Ask TL Staff Anything - Page 110

On April 11 2012 04:38 motbob wrote:

Terrible decision, probably stemming from a flawed philosophy of when to grant a regame.

When two players are playing and a disconnect occurs, there are two categories that the disconnect can fall under.

One category is when a player could have "pulled the plug," such as in an online tournament in the privacy of their own home. For an excellent explanation as to what the correct policy is for handling disconnects of that nature, check out this thread.

The second category is when no one is at fault in the disconnect. Examples of this category include the Flash vs Jaedong power outage game and the incident in the GSTL finals.

When no one is at fault for the disconnect, the admins of the tournament must make a decision on whether to grant a regame. They must balance two competing ideas. The first idea is that granting a regame screws over the player who was at an advantage at the time of the disconnect because that player's advantage, which he earned over the course of the game, is lost. The second idea is that awarding a win screws over the player who was at a disadvantage at the time of the disconnect because that player no longer has a chance to overcome his disadvantage through his play.

In the NATE finals a few years back, Flash and Jaedong were playing a TvZ which abruptly ended because of a power malfunction. In that situation, Jaedong had not yet destroyed the bulk of Flash's army. He had not just taken out an important mining base, and he was not overwhelmingly ahead in supply. Yet he was awarded the win. The decision was controversial, but it was correct. Jaedong had enough of an advantage so that robbing him of that advantage would have been a worse occurrence than robbing Flash of the chance to make up his large disadvantage.

The situation is very similar in MKP vs Parting. Parting had a significant supply lead. He had just warped in seven HT at his main. He would not have been able to kill MKP outright, since MKP's rax were pumping and Parting's reinforcements would not have arrived in time to seal the deal. But looking at Parting's potential composition and looking at any potential composition from MKP in two minute's time, it's clear that Parting was on the path to being able to easily shut down MKP's 4th and 5th bases. It is difficult to envision a scenario in which MKP would have been able to come back against a Protoss with a significant supply lead who had already shown, earlier in the game, the ability to come out on top in fights with even supply.

This is not to say that MKP had no chance of winning. A few clutch EMPs and a few more miracle storm dodges could have tipped the game back in his favor. But such "what-ifs" are irrelevant. The question is not whether MKP had a chance to win or not. The question is whether Parting's advantage was large enough so that robbing him of that earned advantage outweighed the problem of robbing MKP of the chance to come back. And that's not even a question; his advantage had certainly fulfilled that criteria.