This year was the first year I participated in the online qualifiers for the Call of Duty Championship. I’m not sure why I never played in it before, maybe it was because I was under the impression that entering the tournament cost money. Even though I have been writing about CoD Champs for DoesPlay about the entire process in a series I have named “The Road to CoD Champs”, I was not aware that entry to the tournament was free.
Anyway, there were two qualifier tournaments this weekend. The first, on Saturday, was the larger of the two, as the top 16 teams qualified for the North America Regional Finals (which I will be attending in person by the way). In the second tournament, on Sunday, the top 8 teams qualify. Let me tell you a little bit about my experience this weekend…
Day 1
I woke up somewhat earlier than normal. I still didn’t know for sure who I would be teaming with, as no one ever finalized any plans or made the team on the MLG website. When I got up, I tweeted out about looking to play and received a response pretty quick.
So basically, I played the first qualifier with a group of 3 that I had never met before. They were pretty cool guys, but we didn’t do so well as a team. Honestly, that was ok with me. We were eliminated during the first round of the tournament after starting off especially bad. One of the players was having issues with his Xbox, but the players from the other team were pressuring me to start the match and threatened to report the win, as we were over the 15 minute time limit according the MLG’s rules (remember this rule later). We played the first map, Hardpoint on Bio Lab, 3v4. It was not going well for my team.
The other games were much closer, but we were unable to pull off the win and were eliminated. I went on with my day without being upset about it, as we lost fair and square (except for one player on the other team being an absolute warrior!). Day 2 was the one I am most upset about.
Day 2
This time I had a team planned to play. It was already entered into the tournament with a full roster of 4, and they were all guys I have played with before, but the 4 of us had never played together as a team. I woke up earlier than usual once again, just so I could get a bit of a warm up in. Some of my teammates didn’t decide to do the same…
With 10 minutes before the kickoff of the tournament, only two of us were online! I was trying desperately to message my other guys to make sure they were awake. One of them got on with a bit of time to spare, but our 4th was nowhere to be found. I resorted to messaging him on Twitter a bunch of times and even subtweeting in frustration (sorry about that).
Finally, our 4th messaged me back and told me he had some family issues last night, and I was relieved that we would actually be able to play in the tournament. Luckily, the bracket had not even been released yet.
When our match was finally released, we were all ready. My team of 4 sat in a lobby as I invited the opposing team. I invited all of their members, even sending them messages asking them where they were, however they were not responding or showing up. You may have seen my picture collage posted on Twitter as proof of their absence:
https://twitter.com/Orbit_CH3MISTRY/status/564488295846277120
I made sure to tag the guy who was bullshitting me in the tweet, since he gave me his Twitter handle and everything. The match was disputed on MLG, since only my team reported and I reported that they were no shows. Well, apparently the other team reported mine as no-shows….
One hour after the official start time of the tournament, I receive a message from a Gamebattles administrator. He asks me to tell him about the problem. Then, he asks me to join a lobby with my opponents. ONE HOUR LATER!! Remember that little rule I told you about earlier? According to the rules, if a team does not have at least 3 players in the lobby 15 minutes after the start of the match, they forfeit. This had been waaaay longer than that, and the other team never bothered to message me or invite me to their own lobby.
It happened to be that the other team only had 3 players online and ready to play. We had to play out our match with an administrator present, even though I had clear proof of the entire situation. The match was played out, and let me tell you, the other teams host was terrible. They were some of the biggest warriors I have ever played against, eating bullets and melting us in 2. I’m a bit embarrassed to say this, but we did drop 2 maps to them… and they wouldn’t let us live it down, sending us rude messages and talking a whole lot of trash. I understand, trash talk is something that happens and it really does get to me, so I often respond. I just wanted them to know how much the connection mattered! Anyway, we hosted the last two maps and absolutely demolished them, as we should have, because the connection finally felt fair (maybe we were melting at that point?).
We moved on. I felt so bad, because the team we were playing next had waited 2 and a half hours just to get on with the next match. They made sure to message me as well. We played this match out, and of course the opposing teams host felt less than favorable for my team, as usual. However, this matchup was fair and I can’t complain. We ended up losing 3-1 in map count, and I was ok with that, until one player from the other team decided to start trash talking in my messages.
He decided to blame me for the 2.5 hours that were wasted, as if he knew the situation. He then told me that my team and I had wasted our time by even signing up for the tournament. Thanks buddy, whoever you are. I really appreciate the positive attitude! In fact, I hardly every play anyone with a sportsmanlike attitude in Call of Duty, and that really pisses me off. Just play fair, and behave appropriately. I don’t understand the need for trash talk and attempts to bend the rules…
It’s not over. Just as the last map of the second round was finishing up, I receive a message on Xbox. It reads, “Due to your team changing your roster, you have been disqualified from the Qualifiers. Any questions, please contact Live Support.”
WHHHHHHHAAAAA? What in the world is this person talking about? Obviously they are a Gamebattles admin, because before I could even report the score of the match, it was already listed as a loss. Wow, just wow. Luckily we did not win the match, because I would be going absolutely crazy after this message. Should I contact Live Support about it? I really have no clue what this person is talking about. We very clearly played an entire match with a Gamebattles admin present in broadcaster mode, he saw everything. In no way were we playing with an ineligible roster. All I can think is that someone decided to screw with us and report us falsely.
This was quite an experience, something I am not sure I would like to deal with again. How in the world do the Pros do it???? Apparently, even MBoZe deals with the hate mail.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTZIQNKpoOo&w=560&h=315]
Edit-
Case in point, I received this tweet after posting this article:
https://twitter.com/Austin_Caution/status/564550031064068096
