It all began one day in February....
+ Show Spoiler +
Who : Christopher Mönig (TakeTV)
When : Feb. 24th, 2013
Where : Email
my name is Christopher and I´m the contentmanager of TaKeTV.
Im not sure if this is the right adress to contact 'Axiom', but I only
found your business card in our office.
TaKeTV will start a european Teamleague.
The team league will start at around ~15. march(not fix yet!) and
culminate in fantastic finals at the TakeTV studio. All in all, 8 teams
will be fighting on 14 match days for another $20,000 prize money. Each
team consists of at least 4 players. The “all-kill” format will be played
in a best-of-9 and finished by a special ace player. Four teams will get a
direct invitation, while the other four participating teams will be
determined in two separate qualification tournaments.
If Axiom is interessted I would love to get a response -
Sincerely,
Christopher Mönig
Content Manager of TaKeTV
When : Feb. 24th, 2013
Where : Email
my name is Christopher and I´m the contentmanager of TaKeTV.
Im not sure if this is the right adress to contact 'Axiom', but I only
found your business card in our office.
TaKeTV will start a european Teamleague.
The team league will start at around ~15. march(not fix yet!) and
culminate in fantastic finals at the TakeTV studio. All in all, 8 teams
will be fighting on 14 match days for another $20,000 prize money. Each
team consists of at least 4 players. The “all-kill” format will be played
in a best-of-9 and finished by a special ace player. Four teams will get a
direct invitation, while the other four participating teams will be
determined in two separate qualification tournaments.
If Axiom is interessted I would love to get a response -
Sincerely,
Christopher Mönig
Content Manager of TaKeTV
Remember that at this time, we were learning about IPL6 and it's cancellation. We accepted the invitation as we were pretty confident in our team league potential, having just assembled our GSTL team. We were pretty hurt by Alicia having qualified for a free trip to IPL6 and we had already planned to send two other players to the open bracket. I felt it was a pretty nice honor to be one of the invited teams to the ATC, considering that other teams had to qualify in order to participate. We accepted the invitation and awaited more information.
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Who : Christopher Mönig (TakeTV) to Me
When : Mar. 5th, 2013
Where : Email
Hi Genna,
I totally imagine how much time it takes to manage such a project.
Nice to see such a response - we would love to see more of your nice team
in the europe scene and as I said, i hope we could handle your gsl
schedule and of course the time zones.
This is the (un)offical news to the league:
http://taketv.net/news/acerteamstorycup-powered-by-intel-22-02-13-8881
regards,
Christopher
When : Mar. 5th, 2013
Where : Email
Hi Genna,
I totally imagine how much time it takes to manage such a project.
Nice to see such a response - we would love to see more of your nice team
in the europe scene and as I said, i hope we could handle your gsl
schedule and of course the time zones.
This is the (un)offical news to the league:
http://taketv.net/news/acerteamstorycup-powered-by-intel-22-02-13-8881
regards,
Christopher
I reviewed the unofficial news post. Everything seemed to be about what you'd expect to see. I noticed the signups section and reviewed it, curious to see what other teams might have to do in order to qualify. That can be found here : http://bit.ly/13ZTo83 There was a rule section that those teams signing up had to agree to. I read that as well. The link to that can be found here : http://bit.ly/13ZTnky
+ Show Spoiler +
Who : Christopher Mönig (TakeTV) to Me
When : Mar. 24th, 2013
Where : Email
Hej Genna,
I'm glad to welcome you to the Team Story Cup now!
Due to an additional team, we´ve got 9 Teams in the league.
The conclusion of this format will be, that every team got a "free week".
Axiom is "lucky" this week and can just watch what will happen!
The other matches will be:
Karton3 vs Millenium (Schedule Wednesday, March 27th at ~18:00 CET (1:00 PM EDT))
mouz vs Quantic (Schedule Wednesday, March 27th at ~20:30 CET (3:30 PM EDT))
Acer vs MVP (Schedule Saturday, March 30th at 17:00 CET (12:00 EDT))
TeamLiquid vs Winner of American Qualifier (Schedule Saturday, March 30th at ~19:30 CET (2:30 PM EDT))
Please confirm this email and if anything isn´t okay feel free to contact me.
You will get a full schedule and a Infosheet of the whole season as fast as possible!
Best Regards,
Christopher 'okko' Mönig
When : Mar. 24th, 2013
Where : Email
Hej Genna,
I'm glad to welcome you to the Team Story Cup now!
Due to an additional team, we´ve got 9 Teams in the league.
The conclusion of this format will be, that every team got a "free week".
Axiom is "lucky" this week and can just watch what will happen!
The other matches will be:
Karton3 vs Millenium (Schedule Wednesday, March 27th at ~18:00 CET (1:00 PM EDT))
mouz vs Quantic (Schedule Wednesday, March 27th at ~20:30 CET (3:30 PM EDT))
Acer vs MVP (Schedule Saturday, March 30th at 17:00 CET (12:00 EDT))
TeamLiquid vs Winner of American Qualifier (Schedule Saturday, March 30th at ~19:30 CET (2:30 PM EDT))
Please confirm this email and if anything isn´t okay feel free to contact me.
You will get a full schedule and a Infosheet of the whole season as fast as possible!
Best Regards,
Christopher 'okko' Mönig
Having received so much consistent contact and information from Christopher, made me feel like they knew exactly what they were doing. I had watched HSC events previously and when you hear the name TakeTV, no ill feelings or thoughts come to mind at all. They had everything in good order on the surface from what I was to understand and were very helpful with scheduling in understanding our GSTL and WCS committments.
+ Show Spoiler +
Who : Lukas Hilgers (TakeTV) to Me
When : Mar. 26th, 2013
Where : Email
Hello everyone,
this is Lukas Hilgers / Delph.
I am from now on responsible for scheduling and dealing with problems regarding the Acer TeamStory Cup.
Here you will find the information-sheet and the map orders for the specific playdays:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UpPati_Uf9LAlCPcfYsL7xWBxe_zJNxy6Bx4mBy6EhY/edit?usp=sharing
If you have any questions, feel free to ask
Best regards
Lukas Hilgers / Delphi
When : Mar. 26th, 2013
Where : Email
Hello everyone,
this is Lukas Hilgers / Delph.
I am from now on responsible for scheduling and dealing with problems regarding the Acer TeamStory Cup.
Here you will find the information-sheet and the map orders for the specific playdays:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UpPati_Uf9LAlCPcfYsL7xWBxe_zJNxy6Bx4mBy6EhY/edit?usp=sharing
If you have any questions, feel free to ask
Best regards
Lukas Hilgers / Delphi
Right, so we have all the information that we need. We have the schedule, the rulebook, the infosheet and the announcement that ATC have given us. We are all set and ready to play our matches. We were pretty excited about ATC. Seeing how Axiom would do without the Acer part of the equation in a different teamleague was going to be a fun element. John (TotalBiscuit) was pretty hyped about it and even offered to provide some of the English casting for free. Unfortunately it was not all sunshine and roses. Miya did retire in the middle of the season and the new WCS format really hurt scheduling for all of the teams involved. I really applaud TakeTV and the ATC staff for doing their best to handle scheduled matches after WCS was announced. I can't imagine producing a team league series under those conditions, so in my mind, they really stepped up to the plate. So between the last email shown above and the next communication shown below, there is quite the gap of time. During this time period the only communication shared between Axiom and ATC was about match scheduling times. I am leaving that out as to not bore anyone to tears.
+ Show Spoiler +
Who : Olivia Wong (Axiom Assistant Manager) to Me
When : July 30th, 2013 @ 11am
Where : Skype
Olivia : "[Tuesday, July 30, 2013 11:17 AM] Willy (TakeTV Staff): The important key facts: Date 17/18 of August Where: Germany, Krefeld Nearest Airport: Düsseldorf Costs: We will pay 1,500$ and the Hotel, Eating at the venue and will manage the whole transport from/to the airport (dusseldorf) We are sorry but we can´t provide more money for the Travelcost this Season (but this was announcent already in March when the league started) Hope this will help already."
Genna : So they will pay 1500$ for the entire team to fly there.... 1500$ for the whole team or per person?
Olivia : good question whole team....
Genna : Yeah... So on the Acer thing. I don't have any email that ever said anything about travel support not being provided. If you can ask them to forward that information as they supposedly "sent that back in March" that would be great. We were under the impression if we made it to the offline finals that travel and hotel would be paid for at their expense. If they sent that information to me at any point, I would assume they would have a copy of it in some sent folder somewhere. The emails I have are the initial invitation and the info sheet and nowhere on there does it say anything about that.
When : July 30th, 2013 @ 11am
Where : Skype
Olivia : "[Tuesday, July 30, 2013 11:17 AM] Willy (TakeTV Staff): The important key facts: Date 17/18 of August Where: Germany, Krefeld Nearest Airport: Düsseldorf Costs: We will pay 1,500$ and the Hotel, Eating at the venue and will manage the whole transport from/to the airport (dusseldorf) We are sorry but we can´t provide more money for the Travelcost this Season (but this was announcent already in March when the league started) Hope this will help already."
Genna : So they will pay 1500$ for the entire team to fly there.... 1500$ for the whole team or per person?
Olivia : good question whole team....
Genna : Yeah... So on the Acer thing. I don't have any email that ever said anything about travel support not being provided. If you can ask them to forward that information as they supposedly "sent that back in March" that would be great. We were under the impression if we made it to the offline finals that travel and hotel would be paid for at their expense. If they sent that information to me at any point, I would assume they would have a copy of it in some sent folder somewhere. The emails I have are the initial invitation and the info sheet and nowhere on there does it say anything about that.
I searched for literally hours in my email to find any shred of this being mentioned to us directly. This information wasn't included in the invitation, the press release, the rules, the infosheet.... I couldn't find anything that had directly been sent to me. This is the part where some of you are going to blame me for not reading about it in some post on TL or Reddit or in a later ATC website post and that's fine. I run two companies and a family and I do the best that I can in all aspects of my personal and professional life. Sometimes my best isn't good enough and I'm willing to accept that. At this point, all I wanted... the one thing I wanted is one piece of proof that this information had been communicated to me directly by any member of the ATC/TakeTV staff. I felt horrible. Not only had I put my team through crazy scheduling acrobatics, but in the event this couldn't be resolved, I would have prevented other teams from claiming the spot that we had taken. Had I known from the beginning that travel was not covered, I could have planned months in advance to have the funds available.
+ Show Spoiler +
Who : Willy (TakeTV Staff) to Olivia Wong (Axiom Assistant Manager) *later copy/pasted to me
When : July 31st, 2013 @ 5am
Where : Skype
Willy : hey olivia are you around?
Olivia : yes hello!
Willy : sorry for my late response lastly Ok, I hope the travel cost didn´t hit you like a truck it´s a shame but we cant provide more We try our heart out to get the trips fully paid for Season II
Olivia : Yeah we're kind of surprised Were you able to find any past emails sent out stating that not all of the trip would be paid for by acer? Genna has been looking for an email like that but she has yet to find one
Willy : Searched everything. I hate to say it, but I guess there is no Mail with this exact statement. I wrote a mail but Genna wasn´t looped in And in the News i Mailed to her wasn't that statement included. God damn. I was fully sure everybody knows, but I guess there was no mail. Just the News and the TL post and the discussion in the ATC Team management Skype conversaion plus I mail where I missed to loop genna in Im surry olivia I guess its my mistake then sorry Will Axiom attending? It´s at least: 1500$ travel cost + 2000$ prizemoney for the last spot (3500$)
When : July 31st, 2013 @ 5am
Where : Skype
Willy : hey olivia are you around?
Olivia : yes hello!
Willy : sorry for my late response lastly Ok, I hope the travel cost didn´t hit you like a truck it´s a shame but we cant provide more We try our heart out to get the trips fully paid for Season II
Olivia : Yeah we're kind of surprised Were you able to find any past emails sent out stating that not all of the trip would be paid for by acer? Genna has been looking for an email like that but she has yet to find one
Willy : Searched everything. I hate to say it, but I guess there is no Mail with this exact statement. I wrote a mail but Genna wasn´t looped in And in the News i Mailed to her wasn't that statement included. God damn. I was fully sure everybody knows, but I guess there was no mail. Just the News and the TL post and the discussion in the ATC Team management Skype conversaion plus I mail where I missed to loop genna in Im surry olivia I guess its my mistake then sorry Will Axiom attending? It´s at least: 1500$ travel cost + 2000$ prizemoney for the last spot (3500$)
At this point I had a bit of a meltdown. "A bit" might be an understatement. Of course I can understand if events do not have the sponsorship capable of supporting teams attending an offline portion of their event. I guess I assumed that if you are having an offline finals, your event could afford it, otherwise, why not have an online finals so that all teams could participate? I get that it's not as exciting as an offline finals, but the entire event has been online thus far. It was at this point that I considered that we might actually have to forfeit our participation in the ATC. We had spent a lot in unplanned expenses recently given that we had sent Alicia to ASUS ROG, Heart to MLG Anaheim and 6 WCS NA flights counting Season 1 and Season 2. With knowing that DreamHack Bucharest was an upcoming event that we already budgeted for, I just couldn't see how it would be financially possible to attend ATC as well. So we opened a dialogue between myself, Olivia and Willy from TakeTV.
+ Show Spoiler +
Who : Olivia Wong (Axiom Assistant Manager), Willy (TakeTV Staff) & Me
When : July 31st, 2013 @ 7am
Where : Skype
Olivia: so given the circumstances Axiom was never fully informed of the change in travel expenses and participated in Acer Teamstory Cup with the impression expenses would be paid for the offline portion if we made it that far
Genna: We are not prepared to pay such overpriced airfare for our entire team to attend an event during peak season. When the top prize is not even enough to cover such expenses, it makes little sense for us to attend. Our fans expected to see us participate in this event and we will have to answer to them as to why we have to consider forfeiting our participation. If when we were asked about participating this was explained about travel not being comped, we would have declined immediately to have avoided all the hassle involved. So unless there is any alternative to the current offer of compensation I'm afraid we will have to decline and forfeit our position in ATC.
Willy : Well Genna, I´m sorry you never got this Information. I wrote a mail but unfortunatly I didn´t looped you in. But nevertheless this was no secret at all. The wrote a big News at the Acer Teamstory cup Page in March and also it was discussed by all of the managers sometimes in the ATC Team Management Skypegroup as well as in the TL forums. We are sorry you got no clue about this fact - this is for a portion our fault - but nothing we could change anymore. We tryed to get more by Acer due to exact this reason. it´s for full US/KR teams nearly nothing
Genna : It's not my job to trudge through TL forums in search of information that should have been already offered freely to me via direct communication upon an invitation to join the ATC. Not only has this let my team down, but this will now let our fans down and the other teams that we have kept out of position by defeating them.
Willy : Well Genna, but if you have no infos you should maybe just ask.
(Insert my ragepunching a pillow here)
Willy : We are sorry, I am. I could maybe ask Dennis if there is any way
Genna : As am I. I feel the most sorry for those other teams who would have gladly participated in an offline finals. If I would have known sooner, I would've bailed so as not to prevent them from any setbacks.
Willy : Well, if Axiom have to cancel their final spot, and next Team (Mill) would take the spot Ofc this is the worstcase I will talk to Dennis/Take maybe there is a way to find together
Genna : Yeah but that doesn't help any of the other teams who lost position along the way. Doesn't necessarily mean that Mill would've been the next team in line overall if we were removed from the equation.
Willy : Give me some minutes.
When : July 31st, 2013 @ 7am
Where : Skype
Olivia: so given the circumstances Axiom was never fully informed of the change in travel expenses and participated in Acer Teamstory Cup with the impression expenses would be paid for the offline portion if we made it that far
Genna: We are not prepared to pay such overpriced airfare for our entire team to attend an event during peak season. When the top prize is not even enough to cover such expenses, it makes little sense for us to attend. Our fans expected to see us participate in this event and we will have to answer to them as to why we have to consider forfeiting our participation. If when we were asked about participating this was explained about travel not being comped, we would have declined immediately to have avoided all the hassle involved. So unless there is any alternative to the current offer of compensation I'm afraid we will have to decline and forfeit our position in ATC.
Willy : Well Genna, I´m sorry you never got this Information. I wrote a mail but unfortunatly I didn´t looped you in. But nevertheless this was no secret at all. The wrote a big News at the Acer Teamstory cup Page in March and also it was discussed by all of the managers sometimes in the ATC Team Management Skypegroup as well as in the TL forums. We are sorry you got no clue about this fact - this is for a portion our fault - but nothing we could change anymore. We tryed to get more by Acer due to exact this reason. it´s for full US/KR teams nearly nothing
Genna : It's not my job to trudge through TL forums in search of information that should have been already offered freely to me via direct communication upon an invitation to join the ATC. Not only has this let my team down, but this will now let our fans down and the other teams that we have kept out of position by defeating them.
Willy : Well Genna, but if you have no infos you should maybe just ask.
(Insert my ragepunching a pillow here)
Willy : We are sorry, I am. I could maybe ask Dennis if there is any way
Genna : As am I. I feel the most sorry for those other teams who would have gladly participated in an offline finals. If I would have known sooner, I would've bailed so as not to prevent them from any setbacks.
Willy : Well, if Axiom have to cancel their final spot, and next Team (Mill) would take the spot Ofc this is the worstcase I will talk to Dennis/Take maybe there is a way to find together
Genna : Yeah but that doesn't help any of the other teams who lost position along the way. Doesn't necessarily mean that Mill would've been the next team in line overall if we were removed from the equation.
Willy : Give me some minutes.
It's at this point that Dennis (TakeTV) stepped in. I'm hoping you all know Dennis, if you don't, you should. He's a great guy and does a lot for eSports.
+ Show Spoiler +
Dennis : my aim right now is to find a solution with you just to let you know my next steps i will call acer and explain the situation and ask what they think
Genna : Ok
Dennis : i hope they might have a solution and support us some more i ve checked flights
Genna : Same here. I checked all my emails. Even the info sheet didn't give that information.
Dennis : once again i really wanna appologize thats very sucky but i am just wondering and i hope you can give me a honest answer my options are acer supports us if not
Genna : Yeah. Again it's not so much feeling bad for ourselves, but we're more upset for others. The other teams we kept from qualifying for offline finals, etc.
Dennis : i have to think about supporting you if this happens is thier a chance we can share cost at any point?
Genna : Next month because of DreamHack Bucharest and WCS NA we are already $15,000+ in expenses for team flights alone. That is before team salary cost and our team house costs, etc.
Dennis : yeah totally understandable
Genna : So while I wish we could help out, it is really not possible for us at this time.
Dennis : i am just wondering if its a possiblity for you for example use the 2k guaranteed for extra flights from the pricemoney which is guaranteed
Genna : We don't actually use any money from our players earnings. All money won by our players goes to them directly.
Dennis : okay i see but lets be honest thier chances doing pretty okay at the finale are there if we cant find a deal at all it would be the worst solution right? the point is i dont have big budgets that i can pay from my own pocket 3-4-5 flights
Genna : Worst case scenario, we forfeit and Millenium takes our slot.
Dennis : but before a team is not coming i really wanna help and even willing to pay some of my money into it thats why i ask i just try to find options
Genna : I'll have to talk to John about it to see if we have anything leftover from our sponsor pool for the month.
Dennis : okay and i will talk to acer about it if they would cover another 1500+ i think i am willing to help to on top
Genna : Okay. If we can keep this chat conversation open we can report back our findings. Just wish I would have known earlier about everything. I am a mother and CEO of two businesses. I don't read every single thread on Team Liquid, but I do read all my emails.
Dennis : i ll try to fix it asap yeah understandable we actually think the mail with the information didnt go out we have sent it at the cebit live at the venue to the teams but our feelings are that it never reached the teams we are checking on it atm
Genna : Ok
Dennis : i hope they might have a solution and support us some more i ve checked flights
Genna : Same here. I checked all my emails. Even the info sheet didn't give that information.
Dennis : once again i really wanna appologize thats very sucky but i am just wondering and i hope you can give me a honest answer my options are acer supports us if not
Genna : Yeah. Again it's not so much feeling bad for ourselves, but we're more upset for others. The other teams we kept from qualifying for offline finals, etc.
Dennis : i have to think about supporting you if this happens is thier a chance we can share cost at any point?
Genna : Next month because of DreamHack Bucharest and WCS NA we are already $15,000+ in expenses for team flights alone. That is before team salary cost and our team house costs, etc.
Dennis : yeah totally understandable
Genna : So while I wish we could help out, it is really not possible for us at this time.
Dennis : i am just wondering if its a possiblity for you for example use the 2k guaranteed for extra flights from the pricemoney which is guaranteed
Genna : We don't actually use any money from our players earnings. All money won by our players goes to them directly.
Dennis : okay i see but lets be honest thier chances doing pretty okay at the finale are there if we cant find a deal at all it would be the worst solution right? the point is i dont have big budgets that i can pay from my own pocket 3-4-5 flights
Genna : Worst case scenario, we forfeit and Millenium takes our slot.
Dennis : but before a team is not coming i really wanna help and even willing to pay some of my money into it thats why i ask i just try to find options
Genna : I'll have to talk to John about it to see if we have anything leftover from our sponsor pool for the month.
Dennis : okay and i will talk to acer about it if they would cover another 1500+ i think i am willing to help to on top
Genna : Okay. If we can keep this chat conversation open we can report back our findings. Just wish I would have known earlier about everything. I am a mother and CEO of two businesses. I don't read every single thread on Team Liquid, but I do read all my emails.
Dennis : i ll try to fix it asap yeah understandable we actually think the mail with the information didnt go out we have sent it at the cebit live at the venue to the teams but our feelings are that it never reached the teams we are checking on it atm
See what I mean? He's a great guy. Even offering to help pay our costs on top in the event Acer could give them more support. Did I really want that to be necessary, nope. All we could do was wait and plan for the worst. We found that we were tapped as far as our spending budget for team expenses for the month up until DH Bucharest, so it was up to Take and Acer to see if anything could be resolved. As a note of interest, at this time MVP announced their fundraiser to pay for costs to attend ATC.
+ Show Spoiler +
Who : Dennis (TakeTV) & Me
When : Aug. 9th @ 11am
Where : Skype
Dennis : hey genna are you around? would like to talk to you about the ATC i guess you have talked to uwe too he just sent me an email and told me that they will not pay any more money for any team in the ATC so what we promised will still be payed 1500 dollar and the 4 hotelbeds i already promised liquid quiet some time ago that i will pay some extracost which actually was planed to get paid by acer but they refused this now tbh to you but since i gave my word i will pay these extracost for them cause its my word but i can t effort to pay axioms travelcosts on top since we never promised anything like that and i dont have any budget for that. if you have any idea how we can fix that i would be more than glad! lets just chat whenever you are around
Genna : Yeah I understand of course. It looks like MVP are having the same problem and they've started a fundraiser in order to get their players to ATC.
Dennis : i dunno what i know is that they confirmed they will come quiet some time ago and pay the trips they never mentioned how they pay it the question is if you guys are up to do some stuff too? for me its just important to get an answer until monday if you can show up or not if we really have to ask someone to take ur place they ll also need time to book stuff etc
Genna : I understand. While honestly we'd really like to participate, I'm afraid it's just not possible. We also have CranK suffering pretty badly from his injury and I'd really like to keep him at home to rest and recover before DH Bucharest. At this rate, I'm not even sure if he will back to competing form at that point either. I really hate to put a damper on the entire event by pulling out, but I don't really see what other option we have. I'd rather be financially responsible and forego attending one event than to give into my passion and be fiscally unstable. I really do hope the offline portion is amazing and I'm looking forward to watching, even if we can't compete ourselves.
Dennis : hmm so this means you somehow sure u wont attend? that would be very very sad tbh
Genna : Yeah 100%
When : Aug. 9th @ 11am
Where : Skype
Dennis : hey genna are you around? would like to talk to you about the ATC i guess you have talked to uwe too he just sent me an email and told me that they will not pay any more money for any team in the ATC so what we promised will still be payed 1500 dollar and the 4 hotelbeds i already promised liquid quiet some time ago that i will pay some extracost which actually was planed to get paid by acer but they refused this now tbh to you but since i gave my word i will pay these extracost for them cause its my word but i can t effort to pay axioms travelcosts on top since we never promised anything like that and i dont have any budget for that. if you have any idea how we can fix that i would be more than glad! lets just chat whenever you are around
Genna : Yeah I understand of course. It looks like MVP are having the same problem and they've started a fundraiser in order to get their players to ATC.
Dennis : i dunno what i know is that they confirmed they will come quiet some time ago and pay the trips they never mentioned how they pay it the question is if you guys are up to do some stuff too? for me its just important to get an answer until monday if you can show up or not if we really have to ask someone to take ur place they ll also need time to book stuff etc
Genna : I understand. While honestly we'd really like to participate, I'm afraid it's just not possible. We also have CranK suffering pretty badly from his injury and I'd really like to keep him at home to rest and recover before DH Bucharest. At this rate, I'm not even sure if he will back to competing form at that point either. I really hate to put a damper on the entire event by pulling out, but I don't really see what other option we have. I'd rather be financially responsible and forego attending one event than to give into my passion and be fiscally unstable. I really do hope the offline portion is amazing and I'm looking forward to watching, even if we can't compete ourselves.
Dennis : hmm so this means you somehow sure u wont attend? that would be very very sad tbh
Genna : Yeah 100%
Right, so here we are. A rather unfortunate series of events and all parties involved hurt tremendously. So, as any good redditor or TL community member, you must decide who to aim your pitchfork at.
A ) Axiom for not performing due diligence in being aware of all of the parameters for an event they were involved in.
B ) TakeTV for not communicating clearly with teams.
C ) Acer for not providing enough sponsorship to support travel for the offline portion of ATC.
Take your pick, but consider this.
A ) Fairweather fans are best known by their lack of support during hard times. We appreciate our loyal fans and when we do compete, we do it for them.
B ) Organizations that put together good quality events in our community should not be taken for granted. The ATC finals should be great and hopefully you tune in.
C ) Acer had a clear contract with TakeTV for a set sum in order to sponsor the event. As they also support a SC2 team, this is not the time to "email the sponsors".
Moral of the Story : When communication fails, there are no winners.
I understand that my blog won't lessen the anger many of you might feel towards me or my team. But, I'm hoping that you will all continue to support ATC and cheer for those who will be in Germany competing soon for your entertainment. Remember that our community exists upon symbiotic relationships. If there are no players, there is no event. If there are no organizers, there is no event. If there are no sponsors, there is no event. We must do what we can to preserve what we have in efforts to grow.
I'll try to answer any questions you guys have in this thread as they are posted.