Geposted von X-Ray,
In der letzten Season waren sie noch das einzige Team, welches die Reise nach Dallas antrat - dieses Mal wird Titan eSports nicht auf die Finals der ESEA Season 16 fahren, da sie nun aus der Liga ausgetreten sind. Nach dem Wechsel vor zwei Tagen war es dem Team nicht mehr möglich, Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub rechtzeitig zu melden, weshalb die Zulassung nicht erfolgte. Durch diese Nachricht dürfen sich die Ukrainer von Natus Vincere und das französische Team Clan Mystik noch einmal Hoffnungen auf eine Reise in die Vereinigten Staaten machen. In Texas gibt es noch einmal knapp 47.500 USD (umgerechnet ca. 34.250 EUR) zu verteilen und diese Chance will sich natürlich niemand entgehen lassen, zumal inzwischen auch die Reise von den Organisatoren unterstützt wird.

Nach einigen Spieltagen gibt es bei der ESEA ein Lineup-Lock, der es den Teams nicht mehr ermöglicht zu wechseln. Diese Frist wurde von Titan eSports um 24 Stunden überschritten. Die gespielten Matches von Titan eSports bleiben dabei bestehen, während die noch ausstehenden Matches in Default Wins für den Gegner umgewandelt werden. Dies wird auch die Tabelle nochmal umwirbeln, da für Titan noch 9 ausstehende Matches auf dem Plan gestanden hätten.

Offizielles Statement Jérôme 'NiaK' Sudries (Team Manager):

Today is a sad day for Titan and our CS:GO team, as we’ve been forced to withdraw from ESEA S16.
Having begun the new season on March 19th 2014, our current results put us in a good position to claim a spot at the upcoming finals in Dallas. However, the organisers have decided to invoke the player change rule which prevents us from bringing Kenny “kennyS” Schrub onto the team, despite this happening two months before the actual LAN final.
After a long and unfruitful discussion with ESEA to try and find a solution, we ultimately felt a need to go public with the issue; not only to present you with our side of the story but more importantly to highlight a rule which feels archaic in the current competitive scene.
The rule regarding “Player Eligibility & Roster Restrictions” for the Invite division states that "Rosters will be locked two weeks before the end of the regular season". This in turn ensures weeks/months of unaltered lineups at the end of each season, and for this season that translated to a two month roster lock in place from April 27th to June 29th. In our case, coordinating our announcement of a player change with another organisation meant us going public with the news on Monday 28th April, just a few hours too late.
But the issue is not being a few hours late; the issue is that ESEA does not exist in a vacuum. With a yearly tournament calendar including events and organisers such as SLTV StarSeries , ESL, FACEIT League, Gfinity , Fragbite Masters and Fnatic FRAGOUT league (just to mention a few), is it truly reasonable that a single organiser can implement a rule preventing player transfers covering such an extensive time period? With three seasons per year, ESEA is effectively trying to enforce a roster lock which covers way more than just ESEA.
We are not against the idea of roster locks, but these require harmonisation between all major tournament schedules, which is not the case today.
Also, as a personal source of disappointment, Titan and I had actively been working with the promoters of this season to facilitate conditions which would allow all European teams the chance to make the trip in case of qualifying. During ESEA S14, out of all the EU teams only NiP were able to make the trip, and the same pattern repeated itself last season when we ourselves were the only EU team represented at the LAN. For us, working closely with ESEA to prevent this from happening again was important and a way to help sustain the North American scene.
These things considered, it’s with no small amount of bitterness that we withdraw today. We hope, however, that this open letter will be a move in the right direction towards removing inappropriate rules which do not serve the interest or the progression of high level competition.


Gegenstatement der ESEA:

The roster lock for ESEA League Season 16 ran through Sunday, April 27th. Unfortunately Titan came to us after the roster lock had passed to make a player change, and we denied their request to make a player substitution.
Titan management claimed that the players were unaware of the roster lock schedule and policy. Players and organizations are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the rules for the leagues and tournaments they compete in, and we do our best to clearly communicate any potentially confusing policies with the community. The roster lock for example was clearly communicated in red letters on the top part of every page on ESEA.net as a countdown clock with how much time teams had left to make any changes. That countdown clock was visible for over one week.
Furthermore, while discussing the situation after we denied Titan a special reprieve, it became evident that their team had been discussing the change since Copenhagen Games. During that period, they could have confidentially approached our League Admins or Commissioner to alert us of their forthcoming roster move and we could have worked with them to find a solution.
It is our position that the roster lock helps ensure that the players competing all season long to qualify for the LAN Playoffs are the same players that have the chance to compete for over $40,000. The policy protects players and organizations from screwing over one another and protects other teams from having ringers unjustly step in at the last minute.
As a league, it has been our position to consistently and fairly enforce all of our rules. The players and management of Titan have been tremendous supporters of ESEA over the past two years, and we’re disappointed that they won’t be able to further participate this season, but it is important for us as a league that we maintain the competitive integrity for all competitors regardless of organization or individual pedigree.
Moving forward we will work to more proactively alert media outlets of the roster lock in the hopes that they communicate it on their website and our League Admins will individually remind team captains of the roster lock window as it approaches.


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