EPT
- Recap of the events of WCS NA Qualifier
Chinese players left out of WCS
On Comm's disqualification
Interview with Comm
To give his take on the situation is iG.Edison, the coach of Invictus Gaming, who is also an important community figure in Chinese Starcraft scene. Invictus Gaming(iG) is the biggest and most notable team in China, home to two of the players who were excluded. iG is also the former team of Comm, the WCS 2012 China champion who was disqualified from WCS NA last weekend. Other notable excluded players include Warcraft III legend, Infi, and Comm's teammate, Ash. Special thanks to TL user, digmouse, for help with translation.
Can you summarize your take on the situation involving the WCS NA qualifiers?
At this point, Edison showed us the e-mail he sent to Blizzard regarding the situation:
Hello everyone, I'm Edison, coach and manager of Invictus Gaming's Starcraft II division. I want to show you the unfair treatment by Major League Gaming to Chinese Starcraft II progamers in WCS North America qualifiers.
1. All Chinese progamers registered into WCS NA well before 15th April, while a lot of Koreans register after 16th, well after the 512 player limit, yet almost all the Koreans get their spot in the qualifier, while famous Chinese players like iG.Jim (WCG 2012 China Nationals 3rd place), Comm (WCS 2012 China Nationals champion), iGXY (ESWC 2012 Chinese qualifier winner) and Infi (Warcraft III legend) didn't receive their spot despite they have superior results and notability. The rules of MLG states that the first 512 players to register are eligible to play in the qualifier and did not specify the reserved spots, if the matter is about late registration, the Koreans will not be able to play as well.
2. The Chinese players did ask the in-game MLG admin about a confirmation on bracket to see whether they are in, and received a "you are good to go" after providing corresponding MLG ids. Later the brackets were changed 3 times before the actual qualifier begins, which Chinese players questioned the admin again, who responded by saying this is not the final bracket. After the Chinese players found their absence in the bracket, they only get apologies from the admins, no reason was given. Other players questioned about this in the official MLG channel as well, but the MLG admins started kicking these people out for asking.
3. Severe lack of honesty in rule enforcement: First of all, the entire registration and check-in procedure is not reasonable, there were no gates like GSL Code A qualifers in which spots are reserved for progamers, players in Master and Grandmaster leagues and then rest players. This "openness" results in a lot of amateur and even low level players to participate in, and a lot of walkovers due to no-shows, which is greatly wasting resources. What's even worse is that there were even hackers as encountered by ROOTCatZ and other players, no explanation and actions were given.
The eligibility of participants is also in chao. WCS Korea Season 1 GSL Code S participant QuanticHyuN, who is not eligible to play in Premier Division qualifier in WCS Season 1, played in the WCS NA qualifier. MLG DQed him after he knocked out 3 players, but after a shortwhile he returned to play in the loser's bracket, knocking out another 2 players before DQed for the second time. No further actions were taken, nor explanations were given to the players knocked out by HyuN.
WCS 2012 China Nationals winner Comm was not able to get his qualifier spot due to the forementioned situation, and a amateur Chinese player gave his MLG id for him to play, this was a situation acknowledged by MLG admins, Comm's opponents and casters, no actions were given till Comm is about to play his final qualification match, which he was disqualified due to violation of rules. But Korean players AxCrank stated him advancing to WCS NA defeating Chinese player ZooTOP on his Twitter, and was confirmed by his team, which is also a direct violation of rules, but he is not disqualified because of this.
1. All Chinese progamers registered into WCS NA well before 15th April, while a lot of Koreans register after 16th, well after the 512 player limit, yet almost all the Koreans get their spot in the qualifier, while famous Chinese players like iG.Jim (WCG 2012 China Nationals 3rd place), Comm (WCS 2012 China Nationals champion), iGXY (ESWC 2012 Chinese qualifier winner) and Infi (Warcraft III legend) didn't receive their spot despite they have superior results and notability. The rules of MLG states that the first 512 players to register are eligible to play in the qualifier and did not specify the reserved spots, if the matter is about late registration, the Koreans will not be able to play as well.
2. The Chinese players did ask the in-game MLG admin about a confirmation on bracket to see whether they are in, and received a "you are good to go" after providing corresponding MLG ids. Later the brackets were changed 3 times before the actual qualifier begins, which Chinese players questioned the admin again, who responded by saying this is not the final bracket. After the Chinese players found their absence in the bracket, they only get apologies from the admins, no reason was given. Other players questioned about this in the official MLG channel as well, but the MLG admins started kicking these people out for asking.
3. Severe lack of honesty in rule enforcement: First of all, the entire registration and check-in procedure is not reasonable, there were no gates like GSL Code A qualifers in which spots are reserved for progamers, players in Master and Grandmaster leagues and then rest players. This "openness" results in a lot of amateur and even low level players to participate in, and a lot of walkovers due to no-shows, which is greatly wasting resources. What's even worse is that there were even hackers as encountered by ROOTCatZ and other players, no explanation and actions were given.
The eligibility of participants is also in chao. WCS Korea Season 1 GSL Code S participant QuanticHyuN, who is not eligible to play in Premier Division qualifier in WCS Season 1, played in the WCS NA qualifier. MLG DQed him after he knocked out 3 players, but after a shortwhile he returned to play in the loser's bracket, knocking out another 2 players before DQed for the second time. No further actions were taken, nor explanations were given to the players knocked out by HyuN.
WCS 2012 China Nationals winner Comm was not able to get his qualifier spot due to the forementioned situation, and a amateur Chinese player gave his MLG id for him to play, this was a situation acknowledged by MLG admins, Comm's opponents and casters, no actions were given till Comm is about to play his final qualification match, which he was disqualified due to violation of rules. But Korean players AxCrank stated him advancing to WCS NA defeating Chinese player ZooTOP on his Twitter, and was confirmed by his team, which is also a direct violation of rules, but he is not disqualified because of this.
Did you try to talk to MLG beforehand to reserve spots? And were you in contact with MLG at all before the qualifiers?
I did talk with Blizzard China about securing spots in WCS NA, but it looks like they didn't pull it off.
It was my fault that JIm and XY didn't register until 15th. I misread the MLG GameBattle's system, thinking their "team" registration means we have to register as a team. I registered 'Invictus Gaming' on 12th when registering for MacSed, but didn't find our team later in their team system, I thought there might be update delays, so I waited 2 more days after that
Did you know MLG had reserved slots for players? Did you try contacting MLG beforehand about these spots or just through Blizzard China?
I didn't know about the reserved spots since it was not on the rules, and I wasn't told by Blizzard staff about this either. At my first meeting with Blizzard China, I did mention about securing qualifier spots. They told us to register ourselves and they'll see what they can help with.
By the way, when XiGua was playing in WCS EU qualifier, despite the massive latency, ESL was actively talking with us to see what they could do about it. On this part, I think MLG is way behind ESL.
How helpful was Blizzard China throughout this whole ordeal?
They helped a lot. I went to a meeting with them about tough things like travel and visa if our Chinese players actually made it through to see if they could offer any help. After the problems surfaced at WCS NA, I went to Blizzard China offices again. They are actively helping us submitting complaints to the esports department at the US headquarters.
If the two players who were barred from the qualifier (Jim and XY) were allowed to play, what do you think their chances of qualifying would be?
I can't say they are guaranteed to qualify, but as long there are a slim chance, we'll fight for it as hard as possible. Jim is currently top 20 in Korean GM, and XY is in top 100.
What do you think about the WCS 2013 system with AM/EU/KR regions, but not one that specifically includes China?
I was initially unhappy, even angry about the absence of WCS China. But after I calmed down, I realized it's not entirely Blizzard's fault that they don't have a WCS CN. First of all, HotS is not yet released in China. Secondly, we don't have a long-term stable league like MLG, IEM or GSL/SPL. But even though this is true, our Chinese players are looking forward to play in these tournaments all the time and we don't complain about latency or time difference. But even under these circumstances, we still took unfair treatment because of the lack of honestly of MLG. And because Sundance's apology didn't even mention a single word about Chinese players, we are truly hurt.
What would it mean for your team and also the Chinese scene as a whole if Chinese players couldn't compete in WCS?
Starcraft II in China is far from ideal. Like I previously said, there are no stable leagues to play in, and because of the early promotion and subscription model problem, we don't have a large player base. Because of this, there are not a lot of new players stepping it up and we are still relying on the old players. We need more Chinese progamers to play in major tournaments like WCS abroad to attract more attention. If we can't even play in WCS, a Blizzard official tournament, things are going to become harder and harder for us. There is one thing you need to know: last year we had 8 teams playing in a team league; now we are reduced to only 3 pro teams. And since a lot of Chinese players are students who play on campus networks, they prefer team games that can be played together like DotA or LoL.
Are there any lessons you can take away from this whole situation?
First of all, I need to improve my English. Also, never put your hope on others. No matter how busy you are, you have to confirm everything yourself to make sure everything is right in place. Though we have been trying out best to play in as many tournaments as we can, we are still troubled by things like visas. After this, we'll prepare better against this kind of situation and let the world know Chinese players are even more hard-working than Koreans. Our performance will show the results of our efforts.
Is there anything else you want to say to the foreign scene or foreign fans?
I want to thank all foreign fans for supporting us on Teamliquid, r/starcraft, and twitch chat after all these unhappy things happened. Because of your support, we will show you more great games to prove our skills and effort. This interview is not to bash MLG; we hope all tournaments could be more professional and mature, less frustrated by bias, whether economical or emotional, because fair play is the core element of e-sports. I just hope everyone will continue to support us and help us claim our deserved tournament rights. Thank all of you very much, we love you.
i want good chinese players back in the action !!!
