Photo by: TeamLiquid.net
The beginning of IEM New York quarter finals was darkened by a referee mistake. In the opening match of the elimination bracket, TT1 threezroed Gatored only to find out he wasn't supposed to play him at all.
Apparently, an IEM referee has seeded DRG as a second place finisher instead of first place finisher as it is actually the case.
This lead to the aforementioned TT1 versus Gatored matchup, one that shouldn't have been played at all with both players finishing second in their groups.
According to this source, it has been decided that TT1 will be awarded a top 4 prize money of $1,250 USD if he is to lose to his actual round of eight opponent, that being DongRaeGu.
Michał "Carmac" Blicharz, Intel Extreme Masters Production Manager, posted an official statement at IEM's webpage which said the following:
A referee has made a terrible mistake. We cannot undo that - an undeserving player is in a situation which should not have happened.
Gatored got wrongly seeded into the tournament bracket as the #1 seed instead of DRG who received the #2 player's seed in the bracket. As a result, the two players were placed in the wrong part of the bracket and TT1 played a player he was not supposed to. Unfortunately the error was discovered during the match and not before. The result cannot stand.
I deeply regret that such a mistake happened at such a time, but we cannot undo it. We canceled the match and fixed the bracket layout. Nothing else could be done.
All I can do right now on my behalf and on behalf of the referee is apologise to the players involved in the match, their teams and the fans that followed the match. This should not have happened and I will do everything for this to never happen again.
I regret this has happened and I apologize.
- Michał "Carmac" Blicharz
Gatored got wrongly seeded into the tournament bracket as the #1 seed instead of DRG who received the #2 player's seed in the bracket. As a result, the two players were placed in the wrong part of the bracket and TT1 played a player he was not supposed to. Unfortunately the error was discovered during the match and not before. The result cannot stand.
I deeply regret that such a mistake happened at such a time, but we cannot undo it. We canceled the match and fixed the bracket layout. Nothing else could be done.
All I can do right now on my behalf and on behalf of the referee is apologise to the players involved in the match, their teams and the fans that followed the match. This should not have happened and I will do everything for this to never happen again.
I regret this has happened and I apologize.
- Michał "Carmac" Blicharz
Links
ESL-World.net - Source
