Hope that this is possible guys, really thanks for trying!
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MbL, I know you're feeling aggrieved - 'admin forcing us to play two series on the same day' - so, if you will, please read my full reasoning which I've just posted on Jinxed's drama thread. I don't relish making a decision either way here but I believe my reasoning is sound.
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MbL, I know you're feeling aggrieved - 'admin forcing us to play two series on the same day' - so, if you will, please read my full reasoning which I've just posted on Jinxed's drama thread. I don't relish making a decision either way here but I believe my reasoning is sound.
- Zuppi and Max scheduled every single match for this tourney on time. For the LB final they offered last weekend, this weekend, Thursday (okay, crap time, but it was presented as an extra option) and Friday. That's a decent enough effort in my view, especially considering they offered weekends, which are normally the best times to get games played. It's not their fault that last weekend wasn't possible because Viper and MbL played another tournament and did a 24-hour stream and that this weekend isn't possible because MbL is going on holiday for 2 weeks.
- MbL saying he was available 'any day until the 11th' in the early hours of last Thursday morning is less impressive than it sounds. Ruling out Thursday (would have been same-day notice), they were unavailable and didn't reply to Zuppi's suggestion to play last weekend, so the only days when MbL was offering a time and Zuppi wasn't were the last Friday and Monday-Wednesday.
- Nicov, Miguel, Zuppi and Max created zero delay in this tournament. The lower bracket teams collectively (not just Viper and MbL, but others too) created all the delay, mostly by blocking out virtually every weekend with other tournaments. It was their choice to do this, of course, and with the money involved in the Escape tournaments it's understandable, but it's obviously going to have an impact on admin decision-making.
- We've had 5 days of thinking Viper and MbL were going to go ahead with the plan only for them to inform us that it's not possible with less than 48 hours to go.
- This tournament needs to end. If we wait until the end of March to play the final it will have been delayed by nearly 2 months, turning a 2.5-month tourney into almost a 4.5-month tourney (the dates on the brackets have already been pushed back). Bear in mind I built 'catch-up time' into this tournament's schedule from the very beginning as well.
Viper and MbL can feel disappointed but 2 more weeks of delays is not something I'm willing to countenance at this stage. I have to make a decision one way or another and based on everything I've outlined above it's abundantly clear to anyone looking at all the facts that it should be in favour of Zuppi and TheMax.