Masters Cup 17 ChoBo review, updated results, bans + new tournament
SEA Masters Cup 17 Review
As most of you would be aware, last Sundays SEA Masters Cup winner AsGCHoBo was actually vVvseohyeon, a korean gamer smurfing on CHoBo's account. Summary of all the details/evidence can be found in this thread.
I would like to thank all those who worked very hard to uncover the truth and depths of their deceit. I would also like to apologise to all the players seohyeon eliminated during the event. I am sorry this happened, ruining your tournament experience, and potentially a chance at the glory of Masters Cup Champion and subsequent prize pool. We will work hard to try and ensure such things don't ever happen again. vVvseohyeon's victory shall be removed from the records. Placings shall be as follows:
Both CHoBo and seohyeon shall receive lifetime bans from the Masters Cup (both SEA + International versions), as well as any future online events i may run.
Both players breached our rules and code of conduct:
-Players must have their own Sea account, playing on a friends is not allowed
-Non SEA residents/international players can join every 3rd 'open' Masters Cup. The 2 beforehand and 2 following are just for SEA players to compete amongst themselves.
Neither owned up until there was indisputable evidence against them. The guilt is shared, there is no doubt they would be aware of what they were doing. It's not the first event they have played in, there's evidence of repeated ladder smurfing, and they conspired to deny community suspicions.
I take their deliberate and long running deceit personally. SEA is a very tight knit community, and someone trying to cheat and undermine us, the tournament, and potentially hard working players livelihoods is very low and unacceptable. We wont have such individuals associated with our event.
I have been debating the fairest way to distribute the $175 remaining from the prize pool for quite some time, coming up with many ideas. Perhaps the fairest would be to re-run that side of the bracket, however there are difficulties arranging games/timeframes, clashing with other events, and re-creating the same situation as last Sunday. Other options included splitting the prize pool between players seohyeon eliminated, promoting the last eliminated player into the final to play Mafia for 1st/2nd, or giving Mafia the remaining 1st place money. Unfortunately none of the above was either practical or fair on all involved. We could have also opted to keep the remaining money to add towards future monthly cups. It is a very tricky situation, and i consulted many community leaders + players for their opinions before making a final decision. Instead of above mentioned ideas, we have opted for another option.
Bonus Masters Cup Tournament
We shall run a special bonus Masters Cup tournament, on Saturday 16 June, open to the whole SEA Community, no ladder league restrictions. Many people were hurt in some way by the smurfing scandal, and we feel this tournament shall act to unite us again and move past it. The money CHoBo + seohyeon attempted to steal, shall be shared amongst the community, everyone shall have a fresh chance at the prize pool and title of Masters Cup Champion.
This idea was conceived by Mafia, the player with perhaps the most claim at any additional $ prize. It just shows that not only is he a Masters Cup Champion, but a Champion of the community! This mixture of skill, professionalism, and caring of others was no doubt the primary reason he was the first player selected by Team Immunity in their expansion into Starcraft 2. He is a fantastic ambassador for our region.
A signup/information thread for next Saturdays Cup shall be posted Tuesday or Wednesday. Ttesports sponsorship from Sundays Cup shall flow over into this one as well. The likely start time will either be 6pm or 7pm AEST. Prizepool breakdown ($175 min), stream, etc will all be included in the signup thread. It will be the same Masters Cup format you have come to enjoy, just bigger!
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