Last weekend was MLG Raleigh, and for those of you who got to tune in you probably got a bit of a surprise towards the end of the tournament.
The two finalists were Team Curse and Team Dignitas. Right now everything is very convoluted as to what actually happened, some people think they were disqualified because they played an ARAM, and some think it's because they rigged the game, or that it wasn't even rigged and they just agreed to split the first and second place winning.
Anyways if you want to see Team Cusre looking like a bunch of sad puppies, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujijaucr4Yw&feature=plcp
That's a link to their "apology" video, and I say apology in quotes because they start by saying they didn't do anything besides play an ARAM, and then spend the second half of the video apologizing for the nothing they did.
Team Dignitas had an even vaguer press release on their website, basically saying they'll address it later.
Now it doesn't seem to me that they intentionally threw the game, or that they had any motives besides hiding some of their strategies for upcoming tournaments. So the two teams agreed for the first game of the finals to do an All Random, All mid game type set on the proving grounds.
Normally I would have no problem with this except it was a tournament, and it was a summoners rift tournament. No one was tuning in to see them have fun in an ARAM, they wanted to see the startegies, the teamwork, all that stuff that doesn't occur in an ARAM. Not to mention they failed to mention it to their hosts, MLG, that they intended to do this. So I definitely agree they deserved the DQ, or if not the DQ, they should at least have had to play an actual match. Even so I feel this has been blown way out of context, a lot of forum people (which will henceforth be known as swamp people) have unleashed the rage gates, and at the end of the day this is still just a video game, and the objective is fun. They fucked up, but it's not like they found the cure for cancer and then brought it to a crazy party and Jimi Hendrix snorted it thinking it was coke (historically accurate reference, look it up), they just didn't want to show all their cards, and the way to do that was an ARAM. I think if they had spoken to the hosts of the tournament about this there may have not been a problem, or if there was at least they would learn before and not have to deal with the consequences. Better to ask permission then beg for forgiveness, as Curse seems to be doing in that video.
Anyways, still two of my favorite teams on the North American circuit, and I hope they can learn from this and make a better showing with a little less controversy in the next tournament.
Go Team Curse and Team Dignitas! Just don't do ARAM anymore.
If you want to read more about this, here's an excellent Forbes article talking about what happened. http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/08/27/yes-esports-needs-sportsmanship-too/
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