e-Stars 2007 - ToD will not play

The e-Stars 2007 tournament is one that will be very interesting to follow, with great players such as Moon or Grubby attending. Nonetheless, the two world's best humans were invited - but have not accepted their invitations to play.

Liveticker

Both Moon and ReMinD were able to beat their opponents, so TH000 and Nilknarf are out. The next round Moon has to face his teammate Lucifer while ReMinD's opponent still has to be determined between suhO and Grubby.

After WE.Sky refused to participate some time ago, now 4K.ToD did so as well. The reasons are the map selecting system as well as missing air conditioning for the players. ToD stated that he had spoken to the organizers about these issues before he accepted his invitation, and was told that they will manage to get air conditioning as well as change the map selecting system.
When ToD then arrived at the tournament, he realized that the agreements in the contract were not honored, and therefore ToD has decided to not attend the tournament.

readmore.de was able to talk to Yoan 'ToD' Merlo about these issues:

readmore.de: What are the reasons for you to refuse to play?

Yoan 'ToD' Merlo: When WEG first asked me to play their tournament, I refused, because I didn’t like the map selecting system. They asked me, what I would propose and I told them. Another requirement for me was about the air conditioning. There were just these two requests, which they accepted. When I arrived here, they didn’t do, what they told me. They just changed the air conditioning and the map selecting system from what we agreed on. I asked them to fix it, but they didn’t answer and put an ultimatum on me. “Will you play with this conditions or not?” For me it was pretty clear, that I would refuse to play:

( read the complete interview at readmore.de )

Nonetheless the e-Stars 2007 tournament, which is organized by the WEG, will become a great tournament. There are still several top players participating and the total prize of almost $40.000 ($40,000 USD) will make them play their very best.

The tournament will be played in a single elimination bracket and since ToD will not play, MYM]Lucifer will get a free win in the first round most probably. The other first-round-matches are Grubby against suhO, where the Orc player should be the favorite, ReMinD against Nilknarf, with the Korean star from SK being the favorite, and Moon against the rising star from China, TH000, in which Moon seems to be favored.