Luminosity, Liquid and RGN – The Drama

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During the game between Team Liquid and Luminosity at RGN this week drama hit. Luminosity’s fer has his computer turned off by a passer by, in the RGN rule book the round is live from the start and can’t be replayed, therefore in the rulebook they couldn’t play the round again but the RGN admins offered Liquid the opportunity to replay the round, which they declined.

Obviously Luminosity were mad.


And so were their fans.

Here is Team Liquid’s statement:

“I’m Steve, co-owner for Team Liquid.

I unfortunately was not attending the RGN event, however based on my conversations with both the owner of RGN, David and Hiko here are my thoughts on the matter.

A volunteer was on the stage of the event during a live match between Luminosity and Team Liquid. This volunteer should not have been on stage, as I understand he had no substantial purpose for being there.

For me, this is the first mistake made by RGN that could have prevented this situation from happening. However, once the power was cut out during the match, the RGN officials/staff should have then made a clear decision, based on their rules or judgement in the situation on how to proceed.

Instead a member of their staff decided to defer to players to make a decision for them on how to run their tournament.

I think this puts any player in a morally compromised position with no real positive outcome. I believe it was unprofessional for the RGN staff to act in the manner they did.

I have no ill feelings to Luminosity, their organization or players. I respect Steve, their owner and the great things he’s done for his team. I hope that the next time we play each other we’ll be able to do so where issues like these won’t be a factor,” Arhancet told HLTV.org.

HLTV spoke to RGN CEO Matt “dayV1D” David  regarding the issue:

Tell me about the situation and specifically, the rule that governed what happened following the disconnect?

The rule has been for many LANs if a player disconnects whether through computer or internet shutoff, if there has been action i.e. damage or kills, then the round can’t be reset. The round counts, no matter what the outcome is and whether the advantaged or disadvantaged team wins that round.

How was the rule explained and/or what transpired after that?

The admins said that the round can’t be reset because the round went live. Luminosity was upset about that which is understandable considering the circumstances over why they were disconnected.

They came upstairs to talk because they had a problem with the issue and they were asking Hiko and Liquid to restart, which is fair play technically, but the admin maintained that the round can’t be restarted.

And what do you think about that decision?

I agree with the decision because even if Hiko and them wanted to restart, that gets into bias and morale. That sets a precedent for players disconnecting their own power cables and claiming that someone else did it.

While of course with Luminosity the situation was a total accident, but I still firmly believe that the rule stands because it needs to be there to avoid a slippery slope.

Do you think the further delays later on in map two exacerbated the situation?

No, that discussion was calm and it was just related to War Mod crashing. We had to restore money manually and the admins did match medicing which both teams found acceptable.

Then why is there such a strong and controversial situation as there is now?

Because Luminosity thought that if Liquid had wanted to say yes to a restart, then it would have happened. But I maintain that the rule states that you can’t reset it.

So I believe that Luminosity is placing the blame on Liquid due to unfortunate circumstances and because of all that negative tension from Luminosity’s fans and the players’ remarks, Liquid is responding back and defending themselves because they were just following the rules.

Do you think the admins did their job perfectly though?

In terms of the ruling, it was correct and the job was done correctly. But what we should have done moving forward is obviously roping off the area where the photographer was as well as not letting Luminosity come upstairs to talk to Hiko and Liquid. Because that led to the misunderstanding and the issue.

LG thought we were giving Liquid the choice whereas in reality we and they had to follow the rules, the ones that have been done at all LANs.

Any further words on the issue?

Neither team is to blame, it was an unfortunate accident, and tensions are high due to delays at the rest of the event and I just think that if we all work together we can have a great event moving forward.

My staff is going 110% and we can crank these matches out going forward. Neither team was to blame, stress levels were high, and it was out of either teams’ control so they feel like they were both kind of robbed.

HLTV spoke to Luminosity Owner Steve ‘Buyaka’ Maida regarding their outrage:

How did the situation unfold for you guys following the disconnect?

The photographer went to take a picture and hit the power button, which is obviously an accident and we’re not blaming him for it.

We were told the round won’t be replayed by one of the admins because kills had been exchanged. The admin then told us to ask Sasquatch, the head admin, he said the round was live and after kills have been exchanged, that rule applies.

He said “it’s up to Liquid if they want to replay” so we went to ask Liquid. We went up to them and Hiko said they would not replay the round because kills had been exchanged and one of our players had 10 HP so they would have the advantage.

So they did not want to restart the round?

Liquid did not want to replay it, if Liquid had said yes to replaying it, it would have been restarted which is in the CEVO rules. They had that choice.

So the statement that ‘we had no choice’ [from RGN] was incorrect and misinformed and he [Matt David, RGN’s CEO] apologised to me afterwards.

What do you think about RGN’s handling of the situation?

I didn’t like that a decision was made before we were even spoken to. I think in the future there should be a group discussion between admins and each team captain.

I think that RGN should reserve the right to rule in scenarios that are not covered by the current rules. In my opinion a human being turning off a computer is not a “computer malfunction” as quoted by the admin as justification for the ruling since a computer malfunction relates to a hardware failure.

Do you have anything to say about your players’ reactions on Twitter or the decision not to shake hands?

I haven’t personally read any of their comments but I can totally understand if they were upset. No Liquid players came near our area where the players were. Our players were in the bathroom or near the computer area where we played.

What do you think was the optimal solution to the situation?

An admin should have realised the situation was a rare occurrence that there is no rule for and they shouldn’t have rushed to a decision.

Adam

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Adam

Adam is the owner of BC-GB, find him on Twitter. BC-GB is the place to get CSGO tips, news and blog.

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