PPSL - A Second Look - Page 8

On April 16 2013 02:46 Plansix wrote:


Agreed. This is a terrible practice(pausing the stream, but still showing up in stream chat) for any potential player and should be avoided. I am always going lean toward caution and assume that anyone who does this was cheating, because the excuse of "I paused the stream" can't be confirmed in any way.

On April 16 2013 02:46 Plansix wrote:


Agreed. This is a terrible practice(pausing the stream, but still showing up in stream chat) for any potential player and should be avoided. I am always going lean toward caution and assume that anyone who does this was cheating, because the excuse of "I paused the stream" can't be confirmed in any way.

On April 16 2013 00:11 avoiderdragon wrote:
Since this issue has been raised again for some reason, don't mind me while I leave here some of the stuff that I wasn't able to post a year and a half ago (because I was stupid).

Introduction

First of all, my name is Sonny Go and I was the content manager for Team AZK when the IPL 4 Pacific Qualifiers were being organized. I basically did most of the copywriting for the event, posting them on Team Liquid and SC2SEA, as well as Liquipedia. I was also updating the social media accounts and Liquipedia entry as the results came in. I also helped edit and rewrite the apology letter that was posted after the event.

The reason why I only released this now is simple -- I am an idiot. I was hurt by what happened during the aftermath and couldn't get myself to strike the iron while it was still hot. Perhaps the advantage to this though is that right now, the information I have may be assessed with clearer minds.

This post was not made to directly refute most of CheekyDuck's allegations, including those against Amanda. In fact, I don't know much about the financial stuff and had nothing to do with it. I'm just taking this opportunity to finally put out the screenshots that I had been sitting on for so long. After this has been posted, I've done my part.

Why Now?

As early as March 25 of this year, we heard a rumor about Gus wanting to start something again and had brought in those close to him during the whole PPSL thing (seems like they're good friends). I didn't think that the gossip was true, but I had prepared to compile this stuff since then. Lo and behold, something was posted, and I took the chance.

Derek "Dox" Reball, the organizer of the Australian qualifiers for the event and now the manager of Team Nv (Moonglade's team), recently posted a blog entry regarding his thoughts on people who like to jump the shark in eSports, and had mentioned about "a large number of ambitious eSports enthusiasts who popped up in 2011... decide they want to emulate the success of Evil Geniuses or Major League Gaming".

This must have triggered CheekyDuck to want to interview him live on Twitch to address his "lies". Seems that nothing really came out of it, so she started this thread. I got the link through Amanda, who doesn't want to say anything since she's still quite traumatized from what happened in 2011.

+ Show Spoiler +

My Conversation with Dox

For those who watched the CSN interview with Dox after PPSL, perhaps you remember the middle portion of that video wherein he apologized to someone working for Gus at that time who was "blunt and aggressive".

That guy was me, and that apology came after I posted screenshots of my Skype conversations with Dox in his blog entry about his dealings with the PPSL, where he also mentioned me as Gus' accomplice. I was just doing my job.

+ Show Spoiler +

But here's the kicker. At the same time when that conversation was taking place, I was talking to Gus in Google about the Liquipedia article for the event. I was trying to talk some sense into him on being diplomatic, while he was angry about some Aussie "stealing our thunder". In fact, this was the reason why I then contacted Dox through Skype.

+ Show Spoiler +

I was supposed to write about the event on Liquipedia, but someone else already did on Dox's behalf. Gus must have taken this as a slight and I had to talk some sense to him about it.

Lucky that I was able to take those screenshots while our Gmail accounts were still active, because they did get deleted days after the event.

+ Show Spoiler +

Dealing with an angry Gus in the early morning through chat about that Liquipedia entry was quite surreal. I understand why he'd be so angry, but that should never be a part of any business decision, no matter what.

During the Event

At the day of the event, Gus hit me up to talk about the players from Team Cube (from Cebu) who weren't attending due to not being able to book flights. Since it's already the day of the event, that wouldn't really be possible. When he gave up on the idea, he left me instructions then said that he was going back to his house because he was lacking sleep.

+ Show Spoiler +

Unfortunately, this ill-advised act of macromanaging meant that he was absent when the Internet connection we had on-site, courtesy of Globe Telecom, was not giving us the bandwidth we needed. This started a chain reaction that derailed the whole event.

When we were having the connection troubles, I was trying to reach Gus through my cellphone, but he wasn't answering. By around 2PM, he finally picked up and I told him about what's going on. It took some time before he got back, most likely because he lived in Paranaque, which is kind of far from the venue.

+ Show Spoiler +

Soon enough, the computers were crashing and unable to play StarCraft II. It turns out, from what I heard, that each computer had two sets of video drivers in them, both for Nvidia and ATi. Since we were using Nvidia cards, courtesy of sponsorship, we had to uninstall the other drivers. But when this was figured out, it was already quite late and a good number of the players were sent to an Internet cafe, which was also in Paranaque (maybe because Gus has connections there), to play out the rest of the matches. That's the only information I have regarding that.

Matchfixing Allegations

This is a special section since I have something to say about the whole matchfixing thing. The truth is that there was no matchfixing; it was actually my fault. This is how it happened.

On the second day of the event (November 8, 2011), I woke up at around 7AM and checked my Facebook for updates. I noticed that there was a bracket posted containing the names of the players who had qualified from group play. I immediately thought that they must have already drawn the names for it, so I thought that in order to save me some time, I'll just enter that in Liquipedia. Once I finished, I got prepared and left for the event.

When I arrived at the venue, Eins Rojas (one of the crewmembers) asked me about the bracket on Liquipedia I posted and urged me to delete them as soon as possible because it wasn't the real one at all. What I saw on Facebook must've been a sample.

The brackets were later drawn by a Korean, most likely one of the managers (maybe from StarTale, since it wasn't oGsTheWind). The AZK players being spread out in the brackets and the "original" having them against each other is merely a coincidence.

There was no matchfixing; it was just me being an overdiligent idiot.

When the Event Finished

After Tastosis left for the airport, MarineKing was awarded with the first place prize, and most of the live audience had left, we were called backstage to be informed by Gus that due to sponsors pulling out, we weren't going to be paid.

During the afterevent "party", I asked Gus about how much he was going to pay me. He told me that I was to be given PhP5,000 ($120) for my efforts, and I was actually fine with that since I'm just happy to be paid. In fact, I even told him that if he were to give me a Razer keyboard, I'd consider that as payment. I'm really easy to please.

Of course, I never got that at all once the financial fallout reared its ugly head. There was the whole Amanda and Clive situation with the threat of imprisonment, which was quite frightening. Amanda was and still is a quivering mess because of it and will never provide a rebuttal to CheekyDuck's allegations because she's just that traumatized.

This is not a call for sympathy; in fact, it just states that we're no real threat to them at this point. They want nothing to do about the whole thing, and I'm acting on my own volition.

Conclusion

I gain absolutely nothing from posting this at all (actually, it's a waste of my time). However, upon being given the opportunity to put up all of the stuff that has been sitting in my Dropbox account for over 17 months has been too good to pass up.

This attempt to salvage Gus' reputation is valiant, but quite misguided. He had his faults, and the sponsors and other crewmembers had theirs as well. The bottom line is that in terms of the event itself, we blew it.

The financial fallout though is out of the hands of the crewmembers since most of us never had anything to do with the money. I can't give any concrete judgement on that since I haven't been educated about the financial situation during that time.

Maybe the whole "silent hero" thing is built upon him having brought to us Filipino StarCraft enthusiasts a chance to meet some of our heroes in the flesh and watch them do what they do best. Alright then, I guess we can give props to him for that somehow.

But him being a hero? I don't think so. It would have been better if the IGN Pro League never had to go through that mishap at all, even if we never have had that experience if that was the case.

We could have been spared from all that drama. No one needed that at all.

My Thoughts on Gus

First of all, I had no personal loyalties to Gus. I got on the boat when I answered his call for a writer in the StarcraftPH Facebook group. I'm a freelance writer by trade, so I joined in for the experience and the potential pay. I had started playing StarCraft II on January 2011 and perhaps it was just me being in the right place at the right time.

I do have to say that Gus had a talent for getting people to join his cause. He did have some tricks in his sleeve to keep them hooked as well, like name-dropping and other persuasion tactics. Those tactics aren't necessarily bad per se, since they're employed in sales and marketing, and they did work for the purpose of getting the whole PPSL thing going back then.

However, what does stick in everyone's craw is how he managed the people under his wing and how he makes decisions based on emotional impulse. Perhaps he was getting overwhelmed by everything going on around him, but that's exactly what he wasn't supposed to do in that scenario in the first place. As far as allegations go, most of the ones involving Gus' hot head are pretty much true -- he does let his temper and stress get the best of him when it comes to important decisions.

As far as CheekyDuck's testimony of Gus having to sell his computer and scraping by to feed his family goes, we don't know anything about that, and we can't really be expected to believe it without any concrete evidence. That attempt to grab our sympathy, as well as calling Gus a "silent hero", makes me scratch my head. Anyone actually falling for this?

In the end, I harbor no lingering ill will towards Mr. Gus Ledesma. I wish him luck to his future endeavors. However, it must be said that when it comes to any eSports-related activities, no one should make it easy for him at all.

Gus, please just go do something else.

===

EDIT: Grammatical corrections.

On April 15 2013 23:44 17Sphynx17 wrote:
Well, disregarding facts of whether Gus should have flown and paid for accomodation of participants outside Manila, I think cheekyduck misunderstands a few things.

I think the 1k is in php, not usd. She was pertaining to local flights from Cebu to Manila and normally, they to charge on top of the flight payments. 1k php is not outside reasonable here in the Philippines. If you "book it yourself online" the service fee will drop to around 200 to 300php, if its with Cebu Pacific (that's for online), 500php via phone if I am not mistaken. This is approximate mind you. You can always check the breakdown of their ticket price before actually paying for it with the credit card.

Again, the additional payment for hotels, that's for incidentals right? Because I highly doubt anyone in their right mind would think he would need to have a guarantee deposit of 1000usd in a hotel in Manila even if he stayed long?

I also don't get what math she is pertaining to? Is it just the conversion rate of php to 1 usd? Would have been nice if she managed to see the "math" to create an excel spreadsheet and actually display a table in the spoiler for it to make sense.

I am not on the side of anyone, be it Gus or Amanda. But the jail time, we from the Phils already stated in the forums back then that there is no jail time in our country for loans. It would basically be a civil case, as it is a debt. It is not estafa/graft.

At any rate, I don't think there really is much in the sense of enlightening facts that have come up (yet) even with this post. I also think the stream cheating accusation is kind of a stretch. Why even put it? Dox didn't even mention it at any point, nor did anyone else part of the Australia qualifiers with whom that fact would matter most.

My two cents.

On April 16 2013 00:27 -CheekyDuck- wrote:

not all information is here, as i posted what i thought was most important.

On April 16 2013 01:13 -CheekyDuck- wrote:


It's a terrible situation, where many people in this event were left unpaid and out of pocket!

I can assure you that when i talk to Gus his time has always been limited, the little phone icon comes up when he fb. (meaning no computer)

And i also want to say i am sorry for my choice of words. My intention was not to wash away all blame, as honestly he ran an event, and it failed. But he is not a monster.

I can say that i don't believe Gus feels he is not to blame either, i don't believe he would shoulder the blame if he didn't think he let people down.

But it's good you bought this information forward. I can ask gus to address it, but from my understanding with this situation Gus was furious that Dox was stealing the lime light and taking credit for someones hard work, it is my opinion that i think he believed he was doing this intentionally.

i don't believe you are stupid, you came forward and corrected dox with his miss-information about you, and its obvious from this that you approached dox diplomatically in a very tense situation (with Gus being stressed and angry).

In regards to Gus being absent, i know that he was also working full time and didn't sleep for 3 days beforehand. (as clive would pick him up from work and he would leave after dinner)


again, i am sorry if my heading has caused offense, i should have considered more the people who were also effected financially. I hope that this is only a reflection on my bad choice of words to have a catchy title, rather than a reflection of how Gus views himself. Because after talking to him, i know thats not true.

but in regards to Amanda: there is money missing.

On April 15 2013 21:12 -CheekyDuck- wrote:
Alex Conn of IGN
• PPSL was never waiting for money from us. Involvement in the event was limited to providing money to support the event.
• Providing a streaming channel.
• Support the event by taking its winner to IPL 4.
• The only casters we were aware of going into this event was Tastosis.
• We do not feel confident that the PPSL can present a watchable product. As such, we have taken away their streaming privileges from our channel.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=283544

On April 16 2013 06:14 SunDevil wrote:


I debated actually responding to this entire post, but I no longer have access to my old work emails and so I don't have what I would need to properly do that. However, considering my name is listed under the False Statements category, I wanted to briefly address what was written above because, honestly, I'm a little unhappy about it and in case someone finds this through a random google search, I'd like to have something in defense posted. Obviously I can only speak for what I knew at the time and it's been a while, so my memory is hazy.

Through everything I did while working for the IPL, I always tried to do honestly and fairly, especially when it came to communicating with the community. Everything I said in relation to the PPSL was accurate to the best of my knowledge. I'm not saying that there might be some facts that I might have forgotten or not noticed from a skype conversation or long email chain. I would freely admit that I made a mistake if I could remember any or check my old emails chains to see if I actually did make a mistake when communicating with the community. I even mentioned this in the post you linked: "Edit: My apologies in advance if any of this is factually incorrect, this post was made based of the information we received from the community, messages with people at the venue and from what we observed from the event last night."

I resent your statement that I purposefully lied and misrepresented facts to the community and I am confident that those who know me or remember how I dealt with the community will see through this misrepresentation of both myself and my work with the community.

On April 16 2013 06:25 SunDevil wrote:


It was my understanding that Amanda could go to jail. As I said in the charity stream thread: "The total amount of this debt that is related to travel is $12,000. If this does not get paid by November 21st, her business (the travel agency) will have to stop operations until the amount is paid, plus penalties. They will not be allowed to make reservations and create tickets and will be in essence, shut down. In addition it opens up the possibility that Amanda will be arrested or sued." Source: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=285511

On April 16 2013 00:18 pdd wrote:

- two extra tickets were purchased from Korea (totalling an extra $62,647). Counting the number of people who flew in from Korea, the email only lists 16 while the invoice lists 18 people (the names of the people who flew changed a bit... ie Carn wasn't in the email, but was in the invoice, but he replaced someone else).