The first game in the final of the Dreamhack ASTRO Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament was forfeited after one team failed to turn up on time. Three members of the Immortals team were more than 15 minutes late to the start of their final match against North, and as a result forfeited the first map.
One of our best CSGO tips is to turn up to your matches on time.
In a statementissued by Dreamhack Counter-Strike, they outlined the rules that influenced the decision to force Immortals to forfeit the first map. The statement says that the match was due to start one hour after the conclusion of the second semi-final, which saw North beat Cloud9 2-0. Immortals had been informed of this after they secured their own spot in the final earlier that day by defeating CLG. This was an accelerated game schedule, with intervals shorter than normal tournaments, a fact all teams were aware of before the tournament began, according to the statement.
After the end of the second semi-final match, Immortals were informed that they should begin to set up for the final. However, with only 25 minutes to go before the match was due to start, only two Immortals players, boltz and steel, had shown up. The team’s three other players, Lukas1, Hen1, and kng, were not present.
The Dreamcast rules say that players can still arrive 15 minutes after a scheduled start time, but after that point they will begin to forfeit maps. Dreamhack say that Immortals were not ready to begin play at 15:45, and as such forfeited the first map. The match began at 15:56.
That’s all fair enough, and the Immortals management seem to think that having flouted the rules, their team deserved to forfeit the first map. However, soon after Immortals’ no-show, rumours started circulating that the reason for their absence was that three of the team had been out partying the night before, and were too hungover to play. These rumours seemed to stem from CLG’s team, with player FNS and head coach Ryu both heavily implying that certain members of the team had been drinking the night before. They had also apparently been late to the semi-final with CLG that morning, and Ryu says that while he wasn’t sure, he had heard rumours from “multiple sources” that the players had been partying.
Worst part is I lost to a team with 3 players who were hung over
— Pujan Mehta (@FNScsgo) September 10, 2017
Update from #DHMTL17
After apparently spending the night partying, IMT players showed up late to our match this morning
And again now
— Ryu @ #DHMTL17 (@SelflessRyu) September 10, 2017
Keen to protect their reputations, lucas1 and kng took to social media to deny the allegations against them. In a Facebook post, Lucas says that he and his teammates had been napping, but had overslept twice due to jetlag. Kng also says that the team went to rest, but claims that they arrived 20 minutes before the scheduled start time and were handed a forfeit “out of spite” by the Dreamhack organisers.
Sim galera demos mole, ninguém do nosso time saiu como todos vocês estão falando merda, eu vim aqui dar meu máximo, estávamos descansando1/2
— Vito Giuseppe (@kngvito) September 10, 2017
Meanwhile, other figures have also been responding. FNS says he made the partying rumour up, saying “it was all a joke on my end,” after he found himself on the receiving end of anger from the Immortals players and their fans. Immortals’ coach, Zakk, has said he’s been ill, and was resting before the final, so didn’t wake his team up in time. Finally, the Immortals CEO tweeted, apologising to fans, thanking Dreamhack for enforcing the rules, and saying, “We will address this internally. Actions should have consequences.”
Apologies to #IMTCSGO fans. We will address this internally
Actions should have consequences. Thanks for enforcing the rules @DreamHackCSGO— Noah Whinston (@NWhinston) September 10, 2017