Disqualified for Splitting

[bruizar]

I've always hated ID's in Magic. I believe it gives a wrong measure of which decks and pilots are the best in the format. There was a major disqualification in League of Legends lately and I want to share it with the community here.


http://kotaku.com/5938303/league-of-legends-pro-gamers-stripped-of-winnings-for-scheming-on-the-side




The Major League Gaming (MLG) summer championship events took place this past weekend, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Teams competed in several games, including StarCraft II, Mortal Kombat, and Soul Calibur V. But the biggest upset happened in the League of Legends tournament, which found both the first and second place winning teams disqualified and the third and fourth place teams winning the prize pot in their stead.

Teams Dignitas and Curse played in the final match. Curse won, but the play behavior from Dignitas threw up red flags to observers. According to MLG, the two teams may or may not have agreed for one to throw the game, but both had explicitly conspired to split the prize money afterward. As a result, both were disqualified. The statement from MLG reads:

MLG regrets to announce that we will not be awarding 1st or 2nd Place finishes for the Summer Championship League of Legends Event. We have determined that there was collusion between the two final teams, Curse NA and Team Dignitas. This is in clear violation of both the letter and spirit of MLG's Official Pro Circuit Conduct Rules: "competitors may not intentionally Forfeit a Game or conspire to manipulate Rankings or Brackets." As such, both teams have been disqualified, and no placements or prize money will be awarded.

Riot has agreed with this decision and, in accordance with their Season 2 rules on Unsportsmanlike Conduct, will not be awarding Circuit points to either team.

The 3rd and 4th Place teams will receive the prize money and Circuit Points they have earned, and all other results stand. No 1st or 2nd Place will be awarded for this event.

Both teams have agreed that the disqualification was warranted. While there is some contention over the exact nature of the actions taken by Curse NA and Dignitas which led to the disqualification, both teams, as well as MLG and Riot, agree that any collusion, or anything involving not playing a tournament match to win, warrants disqualification.


Why are MTG judges allowing ID's and split prizes to manipulate magic tournaments?

[Phoenix Ignition]

I can see this being a thing for larger tournaments, but I like prize splitting for your local shop tournaments. For legacy we'd get maybe 20 people a week and then everyone would just split the top 8 and go home (tournament started at 7, you'd be done by 10:30 if everyone split, if people didn't want to you could be stuck until 1:00am).

I'd be all for no ID's in PTQ and higher level tournaments, but I wonder if it's too ingrained now to ever change.

[Leftconsin]

Prize spitting when you are down to the final two is something that the DCI allows that some other game's sanctioning bodies do not. We permit top8, top4, and top2 splits, intentional draws, and concessions that do not actually reflect the match played. This does put extra strain in judges in making sure that this is done with good intentions. The idea is that once you're down to some number of people the prize for the tournament is theirs to do with as they please, even if the tournament isn't over with. By beating earlier round opponents they've already won the right to at least discuss prize splitting with your peers.

[HokusSchmokus]

They didn't officially split,which ia the difference to mtg. They tried to be cheaty about it. Hence.the dq.Also Dignitas are idiots.

[HammerAndSickled]

This article yesterday sums it up quite clearly:
http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/8/1/playing-to-win-in-badminton.html

Essentially, if there's any reason whatsoever why it would be considered "shady" for a team to do something that is clearly NOT in their favor and forfeit a match, then that shows a problem with your tournament structure or incentives. If people agree to a prize split as they do in Magic, that's not "collusion" because it doesn't effect the integrity of the tournament, it just makes the prize distribution more fairly balanced.

[Esper3k]

In PTQs, where you get a plane ticket, one of the two players in the finals might not be going to the PT so I can see that as part of the reasoning for allowing a split in the finals (ie, winner gets the invite + ticket, loser gets all the rest of the prize support).

[nedleeds]

It's completely unenforceable in MTG so why not just bring it all above table. The play at some top 8 SCGs is awful locals are even worse, you'd never be able to determine tanking from terrible play.

Back in the day it was way worse because you had bribes all through swiss, with semi's offering jobbers cards etc. to lose.

[CorpT]

The fact that you can't do it in MTGO speaks volumes for what the DCI would like to do. Unfortunately, it seems that it would be very difficult to enforce/police. I screw up all the time. Can I get DQed for unintentionally losing my win and in match? That doesn't sound good.

[Koby]

It's important to note that the scenario described in the OP is of collusion, and not splitting in the strict sense.

Team 1 conspired to simulate a legitimate game with the intent of having a specific team win. This is no way similar to both teams officially agreeing to split the prize money and playing the match out for "bragging" rights.

Splitting is supported at most sanctioned DCI tournaments if done correctly - no outside factors can be introduced into the split. For instance, you cannot split Plane Ticket/$100 with outside cash. This does means that you can propose un-even splits, however. So long as both players agree ahead of time in the presence of officials then a split can be honored.

[JDK]

The International 2 is currently going on, who cares about LoL people splitting? :eyebrow:

On a more serious note: The procedure is different from the MTG splits, as they have different league/tournament structures, they decided the outcome of the game before playing and lost on purpose, which is deceiving the event coordinators and the fans.

[bruizar]

I think League of Legends is pretty relevant to Magic and vice versa. For one, it draws the same crowd, and therefore same tournament practices. Secondly, the 2 companies casually borrow designs from each other (inspiration/homage I guess).

The LoL Champion Jayce the Defender of Tomorrow is not a coincidence. Aside from the name, the character even has more abilities than other champs the same way Jace, the Mind Sculptor has more abilities than the other planeswalkers. RtR's new card, Singe, Goblin Chemister strikes me as R&D's version of Singed, the Mad Chemist from LoL.

If anyone of you ever watch extra credits, you'd know that LoL and Magic are pretty much the 2 most important games for game designers.

[JDK]

I think League of Legends is pretty relevant to Magic and vice versa. For one, it draws the same crowd, and therefore same tournament practices. Secondly, the 2 companies casually borrow designs from each other (inspiration/homage I guess).

The LoL Champion Jayce the Defender of Tomorrow is not a coincidence. Aside from the name, the character even has more abilities than other champs the same way Jace, the Mind Sculptor has more abilities than the other planeswalkers. RtR's new card, Singe, Goblin Chemister strikes me as R&D's version of Singed, the Mad Chemist from LoL.

If anyone of you ever watch extra credits, you'd know that LoL and Magic are pretty much the 2 most important games for game designers.

Those are pretty big words for so little backup.

[Lord Seth]

I can see this being a thing for larger tournaments, but I like prize splitting for your local shop tournaments. For legacy we'd get maybe 20 people a week and then everyone would just split the top 8 and go home (tournament started at 7, you'd be done by 10:30 if everyone split, if people didn't want to you could be stuck until 1:00am).Wouldn't it be easiest to just not bother with a top 8 and give out fixed prizes based on record?

[bruizar]

Those are pretty big words for so little backup.

Pure speculation, in fact. Luckily, I don't work in law so there's no point trying to prove what, to me, seems obvious :p

[HammerAndSickled]

Also, the flavor of the games has literally nothing to do with their similarities in competitive play. Are you trying to say Warhammer or WoW is applicable to Magic because they both have goblins?

[JDK]

Pure speculation, in fact. Luckily, I don't work in law so there's no point trying to prove what, to me, seems obvious :p
At least you tried.

Wizard vs Fighter
http://magiccards.info/scans/en/wwk/31.jpg http://na.leagueoflegends.com/sites/default/files/game_data/1.0.0.145/content/champion/portraits/126.jpg

[phonics]

I think its okay for the most part (basically outside of the pro tour) to split, since in most cases it is either to the benefit of time (as mentioned before) or just the fact that these tournaments involve going through hundreds of people and endless hours of playing magic instead of in LoL where they are sponsored teams playing in a much smaller pool of opponents.

[Justin]

I had to do a double-take when I first read the title of this thread. I initially thought it said "Disqualified for Spitting."

[Dia_Bot]

I had to do a double-take when I first read the title of this thread. I initially thought it said "Disqualified for Spitting."

Admittedly that would be a much funnier read. :tongue:

[kwis]

I honestly thought this was a bigger problem with LoL not allowing teams to take an ID here.