Hurting The People's PriDe

So when things like this happen I feel disappointed (if you do not know of the recent incident involving Groovy's exit from the latest PriDe, I suggest you follow the link and read the thread including the comments). I realise how hard it is to run such a large tournament, and to make everyone happy. I realise the admins are people too and don't enjoy being criticised as much as the next person. Working for this site has made me realise how annoying it is when people who have no idea of the work you put into something start bitching about it for no apparent reason. However I also realise that at the end of the day one has to rise above this annoyance and be the better person. That is why one becomes an admin in the first place.

Prime Defending is one of the oldest and most popular DotA tournaments, and it is an event every DotA player ought to look forward to, whether playing or just following the results. However it has developed something of a reputation for incidents such as this, a point that was driven home to me when I was telling a friend about the matter and he said 'Well what do you expect? Its PriDe!'

Regardless of whether or not Groovy had the right to a reload, the treatment of the matter by the admins involved seems to me to be totally unjust. If you really cannot allow them a rematch then fine, but there is no need to abuse them. Especially in a public thread. No matter how badly you think they are acting. Admins are role-models, and getting sucked into an argument like that says to the community that myMYM condones such behaviour. Especially when the Head DotA Admin tells everyone that UtherX has 'acted correctly' in this matter. And blames the players for attacking the admins and causing a public drama. There must be two sides to create a conflict, and Alisha chose to conveniently ignore the incredibly inflammatory posts made by UtherX which started the 'public drama' in the first place. I mean, two of MYM's own admins and several prominent players posted in the thread declaring their disapproval (very strong disapproval in some cases) of the remarks, but no apology was made? Instead all the players hear is "Case Closed". All that response seems to do is create furthur resentment and it reeks of trying to quickly cover up a potentially hurtful situation instead of trying to resolve it.

I decided to get into contact with Kluya, the leader of Groovy, who originally posted the thread which caused all the trouble. I wanted to know how he felt about the way things were handled. You can read his full interview here , but basically, as I thought, he still felt angry and let down by myMYM. Which isn't too hard to understand, considering his team was very excited to be the first Colombian team to make it to the playoffs, only to have the rug pulled from under them.

I also contacted Alisha, to ask if she had anything to say on the matter, however she merely reiterated what she said in her post "there is nothing more to discuss than this, case closed."

I want to make it clear once again that I do not place the blame solely at the feet of myMYM. There were several posts in the thread which were inflammatory from members of the Groovy team also. I also want to state once again that I know that admins are people too. Nor am I trying to tell anyone how to do their job. However I feel that once the situation had escalated to the level it had, it was disappointing and unjust of the administrators to just close the thread and end the matter. I firmly believe that flame wars and bad manner are NOT something we have to live with in the DotA community, however if they are going to be eradicated, the standard MUST be set by those in positions of power.

With that, I look forward to watching the rest of the PriDe progress smoothly, and hope that this article may help a small amount in preventing future situations like this.

Gl & Hf,

The_Ganksta