Stephano forfeits ONOG Finals

Yesterday in the One Nation of Gamers Invitational, Stephano voluntarily forfeited the finals to Kas after defeating vile.Illusion in the semifinal. In response, ONOG penalized him by moving him to fourth place, and having the Catz/Illusion winner (original 3rd place) play Kas for first.

Earlier in the day Stephano played in and won the SCAN Invitational (beating Grubby in the finals) and as a result requested that ONOG delay his match so he could participate. ONOG delayed Stephano's match to accommodate, but the tournament ran into late night on CET (2:30 AM) and Stephano stated that it was too late and that he must play another day or forfeit, and logged off. ONOG ultimately decided that they could not delay the match to the next day.

The One Nation of Gamers Starcraft 2 Invitational was a 16-players invitational tournament held by One Nation of Gamers, a network of BarCraft in North America. The event was broadcast by MrBitter, TumbaSC, Axeltoss, and NerdSwagger. Four invites were chosen via a poll.

Brackets, results and other information at Liquipedia:
(Wiki)

One Nation of Gamers Starcraft 2 Invitational

Statement from Deric, President of ONOG:
Source: ONOG

Hello, this is Deric, the President of One Nation of Gamers. While we were gearing up to begin the 3rd place match, Stephano stated that it was too late for him to play and that he was going to be going to sleep. He gave us the ultimatium that if he can't play another day he will forfeit the match and then logged off.

If One Nation of Gamers is going to work out and do our part to grow eSports, we have to be an organization that puts the fans first. Given that principle, I came to the decision to penalize Stephano and move him to 4th place, have Catz and Illusion play for 2nd/3rd, and have the victor play against Kas.

Everyone involved with One Nation of Gamers has worked incredibly hard -for months- to raise the $3,000 that we've put up for grabs. It's not a lot to everyone, but it's a lot to us and represents month of volunteer work. We decided to run this tournament to give back to eSports, we wanted to help the pros earn a little more and we wanted to provide some great content to the fans. We believe everyone deserves to see an appropriate final series for $1,500.

I realize this decision might be unpopular and I apologize profusely. Lastly, I would like to thank Kas, Catz and Illusion for agreeing to stay and finish these matches out for the fans.

Stephano on the incident:
Source: Twitter

MillStephano @MillStephano
I dont understand why people can get mad cuz i gave up for onog, even if i had played the game would have been awful.

MillStephano @MillStephano

And the racist coments abut french people is not necessary : )

Statement from Stephano:
Source: millenium.org

I wanted to apologize to ONOG Staff and all my fans. I didn't know that the event was casted live from a Barcraft, and also that so much people were watching my games in finals. I had played two competitions the same day and handling time was an issue. As a result, it was difficult to find a good compromise to satisfy everyone. Be sure that I understand my mistake and all it means to the ONOG Staff, that's why I completely agree with their decision regarding my ranking. I will do my best in the future to prevent this kind of situation.

Last edit: 2012-02-02 03:11:33

JoeAWESOME Sweden. January 31 2012 05:43. Posts 1067

Profile #

Hmmm, he was late for the tournament to start with right?

~45 min late or something.

But it's a bit unprofessional to accept the invite and not fullfill the tournament....

And I really think that we need a Kespa-alike organisation. This would not be accepted if we had a "ISFA" (International Starcraft Federation Associaton"

Last edit: 2012-01-31 05:47:33

Simply Awesome! - Liquid'Ret - NSHoSeo_Seal - coLMVP_DRG - EG_Idra - Fnatic.NightEnd

Kluey Canada. January 31 2012 05:43. Posts 1166

Profile #

If we had a governing body in E-Sports he could be punished for this. At this point, I don't think he really cares about the 5 people that have left following him.

Also @people making racist comments: Stop, it's not funny or effective.

BananaMann United Kingdom. January 31 2012 05:44. Posts 29

Profile #

On January 31 2012 05:43 JoeAWESOME wrote:
Hmmm, he was late for the tournament to start with right?

~45 min late or something.

But it's a bit unprofessional to accept the invite and not fullfill the tournament....

Yeah he asked if he could go eat or something and they allowed him to.

Last edit: 2012-01-31 05:44:52

Don't run when you can walk, don't walk when you can stand, don't stand when you can sit, don't sit when you can lie, don't lye when you can sleep.

CaM27 Belgium. January 31 2012 05:44. Posts 310

Profile Blog #

So what? What is the problem? Fanboys gonna cry, haters gonna hate and tomorrow gonna be another day? Sigh :/

Last edit: 2012-01-31 05:44:58

Seekzor Sweden. January 31 2012 05:44. Posts 43

Profile #

Lesson learned, don't accept invites from multiple tournaments per day if you can't play them both. Stuff likes this and other similar events really screams out for a governing body that can punish players/teams/tournaments.

ohmkerg United States. January 31 2012 05:45. Posts 100

Profile #

wow stephano sounds like a douche

User was warned for this post

Otolia France. January 31 2012 05:45. Posts 3049

Profile Blog #

Another person with a wrongfully placed sense of entitlement. Moving on ...

Fantasy ProLeague Blogger -> http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=392231

hmunkey United Kingdom. January 31 2012 05:45. Posts 1971

Profile #

The admins told him he could leave to go eat. Stephano had been playing tourneys all day.

alepoff January 31 2012 05:45. Posts 140

Profile #

Yep that too

let's bounce

viOLetFanClub Korea (South). January 31 2012 05:45. Posts 388

Profile Blog #

Stephano's turning into the next Naniwa.

aDd3z Germany. January 31 2012 05:45. Posts 882

Profile #

well he won the semis...i dont understand why he dosnt get second place.

cyclone25 Romania. January 31 2012 05:46. Posts 3315

Profile Blog #

What is the purpose of this thread? The incident has been discussed a lot on the ONOG thread.

Ruscour January 31 2012 05:46. Posts 5116

Profile Blog #

I like the idea of moving him to 4th so they can have a real final.

Herculix United States. January 31 2012 05:46. Posts 942

Profile #

On January 31 2012 05:45 ohmkerg wrote:
wow stephano sounds like a douche

actually he sounds like he had an unintended scheduling conflict...

kakaman United States. January 31 2012 05:47. Posts 1480

Profile Blog #

I'm not sure what you want Stephano to do. He said he wasn't it any shape to play. If he decided to drone rush 3 times in a row, what would your reaction be?

ThatGuy89 United Kingdom. January 31 2012 05:47. Posts 1966

Profile #

im glad they punished him. It would be really bad if progamers started thinking that the tournaments have to meet their schedule. Moving one game to another day, or letting him just take second place would have set a bad example

poor stephano though, although he shouldnt have entered 2 so close to each other

Lonyo Guernsey. January 31 2012 05:47. Posts 2010

Profile Blog #

That's one of the problems when you try (as a player) to participate in too many things.
Sometimes they kind of need to, since they need the money, but at the end of the day the tournament is doing THE a service, especially when it's SCAN and ONOG which were both invitationals.

At the end of the day Stephano chose to accept to play in both, and they clashed (which he may have been aware of since he should have expected overruns and to go deep into both), and it's better than he loses out rather than fans losing out by not getting to watch a game.

It's not the first time players have had clashes, happens regularly in weekly tournaments on weekends, it's just the way things go.
I don't think it's entirely fair to blame Stephano since it wasn't malicious, he's paid the price, and in the end people got games to watch. Maybe in future he might give more consideration to what he participates in, but he's not the first to have the issue and he won't be the last.

HOLY CHECK!

Diamond United States. January 31 2012 05:47. Posts 9006

Profile Blog #

Poor ONOG. What an unfortunate thing to happen in your first event.

Check out ESV TV at http://www.esvtv.com ****** TaeJa, he's pretty good.

Nouar France. January 31 2012 05:47. Posts 1721

Profile #

I don't get why does this deserve a news ? >< It was already talked to death in the LR thread, isn't it enough ?

Btw they played for 3rd place or a place in the finals, not for second place.

Troll : we still don't know why Tyler forfeited as well

/troll