Home Gaming Scandal and drama during our local CoD qualifiers

Scandal and drama during our local CoD qualifiers

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dramaqueenToday was the day when the very best Xbox 360 Call of Duty clans from around the country went head to head to see who would be the South African representative at the $1 million Call of Duty championship later this year.

All the pre-tournament hype was around the newcomers Team Adept and the long running Clan Hi5 with the general expectation that these two titans would likely fight out the final.

The early rounds went as expected with all the big boys winning and moving along but then in the semi finals the drama started.

Team Adept were up against Team RiZe and they took the opening games. Then it was RiZe’s turn to host and it was quickly noticed that the host was actually based in the UK. Obviously this was disputed and the request was put to the ref.

Now the rules are quite clear on the MLG page about the makeup of the team and it states

Eligibility: Players must be at least 18 years old as of January 9, 2014.  Teams must include at least 2 Players who are residents of their qualifying country/region.

So only two players need to reside in South Africa which seems fair enough as this isn’t a country vs country event.

Team RiZe has two UK players, who appear to be their best players.

The ref has then ruled that the UK players can be the hosts of the game which puts the local players at a massive disadvantage. Team Adept tried their best but couldn’t make up for the massive lag issues.

In the final RiZe faced off against Hi5 and again were beaten quite easily while Hi5 were hosting but as soon as the UK guys were hosting the game started to become a bit of a joke.

The results and scandal have now exploded onto twitter and someone from RiZe is offering to quit if that means that the team is disqualified while others are just furious at the poor choice made by the MLG ref.

Personally my recommendation is that Team RiZe are forced to replay their semi final but all hosts have to be based in the region that is being contested. The winner will then play Hi5 in the final.

RiZe has not broken any rules but this situation is wrong and it should be resolved. Let’s hope the MLG acts and acts quickly.

PS: The editors are away so please let me know what I got wrong and I’ll update it.

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Last Updated: February 22, 2014

40 Comments

  1. Matt Merks

    February 22, 2014 at 20:18

    Please keep us updated.

    Reply

  2. Ultimo_Cleric N7

    February 22, 2014 at 20:21

    That’s really unfair. Hope this gets sorted quickly. There’s enough drama in the SA gaming community as is.

    Reply

  3. Brendon Bosch

    February 22, 2014 at 20:25

    Ok now that’s just silly. Wasn’t this picked up earlier in the tourny that this was happening when they host

    Reply

  4. dastrix

    February 22, 2014 at 20:27

    We (H5) and Adept have lodged tickets with the MLG and is awaiting their reply.

    Reply

  5. jbye

    February 22, 2014 at 20:28

    very interesting

    Reply

  6. Rags

    February 22, 2014 at 21:39

    And this is why competitive FPS gaming should be done on dedicated servers and on PC. lolz

    Reply

    • Brian Murphy

      February 22, 2014 at 22:34

      While my preference of playing FPS on PC makes me incapable of not responding in the overwhelming affirmative (heh), the _CLEAR_ benefit of having client side server options should be without question.

      Reply

  7. dastrix

    February 22, 2014 at 22:04

    This escalated pretty damn fast with many of the pro players and pro casters getting involved and helping us with the issue. Keemstar is also doing a interview with Holden, Google and Damage. (local competitive cod players)

    Reply

    • Rags

      February 22, 2014 at 22:28

      Hope you get it sorted, gl!

      Reply

      • dastrix

        February 22, 2014 at 22:56

        Thanks dude. will keep you guys updated.

        Reply

  8. dastrix

    February 22, 2014 at 22:57

    Just want thank Gavin, Darryn and Lazygamer for the support and bringing this issue to light!

    Reply

  9. dastrix

    February 22, 2014 at 23:35

    Here is the Keemstar interview.

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph

      February 24, 2014 at 07:29

      That was an interesting interview.

      Reply

  10. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    February 23, 2014 at 08:12

    Ok, this isn’t fair. If it’s to determine who will represent South Africa then the hosts need to be IN SOUTH AFRICA.

    Yes I can understand that from the UK side playing on an SA server will induce lag on the UK players side, but that is your disadvantage as a team if you decide to use non local players to be on your team.

    I am very disappointed that the MLG ref would allow them to host in the UK while it’s for a South African representation. Very poor form

    Reply

  11. Havoc

    February 23, 2014 at 09:02

    I am going to have to play devil’s advocate here since I feel everyone is attacking the symptom, not the problem. You play two sessions, one hosted by your team, one hosted by theirs. If you are good enough on aggregate, you will still win, the basis of an international competition.

    Now, if their best players are overseas based then surely they must be allowed to host the game otherwise they will be at a disadvantage. The issue here is not the hosting. It is allowing overseas based players. If they are allowed, they must be allowed to host. Law is a very interesting thing as well, as resident, ordinarily resident and primarily resident are all interesting terms. It says there that only two team members must be residents. Now what if I am 3 months in the UK and 9 months in South Africa per year. That would make me a South African resident. What if I am in the UK during the time of the qualifier. Suddenly the whole team playing could be in the UK.

    In short. If foreign/non staying in South African members are allowed they should be allowed to host. Alternatively only people staying in South Africa should be allowed to be members.

    I have played quite a few CS (Counter Strike) (on pc) tournaments in my life and have never seen something of that sort since the servers are always based in the country hosting the qualifier tournament and provided by the organisers with a server Op (with the correct setup and settings). That very quickly dissuades teams from foreign members regardless of how good they are.

    In the words of my boss. “It sounds like these folks can’t organise a piss up in a brewery.”

    Reply

  12. Bankai

    February 23, 2014 at 09:23

    I don’t understand. Didn’t Team Adept host more local matches than Rize? I’m pretty sure both teams were tied 2 – 2 until the final match which Team Adept hosted? If the host is local this means that the UK players would have experienced lag too. It works both ways. If you lose on your own host then I don’t think you have any right to complain. If Team Adept won everyone would’ve been fine, however, it seems defeat can’t be accepted. Apparently the 2 UK players were semi pro if I’m not mistaken? I think Team Adept should really consider playing internationally and not restrict themselves to local play. You have to get a feel of what’s out there in terms of competition. Even if they did win and went to LA I don’t think they’d stand any chance of winning against the big teams. It might even be a repeat of last year.
    I know I’m gonna get attacked for posting this message but that’s fine. I’m not siding with anyone. I just don’t think what you’re doing to Rize is fair. As I said lag works both ways and Rize handled it better. There’s no need to curse at them on Twitter as I’ve seen you all do. This is incredibly poor behavior. Similar to the booing of Jacob Zuma at Nelson Mandelas funeral even when Obama was here. South Africa really has no limit nor respect. Please just stop. If Rize has a rematch against Team Adept on local host and they still beat Adept will you guys continue complaining?

    Reply

    • Havoc

      February 23, 2014 at 10:15

      I’m with you on this one Bankai. Plus those two UK guys must have been lagging on the 3 maps Adept hosted, so are they just so insanely good that that lag didn’t bother them? Thing is that is the primary issue I have with using a controller for a first person shooter. God knows I would have gone over to consoles years ago if they allowed mouse and keyboard as direct inputs. Fact is that with controller lag is appreciated different to a mouse and keyboard. With a mouse and keyboard lag makes it almost completely unplayable due to the level of your freedom of movement, and that wrist flicks become completely inaccurate. With controllers all acceleration is linear due to playing with joysticks.

      Also as sad as I am to say this, but Africa as a continent don’t have direct cables running to the other continents in the same fashion as they do. There is literally a direct line from the US to Europe and US to Asia. Fact is that our cables are running on “via” routes to other continents, not even to mention the quality of our local copper.

      Lan environments will always be the greatest competition environment ever. Also being able to toss your keyboard at a guy after one imba kill too many is priceless.

      Reply

    • Rags

      February 23, 2014 at 12:20

      You can’t play internationally with a 200ms ping vs 0-20ms. You’d get slaughtered by anyone half decent.

      Reply

    • dastrix

      February 23, 2014 at 12:28

      The problem with lag is the inconsistency. Even if I host a match it does not necessarily give me the advantage. A person connecting to my host can “teleport” or “glitch” across my screen making it nearly impossible to shoot him.

      The whole idea of hosting regional qualifiers for this event is to eliminate situations like this, otherwise they might just as well have had a open qualification with people hosting from all over the world. If lag was not a issue, why hold a SA CoD Champs qualifier? Why not just put us into the EU bracket and let our teams qualify from there?

      I think what is even a bigger issue with the community is that eSports is a emerging and growing discipline in SA and by allowing a UK host in a SA qualifier it denies us fair chance of competing and growing eSports in SA.

      I can also confirm that if Rize where to play Adept on local host the outcome of the match would be fully accepted.

      Reply

  13. TheBrain

    February 23, 2014 at 09:45

    Why oh why are there not dedicated servers, how would it work at the final championship in LA?

    Reply

    • Gavin Mannion

      February 23, 2014 at 10:30

      well in LA everyone will be on a LAN so it won’t be an issue

      Reply

  14. Weanerdog

    February 23, 2014 at 14:18

    Rules MLG under host

    4. Teams should play a Lag Test Game, for roughly 30 seconds, to determine if a Host is acceptable. If it is determined that the Host is unacceptable, a new Lag Test Game should be performed with a new Host. Lag Test Games should be played using a Game Mode and/or Map that the teams are not schedule to play.

    5. All players must agree that the Host is reasonable before the start of a game. If a reasonable Host cannot be found,Tournament Live Support MUST be used to request an OLT Support Specialist to help decide who will host the game. If an OLT Support Specialist is not available, the best Host should be used.

    So, therefore if the players did not agree to the host, another host should have been used from that team. If the teams complained before the game commenced or during the test game, the referees decision was wrong and this should be included in the tickets sent. If the concerns were raised after the commencement of the start of the games then the result should stand.

    Edit: And you has ten minutes to report the games after there conclusion.

    Reply

    • Havoc

      February 23, 2014 at 21:57

      So if the two UK guys then never felt that the lag was okay and agreement can’t be reached, what then?

      Reply

      • Willem Swanepoel

        February 24, 2014 at 06:47

        The noobs who created the rules should then make a decision.
        I do not know who was the bright spark who decided that ANYONE in ANY region can host. He is clearly living under a rock….

        Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

        February 24, 2014 at 07:14

        The problem with this is that it was meant to be a nationals qualifier. Not international.

        Therefore all hosts should have been local since it is a national / regional qualifier.

        If you decide to have two players sitting overseas for your team then you should understand the risk you are taking that your overseas counterparts are going to have a larger latency.

        In any sport when there are regional qualifiers happening then the qualifiers are all done in one spot in the country of origin. That is to ensure the most level and fair playing ground for all of the regions sportsman.

        So yes, we understand the argument that the overseas guys had latency so it was only fair to have a 50/50 split of where the hosts were. But if you look at the fact that it isn’t meant to be an international qualifier then you start to see they don’t really have much of a say.

        Also, when playing on a local server only 2 players from Team RiZe have disadvantage. The 2 overseas guys. While 2 of their players have the local advantage.

        So Team RiZe have a 50% disadvantage and a 50% home advantage at the same time.

        But when playing on an international server then Team RiZe still only have a 50% disadvantage with the 2 South African team players while still having a 50% home advantage.

        While Team adept would then have a 100% disadvantage and in this case you can’t say that the 50% disadvantage both sides will equal 100% because we all know it doesn’t really. There is a vast differance in having only partial disadvantage online compared to an entire team because at least when you have partial latency issues for only 2 memembers, the other 2 team members could still potentially fill that gap.

        But when the entire team has an issue then no one can cover the gap.

        Sorry, but I have to agree that local qualifiers should be run on local servers only and if you decide to have overseas players then it is a handicap risk you are taking as a team.

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in Vegas

          February 24, 2014 at 07:52

          Jinne maar jy skryf ‘n opstel so vroeg in die dag ne?

          Reply

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            February 24, 2014 at 09:38

            Ek is in full blown rant mode. Check my rant op die MSSA response

        • Weanerdog

          February 24, 2014 at 09:58

          Yes my sentiments exactly. if the guys from overseas are experiencing lag that is their problem as it is a SA regional. Guys from SA experiencing lag because host out of region then it should be changed to be hosted by one of the locals.

          Reply

      • Weanerdog

        February 24, 2014 at 09:59

        Then the ref should have stepped in and said tough luck it is a SA regional qualifier.

        Reply

  15. Admiral Chief in Vegas

    February 24, 2014 at 07:29

    See now this ain’t right. “local CoD qualifiers” surely it should be “local”?????

    Reply

  16. Kensei Seraph

    February 24, 2014 at 07:31

    And apparently the ref was in America.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief in Vegas

      February 24, 2014 at 07:32

      O_O

      What is a Regula precious?

      Reply

      • Kensei Seraph

        February 24, 2014 at 08:08

        A baldy spelt Regular.

        I was using that for the Mweb thing.

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          February 24, 2014 at 08:24

          Damn those baldies & their terrible spelling.

          Reply

          • Kensei Seraph

            February 24, 2014 at 08:37

            Hey, I’m not bald and since there’s no history of baldness in my family it’s not likely.
            If anything you’re bald, green scales don’t count as hair.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 24, 2014 at 08:49

            lol 🙁

        • Admiral Chief in Vegas

          February 24, 2014 at 08:27

          😉

          Reply

  17. Hammersteyn

    February 24, 2014 at 07:44

    So people from the UK might represent South Africa? Do they at least have an SA passport?

    Reply

    • Weanerdog

      February 24, 2014 at 09:56

      No two members of the team need to be resident in SA, they can be from anywhere originally as long as they are resident no one actually needs to be South African. This is not an SA team but a qualifier held in (or not) South Africa.

      Reply

  18. ZumaIsPoes

    February 24, 2014 at 15:03

    eish….. sad news …

    Reply

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