Right apparently there's a bit of shit going round about this so let's go.
I was 2-2 in groups at ACL before I had to play my team mate Pokerface. If was lucky, a 3-2 finish might be enough to put me through to top 8, assuming everyone else except ninja was 3-2 or worse. Benji did not know my results properly though and thought I had no chance at all of making top 8 so he asked that I throw my games to pokerface purposefully to smooth his way through.
I explained that whilst I had a chance to possibly make top 8 I wouldn't do that. But if I had definitely no chance of making top 8 at all in any way then I would gladly throw the series to a team mate, like I assume anyone else would do for theirs. So I played him properly, won 2-0 and the end result was that poker got top 8 and I did not. No harm done at all, unless you don't like all Zerg top 8's. I myself have been the beneficiary of intentional game throwing in the past and that's perfectly ok.
That's it. That's the entirety of it. Benji is not going to ask someone to purposefully lose a tournament, such a thing is ******* insane and benji is not, it turns out, ******* insane. I dunno how this became a rumour or whatever but it's complete bullshit, so cut it out.
At least that's my view on this. Perhaps I have missed something.
I can almost guarantee that if the situation arises, team mates will do it; especially close team mates/friends. Best way to stop it is to not let it get to that point in the first place - Best way to fix it is, as PiG said, to get team mates to play each other first. Simple as that.
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I am not keen on match throwing for teammates no matter the circumstances.
Even if you just think of it as: "Iaguz is mathematically eliminated now and hence just doesn't really focus and play his best any more". Regardless of whether you are playing teammates that can and will happen (*cough*Naniwa*cough*).
Try as hard as we can to get the format right to avoid it affecting the outcome, that's all we can do.
EDIT: gimli, poker's first matchup after coming out of the open bracket should have been against you, I think he means... before you know how the group is shaping up for both of you.
My fault for not realizing that iaguz was ahead of deth on maps, after iaguz pointed this out I believe i retracted what I said and let them play it out.
Del, I understand that you do not like it, but its a massive dick move to knock your teammate out of an event when you have no chance of advancing.
I misunderstood the group standings (I was trying to track all 4 brackets for my players) and made an error and I apologize to iaguz who I hope wasn't offended by my comment.
LoSt, that's not really an option in this instance though, I had to play poker last cuz he came up through open bracket.
This is one of the reasons why i was saying that the pro pool groups shouldn't start before the open bracket finishes (in perfect circumstances) because people can choose groups based off current scores in groups. If they wait they can also make teammates play each other first. Hopefully next ACL when theres more time pro pool won't start until the open bracket is done if they are going to continue along the lines of better seed chooses which group they want to go in.
EDIT: gimli, poker's first matchup after coming out of the open bracket should have been against you, I think he means... before you know how the group is shaping up for both of you.
Great point. But yeah guys sounds like there's no drama here and it's hapened before on the world stage. So let's just all relax and say ok, theres a small change to the format for next time to make sure nothing goes wrong.
Benji was completely fine in approaching it how he did, im sure most teams players/managers would do the same thing as Iaguz stated.
Edit: Just discussing this in alt chat and actually now I've thought it through.
I think that it seems ok if you think "hey my teammate can progress and I can't so WHY would I take a win for myself?"
Yeah sure that sounds fine. But you're basically saying I tried my hardest against some players and not others. I gave free wins to one player, potentially giving him a spot he didn't earn and did not deserve.
If I were to get through cos a friend played like crap against me and admitted it afterwards you know what? I'd feel like I cheated a little. Why? Because I didn't deserve to be there. I didn't earn my spot and basically just because I'm friends or teammates with the other player some other guy who is more deserving misses out.
Now that's impossible to enforce you might say? And EVERYONE would do it in the same circumstances cos of loyalties. So therefore its stupid to say its wrong? **** no. It ruins the integrity of the game and the players involved and should be avoided at all costs.
So ultimately, formats should avoid this at ALL Costs. And if it does happen the player throwing the match better damn well make it look like a serious attempt and not admit publicly that they threw the match.
When I played my clanmate and friend YoonYJ I had already beaten Jazbas so I had jazbas pleading that I play my best even though I was through already so that he had a chance to beat yoon to 2nd place. As it was I tried hard when I played but also did some slightly risky and non-standard play as there was no pressure on me to win, not for my own results anyway.
I lost 0-2 and felt pretty bad when I realised it almost looked like I'd thrown the matches to anyone who knew we were friends. However I didn't and even if I did I wouldn't admit it because it would be an insult to him as a player and Jazbas as a competitor because I'm hurting his chances simply because I personally am closer with YoonYJ. Luckily Jazbas is a boss who came 2nd anyway so I didn't need to feel bad about my crappy play.
Summary: Managers shouldn't be telling people to throw games. Keep that shit under wraps if you're going to do it. If tournament organisers find out about anything like that players or teams should be penalized/DQ for unsportsmanlike conduct. It won't stop it from happening but it makes it harder to do, and especially harder to do blatantly.
Oh and just cos i decided its bad to talk about it/do it. I still have no info that Benji did anything particularly wrong here or close to what was being rumoured.
My fault for not realizing that iaguz was ahead of deth on maps, after iaguz pointed this out I believe i retracted what I said and let them play it out.
did you?
if i recall correctly you did no such thing, but instead stormed over to iaguz after he won with ur voice a' crackin and ur feathers in a puff and asked him WTF?!?
its fine you made a mistake with ur calculations and its great you're apologising but you handled it poorly, if you truly knew that u had made a mistake before they played their games, you would not have reacted the way you did after the match, so either im missing something, or you're lying...?
Also, imo if ur gonna throw ur games for the benefit of ur team mate after having no chance to proceed, to do it in an entertaining fashion, otherwise your letting the audience down, theres no harm in having fun with it if your not playing for your tournament life =)
if i recall correctly you did no such thing, but instead stormed over to iaguz after he won with ur voice a' crackin and ur feathers in a puff and asked him WTF?!?
its fine you made a mistake with ur calculations and its great you're apologising but you handled it poorly, if you truly knew that u had made a mistake before they played their games, you would not have reacted the way you did after the match, so either im missing something, or you're lying...?
Also, imo if ur gonna throw ur games for the benefit of ur team mate after having no chance to proceed, to do it in an entertaining fashion, otherwise your letting the audience down, theres no harm in having fun with it if your not playing for your tournament life =)
iaguz will tell you that I said nothing of the sort to him. I went over to make sure Poker remained positive and to make sure he knew that he could still advance.
Del, I understand that you do not like it, but its a massive dick move to knock your teammate out of an event when you have no chance of advancing.
I'm with deL on this, yea you are team mates but this is an individual tournament and I see throwing games as bad and unsportsman like in any situation.
I don't actually recall having a conversation with benji after the pokerface series at all Champi. I remember walking around and feeling happy after the second game, I don't recall getting yelled at or any such thing.
Quote:
Del, I understand that you do not like it, but its a massive dick move to knock your teammate out of an event when you have no chance of advancing.
This is debatable, I wouldn't call it a dick move. You're at a tournament, you have to play games, it's expected. That you can get out of it is an unexpected courtesy and not something you should force or look negatively upon if it's not agreed to. The whole point of a Starcraft tournament is to play Starcraft, not just to win (which is nice too).
Match throwing between team mates to help eachother advance - isn't a great thing to do, as it cheats someone else out of the spot they otherwise would have earnt.. However, it is something implicit between the players and it happens... Let them decided if they are going to throw the game or play it out - no one external to the two players in that match should try and influence the decision. We all know SenSei also tried to help deth get out of his group, However I didn't tell sensei to throw his games.. and when I heard that he was - I asked them to play a macro game and put on a show for the stream and fans watching at ACL.
I don't actually recall having a conversation with benji after the pokerface series at all Champi. I remember walking around and feeling happy after the second game, I don't recall getting yelled at or any such thing.
in that case i apologise, i must have misunderstood what i thought i was seeing
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