Entire crowd booed him. Clearly they disagree with you. I as a team owner disagree with you. Had any of my players done that on that stage I would have fired them immediately. It was bad enough when CranK overslept and missed an open bracket game at an MLG, management took full responsibility for that. Then there was the issue of his lackluster play against his team-mate in WCS, there were consequences for that too. The bad publicity we received from both, well there are people who still bring up the WCS thing and that was a year ago and RO16 of a WCS America, not the biggest stage in Starcraft with $100k winner takes all. How your player acts reflects directly on the team. They are contracted to do a job and they are expected to perform their duties to a certain standard. In doing so they represent the team and their sponsors. Anything that player does which generates bad publicity reflects poorly on all of the above. This was the most severe thing I've ever seen an SC2 player do in his capacity as a player and in the context of a tournament environment. Nothing in the last 4 years comes close.
So yeah, to say forfeits are not that big a deal shows an awful lot of ignorance about how the pro-scene works and how teams operate.
It would also reflect badly on you, if you sent in a player that hadn't practiced for the tournament, in spite of him saying he couldn't. That is also very poor man-management. Professionalism goes both ways. Just like human understanding.
You say the management took full responsibility for it, shows the difference, does it not? Did you fire Crank for being unprofessional? Or did you know that eSport is a different level of professionalism, and told him to do better, as it reflects poorly on the both of you.
Maybe there is a difference in TotalBiscuit the businessman, and John Bain, the human being. I think so. And I think you would never have put one of your players in this situation.
Alliance doesn't have magic powers. Naniwa wasn't forced to go. He could have said no, but then he would have been released. So he went to IEM, pulled a nutty and got fired.
If you don't want to go, don't. If it gets you fired, deal with it. That's the problem, Naniwa wanted to not go and still be on alliance.
leads me to believe this thing is a work. Alliance gets to appear to be the knight in shining armour coming to defend all that is righteous and good. TotalBiscuit chimes in with his righteous indignation.
Don't tell me esports can't have Good Versus Evil. ROFLMAO.
Naniwa has already decided he is bored and leaving any way... so he gives an IEM RO16 match no one will ever forget. Had he forfeited without even appearing on stage then fine.. but nope.. he had to have his big dramatic exit.
six months from now no one will remember hte details of any of the IEM RO16 except for the Naniwa walk out.
Naniwa went out on his back and put over his team, IEM, and TotalBiscuit giving them more publicity then they'd even get if he just lost to Polt straight up. Naniwa continues his act as villian by lying about why he left.
wp Naniwa, wp i wonder how much his bonus cheque from Alliance will be for pulling this off.
No way. Alliance just wanted him to attend and represent the sponsors. Thinking this was planned for increased exposure is just tin foil hat nonsense. There is literally no evidence to back that up.
i might have only been planned by Naniwa... hard to say. and if its planned properly there won't be any evidence because this is a simple caper to pull off. match fixing is much harder than this.
You need to watch less TV. No one plans to get fired in public and ruin theiir carreer. Life isn't that predictable and people like paychecks.
WRONG i don't have cable. now you're reaching. "career" in what? sry man.. the pay cheques in SC2 are declining fast.
how many times did Testie get caught hacking only to be welcomed back as "the bad boy of Brood War"? countless times?
hacking your way to a Blizzcon invite is 10,000 times worse than what Naniwa did. if anything it increases his profile.
Well, with that i can hardly see any team wanting him if he wants to make a comeback.
I'm not the kind of guy who hates people (i support every player basically) but i don't really think a comeback would be good anyway. We can't blame him for acting like this, the game doesn't dictates how people are, but that doesn't mean we must support him at all costs.
nobody will ever pay this guy again what he "thinks" he deserves. The only way he will ever make money again in e-sports is through tournament earnings and streaming.
Thing is, Naniwa's reaction and overall sentiment is relatable on a purely emotional level. I too know what it means to be in a position where there's really no intrinsic joy to be had anymore. It's really easy to just say "eff this" and walk. Even if it means losing a paycheck. I've done it. I know others who have done it. At some point, making a statement and retaining one's dignity - as one defines it - becomes more important than being professional in spite of others not doing the same (whether true or in just one's head).
What I have to wonder, though, is where fan reactions factored into all of this, from Naniwa's point of view. He must understand, intellectually, that people wanted to see him play regardless of whether he won or lost or even played... meh-i-ly. There are people who, rightly or wrongly, think he's great, and his play brings them joy. So what would it have cost him to just play some fun games just for the sake of the fans. Their support thus far hasn't been worth the < 1 hour it would've taken to finish the series? That's the one thing I don't get.
Everything else I can relate to. But if people were cheering me on... well, that has currency with me.
On March 21 2014 19:35 JacobShock wrote: Today I called in at work and told my boss they should find a replacement for me today, because I don't really feel like working right now, I just don't find it fun. But he said there would be consequences if I didn't show up to do my job, so it almost forced me to show up. It's extremely funny and they should have known, because when I got at work, I did a half assed job and went home after an hour. After that I got fired, I know what you are thinking, weird right?
Just want to requote this...I feel like this sums up the situation beautifully.
at least idra was actively involved in community with inside the game, state of the game, meta, and various other shows. he had exposure and brand value. all naniwa had was his skill, which is gone now and will continue to degrade. he has crap work ethic, zero accountability, and a toxic personality. no company in the real world would want to hire that kind of man child, let alone a team or sponsor for sc2.
On March 21 2014 19:35 JacobShock wrote: Today I called in at work and told my boss they should find a replacement for me today, because I don't really feel like working right now, I just don't find it fun. But he said there would be consequences if I didn't show up to do my job, so it almost forced me to show up. It's extremely funny and they should have known, because when I got at work, I did a half assed job and went home after an hour. After that I got fired, I know what you are thinking, weird right?
Shocking, that they can they fire someone for refusing to do what he was paid to do! Such insolence!
With a lot of contracts getting fired is better than quitting, from how much Stephano has to stream after retirement I think EG/Alliance is the same way.
On March 22 2014 00:08 -Celestial- wrote:So the simplest assumption is that they warned him that he'd be punished (likely financially) if he didn't go. And consequently he went (in hope of still getting paid? I don't know, speculating, there has to be SOME reason for him to have gone given that he clearly didn't want to be there).
Since we're speculating: what if the consequences weren't just "not getting paid" but also that he had to pay a substantial fine to the team? What if it said was basically: if you break this contract, you bind yourself to pay a fine of $100000. You still think he was "free to set his foot down"? Sometimes strings and ropes are invisible. And just as it was within the team's legal rights to push the contract to its limits, it was Nani's right to legally forfeit once he was on site. I doubt he had planned to forfeit, but the soundproof thing was the last drop that pushed him over the edge to do it anyway. In this theoretical scenario, he answered his team with the same coin. He pushed his legal rights.
I'm not saying the above is true, but since people here tend to speculate and then turn their own theories and assumptions into truth, I thought I would show an alternative theory.
Shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone, if anything I'm surprised we didn't hear it earlier. Although Naniwa seems surprised. I guess he still thinks that he's so good that he can do anything he wants without any repercussions. But that's not how it works. Turns out that when you're being sponsored you actually have to give your sponsors good publicity. TotalBiscuit summed it up pretty good back on page 17 and 19 I'd say.
I don't get why there's so many people trying to compare what Naniwa did with "worse" things that other players did. This guy obviously doesn't want to play Starcraft anymore, and he pissed on the community while announcing it. Blind Naniwa fans should wake up and accept that.