sure unless TIME starts getting to travel to more international events.
On August 18 2022 04:45 JJH777 wrote: Also for Lambo in the upper bracket wouldn't it be more fair to have a playoff between Lambo/Gumiho/herO since they all lost in the same round (would include Neeb as well but he already dropped out)? Giving him a bye because his opponent got DQ'd is odd.
Agrred. It would be the exact same approach as for Neeb's replacement in that case. Not doing so is kinda inconsistent.
If I am a conspiracy theorist, I would say that they want to make sure herO and Maru taking each other out in the Lower Bracket, and EU has all 4 slots in the upper bracket showing their "might" against the woeful KR.
However, the actual situation is that, you would have to get 2 play-in round, one for the upper and one for the lower, which is an hassle for them. But then again, what make Lambo having priority over herO and Gumiho other than he play Time in the previous round is beyond me. I thought in case like this, EPT point should be a good indicator.
We cannot allow a player to play online when the reason the player cannot attend is that they didn't gather the proper documents for their visa.
We understand it is difficult to travel in certain countries and we are willing to meet players halfway when we can. However, it is a player's personal responsibility to gather the proper documents to travel, to check their school schedule before attending, or to confirm their military obligations before participating in TSL.
I really disagree with the choice of replacing Time with Lambo so easily.
If you want to punish time for not being there you could always give the opponent the server choice.
If you want all people to be there in person why should lambo (lost 0-2) take precedence over hero (lost 1-2) or gumiho (0-2 too)? Organise another round robin between the 3 aforementioned players for the UB slot and a straight bo5 for HM and Astrea for the new LB slot. More StarCraft, more fun.