Recent events at
WCG Spain have many in the Spanish community less than happy. As confirmed by many reliable sources the finals in the Spanish WCG had a series of troubling irregularities. Some of the players have been accused of pre-arranging the outcomes of specific matches, and the brackets were also tailored to favor certain outcomes.We have received and » published a letter signed from five of the top eight participants in WCG Spain explaining the situation from their point of view. Nevertheless, going into details will help no one and the problem has not been unique of Spain.
We have received numerous such complaints from other nations, some worse than others. This sort of occurrences were also not specific of this year. They have occurred every single WCG and in many different nations. From canceling events and misinforming certain participants of when the events would be restarted, so that they would arrive late and be disqualified, to changing without reasonable cause age limits other than those set by WCG. The only difference now is that now cyber athletes have several out lets to voice and share their complaints, among them this noble site, that were not available before. Another factor is that the more players involved in a given sport, the greater are the checks and balances for fairness; and without a doubt every year we are indeed more.
Pre-arrangement of match results is nothing new in the sports arena. It is always considered from outright illegal, or against the “rules”, to poor sportsmanship. The most accepted form of this occurs in Chess matches but even there with one caveat. The arrangement is always for a draw. The pre-arrangement, although not seen in a good light, is allowed. However, when you arrange results to win or lose a game you will be sanctioned even in chess. There is something intrinsically wrong with this. The moment you arrange a result you defeat the purpose of the competition and what is worse you affect the efforts of others who are true to the principles of sportsmanship.
As for the systems used for the individual nation preliminaries they have been different and as diverse as nations participating. To avoid future manipulation of bracket placement and the likes, WCG or we as participants must decided upon a common uniform system that should be used by all nations as a standard. Abuse will never disappear but it would certainly be much easier to deal with. As it is today, there is almost a free for all environment, and you can get away with almost anything short of bribery. That fortunately, Brazil has set the limiting bar swiftly and has shown future WCG participants what will happen to you if even try it.
Another serious issue is the national representation in the grand final. As the situation looks today, each country is represented with a number of players based on their national organizers commercial interest. The WCG as a whole is built on money and sponsors and agrees to, direct or indirectly, change the preferences of the grand final. The situation where one country is represented by a high number of players comparing to another equally skillfull and interested country only can send one player - and at the same time calling it an international tournament - is not acceptable.
Each nation must be given an equal chance and an equal number of players to participate the grand final.
The outcome of each preliminary must be based on sportsmanship and have a standard rule handling to avoid further episodes of abuse by both participants and organizers.
We are pretty sure this will not be the last that we will hear of the Spanish unfortunate events or other such events, but let's point out for those who are quick to point a finger, this is our game and this our sporting event, it is up to us to make it better. WCG only sets the guidelines and gives every nation a wide margin of independence on how to choose the best among us to participate in the WCG finals. Have they given us too much leeway? No, that is why we must strive to unify our rules and clean our own messes.
Links
SG News section - Old news about results from WCG Spain
SG Forums - Document about WCG Spain accusations
