Red’s Corner is a bi-weekly column by Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner released every other Thursday exclusively at Cadred.

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LAN79 had a great reputation heading in to this weekends tournament and many teams and players from all over Europe made their way to Bressuire in France to take part in what many were describing "the most important lan of the year so far". The tournament came highly recommended from last years attendees’ many bragging about how much better than an i-series it was and how the people there knew what they were doing. In summary, LAN79 became a tournament that everyone wanted to attend in 2009.

Perhaps it is partly to do with being so widely hyped up that it somewhat under performed this weekend just passed. Perhaps expectation was so high they had no chance of matching it or perhaps there really were serious flaws in the organisation of the tournament. I was challenged on Monday to come up with an article this week that covered the complaints from this year’s tournament and this is it. Some of it is based on what players told me mixed in with a few observations from the Cadred team who witnessed some discrepancies in the tournament.

It is important to say up front, before I get chewed up by the passionate French people I have no disrespect for the French, indeed I have some French heritage and this certainly isn’t an England v France thread that some of you will undoubtedly turn it in to. It also isn’t sour grapes or bad feelings towards those who won, after all, I have no favourites when it comes to who wins the tournament, I was merely reporting it and enjoying the skills being shown off, regardless of nationality. Indeed, to further strengthen that point, my favourite player of the tournament was Ex6tenZ. I also ran a team full of "foreigners” so I think it would be wrong for anyone to sit there and tell me I am biased towards the nation I was born in.

I also want to make it clear before I delve in to the issues that this is in no way a slur on Verygames or indeed any French team at the event, unless of course it comes to light that the teams played a part in changing things to their advantage (which I don’t believe happened). It is not a slight on Verygames, their ability or their achievements in this tournament of the other 4 they have won this year. They didn’t cheat, I am not saying they cheated and I have never said that. One thing is clear, regardless of whatever abuse occurred at LAN79 this year, VERYGAMES ARE THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN EUROPE. I thought I’d caps and bold that just in case the people posting here are blinded by their own idiocy.

Shox from VeryGames, the deserved winners of Lan79

The issues at LAN79 began way before the final and way before a frag was registered at the event. Announcing prize money and then reducing it later on is not the best way to run a tournament. Why would a tournament lie about its prize fund? Well, I think LAN79’s organisers also made a brave decision to reduce it and announce they were doing so; after all it’s better to be able to pay out what you announce rather than announce and never pay a penny. The problem with doing it this way around however was that many teams had signed up already having based their costs and plans to sponsors paying for them to attend on the original pot of money. It has to be better to announce low and increase at a later date if you get more money for the pot than doing it like this.

I have to say at this point, we were greeted with warm wishes at the event and the head organiser, Manu was nothing but helpful and friendly all weekend. Regnam also worked hard all weekend and was friendly and polite to everyone I saw speak to him. The issue isn’t with either of these people, but those who took the decisions which showed LAN79 in a bad way, one of which was undoubtedly "Milkman” who was nothing but rude, disrespectful and dictatorial in his dealings with players and managers, but only it seemed, if they weren’t French. At one point, Crack Clan manager Adam went over to question a decision on his team and was perfectly polite in asking a question but was told, with a wag of the finger that he "could not ask questions” by Milkman. This admin also treated Crack Clan as if they were something he had stepped in when he told them they were late starting (3 minutes) and would be forfeited the choice of side and map decision. This seemed rather draconian to those who heard about it but luckily for them Reason declined to choose map and side or take the pistol round and thus the game started normally.

Things weren’t any better in the Upper bracket game about to start at the same time where dignitas were taking on Verygames. Dignitas were late to arrive at the venue and setup as soon as they humanly could. I remember seeing ODEE and one other player, it may have been Rattlesnk at around 9.05 at their desk so it seemed their punishment metered out by our friendly Milkman was even worse than that given to Crack Clan. Some claimed dignitas were still in the hotel at 9.30, but I have several witnesses who would dispute this and with my own eyes I saw at least 2 of them at 9.05, just after we arrived ourselves.

The penalty for this late attendance was forfeit of the first round (which in essence is the loss of the first three rounds anyway), the choice of map would be Verygames (they chose Nuke) and the side they would start would be dictated by VG (VG chose CT). This all seemed rather unfair and not in the rules either, it was just made up as they went along. When you also consider that at no other time over the weekend were deadlines kept by the organiser or admins in either meetings or round games starting on time and no penalties were given for missing any of them, this seems even more insane.

Dignitas, who weren't happy with the decisions

The briefing was due to take place at 8am on the Saturday morning and despite an 18 hour journey the day before and set up taking until after midnight the night before, the players from the lan bus were first to arrive. I didn’t see the VG players at the briefing when it finally got under way an hour late. The matches throughout the day took place at random times and most of them started late, sometimes 2 hours late and not one penalty was given out. Perhaps it was because most of the issues were with the loaned PC’s or lack of power cables (which players had to pay extra to rent!??!!) or lack of a dongle to make the screens work, or perhaps it was because the rest of the issues were because the staff at the event couldn’t seem to wire up a network cable properly, thus causing all sorts of issues with joining games. Luckily, Yak, the FM Toxic manager stepped in to help out and stripped cables and added ends to them that worked, but really, should it have come to this?

The other time related issue was in the evening. Reason gaming were asked to play one of their games on the stage against redline, which they duly agreed to do. By the time redline finished their remaining game in the previous round however, they preferred to stay in the byoc area instead. By this time however, Reason had packed all their PC’s up and put them all on a trolley ready to take them to the main stage and setup. Rightly, they were furious that redline now didn’t want to play on the stage and the organisers gave Reason a choice; either play it in the byoc area now and then go home (it was now 1am on day 1) or they could play on the stage and if they lose they would have to stay behind to play another game. This was absurd.

It was pointed out to me during the knockout stages on the first day that the bracket kept changing. One moment the first round was set and then it changed and even after the first round games had ended, the bracket changed again, with matches from round one being moved around in the bracket to allow a different outcome for round 2 games. These changes seemed to affect French teams more than any other and certainly from our point of view seemed to make it easier for them. Plainly this was wrong and we continued to monitor the situation throughout the bracket. It didn’t change again after the second round, but COD4 players had already complained about groups being changed at the last moment and then again in the brackets in the first round.

Complaints were also starting to circle about the games being played on stage. Was it coincidence that the music was really loud and coming out of speakers placed on the left hand side of the stage. The side which no French team sat during the entire time they played matches on the stage. With commentary in French also not being used from srctv or being modified in any way (i.e. not giving away positions mid round or rushes/strats) it seemed the French teams would have an advantage playing on stage or at the very least, it was obvious the other team would be hindered.

At this point I remarked to Corin and bidy that the last time I remembered such a thing occurring had also been in France. At a previous ESWC finals, I remembered a French female CS team making a good run through the groups and knockout stages and in similar fashion many people remarked at the time they had been given an easy ride in the brackets and then handed a good chance during the stage matches due to having French shoutcasters calling the positions. Odd then, that an hour later the event organiser, whilst chatting to Corin mentioned that the admin running the CS at LAN79 had lots of experience and had been an admin running CS 1.6 Female at ESWC in the past…

The COD4 upper bracket game between Reason and Giants also showed the same bias on seating with Reason sitting on the left and thus having the techno rave in their ears. Despite this, they could clearly hear the shoutcasters according to the players. At one point during this game, it came down to a 1v1 in overtime no less with Diablo hiding for time and waiting, listening carefully for any insurgence from the final Giants player. He knew where Diablo was too but Diablo had one advantage on his side, sound. That was taken away however because one of the Giants players started goading the crowd, who then started stamping their feet so loudly the players couldn’t hear a thing and thus, he lost the round. Punishment? Nothing.

Reason vs Giants on the stage, with French shoutcasters

I didn’t manage to see the COD4 final, but the most notable omission was the music being played. Why would the music be turned off now? Well the organiser said it was because no French team had made it to the final. That in itself would be an admission of bias but let’s think about it for a second. They told us after that they only played the music to drown out the sound of the shoutcasters and therefore they didn’t need to do that if neither team were French as it didn’t matter. Reasonable I guess, but still, what if one player knew perfect French? Surely it was better to keep the music on at all times for consistency sake rather than choose when to turn it off. I also find it hilarious that in the hundreds of tournaments I have commentated on and visited in the last 10 years, I have NEVER heard of this practice, not once. There are plenty of other, better ways of dealing with this issue, but that’s not for this column, just know this is singularly the worst idea I’ve seen to cope with shoutcasting in the background.

There were a number of issues raised by players during the CS final too. Notably before the final, Reason had to play their lower bracket game and then be rushed on to stage, where as Verygames had time to setup properly and prepare. You could argue (and I did) that this was simply the bonus of winning the upper bracket and had Reason done so, they would have had the bonus. What I didn’t agree with however was the ridiculous blinding, flashing lights shone for nearly 10 minutes whilst Reason were warming up. Despite calls from the crowd to turn the lights off or stop them flashing, the manager from Reason got up and physically moved the lights to stop shining in his players faces. At this point, someone remarked that VG players were nowhere to be seen, despite Reason being told they had to stay on the stage, the same rules didn’t appear to be in place for the other team who were outside enjoying the sun.

Once the final got under way, the random techno began again in the corner. It seemed to me, sitting on the same side of the room as VG to be very quiet on my side and indeed on closer inspection there was no music coming out of the right hand side. Walking over to the left side however and the music was loud enough to be a rave with the speaker situated just a few feet away from the 5th end player for Reason.

Several players remarked at how easy it was to understand the commentators giving away positions, even in French and it was obvious at least twice to me during the game that Verygames changed their attack just after the commentators had called positions. At one point, the whole crowd reacted to it because it was clear the shoutcaster had called a 3 man mid rush and immediately VG stopped holding the bottom of kitty and pushed in to the site. Coincidence? Perhaps, but it seemed mighty strange at the time and it wasn’t like this was an isolated incident. Was it also coincidence that no French team sat on the side where the music was loudest?

There are other issues too, not least of which occurred on a 4K game where there was a crash in round 2. In almost every tournament I have ever been to for CS or CSS, that would mean a restarting of the game as it’s in the first 3 rounds. This isn’t an i-series rule; it’s been in play from very early on in competitive CS, on numerous leagues and tournaments. I thought, as did many around us, that this was a universal rule, but apparently the admin (despite ESWC experience who used that very rule) had no idea and had never heard of this, dismissing it as "at i-series maybe, not anywhere else”. Instead of just giving the rounds back to the opposing team however, the admin forced 4K to run up mid and allow them selves to be shot without firing back, so the other team just used one man to five man in both rounds and thus buy awps in round 3 when they resumed fully. Curiously odd.

Four Kings were another team affected by the milkman's decisions

The best of three series of games was used in the upper bracket in COD4 but then scrapped for the lower bracket. It was also removed from the final too, to save time. But errr what the hell, what reputable tournament runs like this?

One of the many questions raised is would Verygames still have won without the other things being stacked against their opponents. Well, it’s very likely we would have had a much more competitive final, if the upper bracket final was anything to go by, but that’s just speculation as after all, it was a different map and different surroundings. That said, Reason are hardly lacking experience of playing on big stages in front of a crowd. Based on the way the teams played all weekend, Verygames were still the better team, regardless of whatever advantage they may have been handed in the final and fully deserved the championship win, I just wish, as many others did, it had been won in a fairer final.

The point of this article is not to flame the teams or players, far from it, they did nothing wrong. But if LAN79 is to hold another international lan, it needs to sort its house out and prove to the CSS and COD community that it takes these allegations and those of the players seriously and will deal with them, else they may find next years event is a French affair only. Perhaps that’s what they want, after all, there were few sponsors to impress at the event other than local ones, so maybe they don’t really care if international teams attend anyway. That’s a good job too if the response from the players is anything to go by.

The evidence seems clear to me, yet I would like to believe that the admins weren’t biased and changed things only because they had to and not to make it easier for the French teams, but it’s made harder by the things we saw all weekend. Both Manu and Regnam were great all weekend and are obviously passionate people who want their tournament to grow and be run professionally. Sadly, they are only 2 people and the tournament needs to have more people like them.

Perhaps the most succinct comment I can leave you with is from Beta who said "good job LAN79, you just killed your tournament”. I would agree, unless someone can sort out the issues raised and persuade those who felt so badly treated at this event, to come back next year.