Starcraft II Player Forced To Wait 40 Minutes To Get Destroyed In eSports Match

It’s a weird time for eSports, as the occupation is definitely booming, yet some sizable kinks are holding back its potential. In a Starcraft II match between iaguz and vIOlet for the World Championship Series, Round 16, the former was just taken out in a rather upsetting way.

During a 1-2 disadvantage in a best out of 5 game, Ethan "iaguz" Zugai, an Australian Terran player for Nuovo Gaming, was pushing their last attempt to try to get back into the tournament. They had just successfully survived a swarming attack from South Korean Zerg player of Team EnVyUs, Dong Hwan "viOLet" Kim, keeping artillery Ravager units and huge Ultralisk tanks at bay with some impressive kiting techniques. With the unexpected hurt in the Zerg camp, that last, wounded Terran army used its momentum to get one final shot at turning the tide. If that works, the Zerg might not be able to come back and form a new attack plan. If that fails, the game ends. It’s a Hail Mary attempt, but if it has to be done, now is the time, before viOLet can regroup and push to the last breach.

And so, the infantry moves up to enter the surprised Korean’s defenses. The units get to one of the base’s ramps and then the game stutters. A pause is called. The game stops. DreamHack ZOWIE Open, held in Tours, France, seems to lose a stable internet connection and not much later the stream to the tournament goes down. Momentum dies and both players wait in their booth for stability to return. This is probably the worst time for this setback to happen.

Now, iaguz was always the underdog and chances of winning were slim to none. Just the week prior, viOLet and iaguz had another competitive encounter, which resulted in a 3-0 win for the South Korean Zerg player, ranked 8^th in the WCS global standings, versus 22^nd for the Australian player. Prior rounds also showed later games to go to the Zerg, whose damage was more substantial during matches also. Still, iaguz did manage to surprise viOLet the round before with a stealthy rush that ended the game in just a few minutes. There was a sizable fight and pushback from the Terran at all times and with their attack just before the pause turning to the Austalian’s favor, it could've been expected to see more surprising plays come up.

The problem, however, is that timing was so important in this matter. With every second the game was halted, both parties could think about how to resolve the current situation and time is not on the side of iaguz. The only advantage that could’ve broken the play was that viOLet could not respond in a timely manner to this sudden push. And that push eventually got delayed for an extensive period.

At first, Dreamhack stated that the delay would take 10 minutes maximum, which would still be too much at such a crucial point, but it got even worse. As the feeds stayed down, the message changed to a less clear frame, as seen on Dreamhack’s Twitter:

The Streams and the games will be up an running in 5-10 minutes maximum. Sorry for the problems #DHFR16

— DreamHack (@DreamHack) May 15, 2016

SC2 stream will take a bit longer until it can continue. Sorry for the long delay #DHFR16

— DreamHack (@DreamHack) May 15, 2016

 

More than half an hour later, the lights turn back on, the crowd gets reminded there’s  a game running and after the ready call, both players resume exactly where they left off, armies at each other’s throats. Not four minutes later, the round ends 3-1 to viOLet, whose Ultralisks waiting in the background eventually roll over the map, after a binding Fungal Growth traps the last Terran army. Right before the “good game” shorthand “gg” is typed into chat, signifying surrender, an understandably miffed iaguz lets out their frustration on screen:

We waited 40 minutes for this?

It’s not a bitter loss, both players immediately shake hands, but imagine being in that very position of going up against all odds, only to be defeated more by an organization’s technical issues than the play itself. Again, iaguz still wasn’t out of the woods, since even taking the map would put the score at 2-2. Still, having that momentum pulled from the game destroyed any chances of that happening in the first place. And the worst part is being trapped in that booth for such an extended period, waiting for death. At that point, the Zerg had more than enough time to collect their thoughts and think of how to push their advantage. All that’s left is to wait in stasis; torment.

Dreamhack has had several connection issues throughout its weekend, as periodically posted on reddit. And it’s not the first time that an eSports event needs to deal with these kinds of problems. In March, the Shanghai Major that hosts a Dota 2 event had such a hard time getting it together that streams dropped out constantly and people eventually were fired. That has its own list of controversies. That’s without mentioning cheating players, porn-sponsored teams getting banned and so on. It might be a great time for eSports, but there are definitely things that competitions should clear up, if events want to stay great.

For what it’s worth, the iaguz versus vIOlet match showed impressive play by both sides, which can currently be seen on the Dreamhack Twitch channel. If all else fails, this advice from the Australian player seems valid:

Oh well, didn't go to plan. Did better than last time.

Now for plan B: BOOZE!

— Ethan Zugai (@NUOVOiaguz) May 15, 2016

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed (@Daavpuke)