eUnited handed forfeit victory over Mythic
The first semifinal of the ESL One Cologne 2018 NA open qualifier began with Mythic and eUnited fighting for a spot in the closed qualifier. The match began heating up when Mythic forced overtime on Inferno.
After winning the map 19-16, ESL/ESEA pulled attention to rules under 2.5 in the ESL One rulebook, indicating that Mythic should not have streamed any of the matches in the online qualifier without permission from the operator.
2.5.1 Rights
All broadcasting rights of ESL One are owned by the Turtle Entertainment GmbH. This includes but is not limited to: IRC bots, shoutcast streams, video streams, GOTV, replays, demos or TV broadcasts.2.5.2 Waiving These Rights
Turtle Entertainment GmbH has the right to award broadcasting rights for one or multiple matches to a third party or the participants themselves. In such cases the broadcasts must have been arranged with a head admin before the start of the match. For the necessary contact details please look at point 1.8.1 and make sure any additional broadcast has been approved before the match in question starts. (https://play.eslgaming.com/broadcast)2.5.3 Player Responsibility
Players cannot refuse to have their matches broadcast by ESL-authorized broadcasts (https://play.eslgaming.com/broadcast), nor can they choose in what manner the match will be broadcast. The broadcast can only be rejected by an admin. The player agrees to make sufficient accommodation so that broadcasting of matches can take place.
The options ESL told the team were to choose either turn off their streams and complete the qualifier, or to forfeit their game against eUnited. With the Mythic players refusing to turn their streams off, they opted for a forced forfeit, meaning eUnited are the first team into the closed qualifier.
MythiceUnitedCommunity response to this has, predictably, not been positive for ESL. Richard Lewis placed his opinion down hard and fast, looking back to the DOTA 2 drama from when a similar issue happened in that game. eUnited General Manager Daniel "clerkie" Clerke also added his thoughts in, simply saying the decision was "bonkers".
