On October 18, the ESL administration postponed the match between Natus Vincere and forZe in the group stage of IEM New York 2023 in CS: GO. The reason for this was the poor health of NAVI player Ilya Perfecto Zalutsky, who had tested positive for coronavirus shortly before the meeting. The act of the judges caused a heated discussion in the CIS community – some called it fair and objective, while others saw double standards and disrespect for the opponent. Cybersport.ru has collected all opinions about the incident.
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The cancellation of the game came as a surprise to both the spectators and the forZe team, as it became known only half an hour before the start of the match. In addition, the NAVI management did not discuss the transfer with the rival, but turned to ESL directly.
All comments are published preserving the spelling and punctuation of the source
“We would like to express our gratitude to IEM for postponing the match against forZe due to the current health situation of Perfecto. We are sincerely grateful to all the fans who understand and support Ilya right now on social networks with kind words. We wish him a speedy recovery! ?? “
The players and representatives of forZe were outraged by this behavior – they felt that the administration went to meet NAVI only because of the club’s status, and any other team in such a situation would have received a technical defeat. In particular, we recalled the recent incident with the match Virtus.pro against K23 at the same tournament, when the Russian team received a technical defeat for being late to the first map, as they played in qualifiers at Flashpoint Season 2.
“If we were in such a situation, we would have been forced to play with a coach or given a technical league. I’m pretty sure of that. Nothing like that, just facts. And I am not whining, we just lost a day that could be spent usefully or spent on something else.
Virtus.pro got a technical defeat on the first map due to a busy schedule. 10 minutes late – tehluz on the first map. If NAVI has problems, everything is fine. The rules must be the same for everyone. “
“Ahaha this is funny !!!
the game was moved in 32 minutes 40 seconds without consent and xs what would you do the admins dojat, but Vp was given a TP on the first map for being 15 minutes late (((((
We understand that covid is a serious thing, but why did we sit for 4 hours and prepare for the game ??? “
“To postpone the game because of covid, with all the respect for Navi and Ilyukha, but in 35 minutes and without asking another team, SHOCK.
p.s would be any other team, it would be either a TP or a game with a coach. “
NAVI player replied to xsepower post Denis electronic Sharipov:
“Roflan ***. Rejoice that this did not affect you and all the dissatisfied. “
In a comment for Cybersport.ru, forZe management noted that it considers such behavior of the organizers unprofessional.
“30 minutes before the start of the game, we were confronted with the fact that the match was postponed to Tuesday due to COVID-19 at one of the NAVI players. We are extremely surprised by the decision of ESL, since according to the rules of all major tournaments in such a situation, the player is replaced by a coach.
In our practice, there was a case when Jerry played with a temperature of 40 degrees. Plus, they are embarrassed by their confidence that in two days the player will be able to recover, taking into account his illness.
In our opinion, what is happening now is double standards and disrespect for other teams. Why do some teams meet halfway and create comfortable conditions, while other teams have to suffer because of this? Prior to that, Virtus.pro was five minutes late for the match, and was credited with a forfeit defeat.
We respect all our rivals, but we will not close our eyes to today’s case. ESL, having made the decision to postpone half an hour before the game, acted unprofessional, which is very disappointing. Such decisions are unacceptable at tournaments of this level. “
CS: GO Analyst Alexander Petr1k Petrik explained why NAVI did not want to play with a substitute. According to him, it was more profitable for the team to get a technical defeat than to lose RMR points.
“Why didn’t NAVI get TP? The only one who would have the right to replace Perfecto in theory was Blade. For this change, NaVI would have lost 20% of their RMR points from this tournament. And if in the next matches Perfecto would come back, then NaVI would have lost another 20% of the remaining points.
Naturally, in their place it would be more profitable to ask the admins and rivals to transfer and, if they were refused, simply refuse to go to the match and receive a technical defeat (all the same, they would still have a chance to leave the group). It’s more profitable than changing players. Therefore, there are no questions about NAVI. The question is rather for ESL and forZe admins. According to the rules, the postponement of the match is possible only with the consent of the admins and rivals, but the guys from forZe claim that no one asked them if they agree. “
Later, Petrik’s version was confirmed by NAVI player Alexander s1mple Kostylev. He explained how the situation looked from the side of the Ukrainian club, and stressed that the team initially did not agree to play with a replacement.
“Yes, it turned out ugly. But the NAVI team said to warn the forZe team. And we generally thought that it should be automatic between the tournament operator and the two teams.
The NAVI team also sat for 40 minutes and waited for ESL to say – either the match will be postponed, or we will play with a substitution. We said that we would not play with a replacement, because if Andrey [B1ad3] sat down instead of Ilya [Perfecto]then 20% of our RMR points would be deducted from us. And when Ilya returned, 20% of RMR points would also be removed from us.
Therefore, do not mention the word NAVI in such situations. Blame the tournament organizers. But if you just want to shit something, then it’s better not to do it, not knowing the whole situation. To say that someone has double standards is nonsense. I don’t know, it feels like some players from this team are just waiting for something to happen, to quickly write something about it. Compare the situation in which a person receives a test and he starts to worry, get pissed off, and at the same time he is dizzy and cannot play, with the situation when Virtus.pro, playing two tournaments, did not have time to play – and they were made forfeit “.
According to the head of forZe Sergey MegioN Ignatko, the club would have agreed to postpone the meeting anyway, but this does not negate the fact that the ESL administration acted unprofessionally. In the course of further discussion, the bulk of the criticism was directed precisely at the judges.
Of course we would. I don’t understand why we are discussing openness and that everything needs to be resolved in a dialogue, but in fact none of this is being done. Take care of health and the rest. Alas, the situation is overflowing.
– Sergey (MegioN) (@MegionSergey) October 18, 2023
Manager OG Vladislava Vladyslava_Z Zakhlebina explained that when making the decision to postpone, the ESL administration was guided by similar cases from big sport.
According to an ESL spokesman, the match was postponed given the seriousness of the disease and the possibility of influencing other team players. Similar decisions have been made for Covid cases in other sports. They do not consider it appropriate to force the team to play in this situation.
– Vladyslava ??? #DreamOG (@Vladyslava_Z) October 18, 2023
Maincast commentator Vitaly v1lat Volochay expressed the opinion that there should be no complaints about the transfer of the game at all, given the seriousness of the disease.
Forgive me for my French, but the person fell ill with COVID-19, and is not asymptomatic … And I think there are no questions about the professional attitude of Navi players to the game. What the hell are claims ??
– Vitalii Volochai (@ v1lat) October 18, 2023
It’s only about the attitude of ESL to its own rules and other teams. They did not give a damn about everything, decided not to ask another team and only informed us about the postponement already in fact half an hour before the start.
– forZe eSports (@forzegg) October 18, 2023
ForZe Trainer Sergey lmbt Bezhanov answered Dragging that the Russian club has no complaints about NAVI, and only questions about the ESL rules.
Vetal claims not to Navi, but to Esl. In previous European rmras, Teams made substitutions, played with coaches and lost points in similar situations. They have very clear rules on this matter. PS I hope @perfectocsgo will get better soon.
– Sergey LMBT Bezhanov (@LMBT_CSGO) October 18, 2023
A similar opinion was expressed by a former coach. CR4ZY Ivan Johnta Shevtsov:
Complaints about the actions of ESL, because everyone who has ever dealt with cases of transfer knows that the reaction is to strictly follow the rules. This time it’s different, and besides, couldn’t it have told Forzes before? I don’t think that the test and the decision not to play were made only half an hour before the game.
– Ivan Shevtsov (@JohntaCSGO) October 18, 2023
Insider Alexey Overdrive Biryukov recalled the precedent with the match between Virtus.pro and K23, and also explained what interests forZe and ESL had in the postponed match.
“- If VP hadn’t had TP on the first map in the match against K23, this situation would hardly have had such a resonance. On the other hand, being late for a match and health problems is silly to compare.
– In 2023, you don’t have to look at the rules or regulations. The game will be when the covid allows it.
– The transfer of the game in such a situation is correct. But why didn’t you ask forZe? For ESL, the rules are sacred!
– If forZe were asked, it would be a slippery situation. On the one hand, hardly any of the forzes would be against the transfer, everyone knows each other, everyone communicates well, especially here is force majeure. On the other hand, forZe has this PMR – the last chance to catch on to the Major. And after the loss of those wines by Espada to Navi, this is the best gift.
– Navi is 70% of the CIS audience, and it’s better to get a bunch of hats than to lose an extra match with the participation of those born to win.
Nothing criminal has happened, such a year has turned out. It’s just that ESL did not quite correctly act in such a situation. A speedy recovery to Ilya! “
Former Natus Vincere coach Mikhail continued Biryukov’s thoughts on the impact of coronavirus on the professional scene Kane Blagin. He noted that due to the pandemic, Valve should have canceled penalties for replacing players.
My thoughts on postponing the Forz-Navi match. Hi Valv – people get sick, different emergencies happen. How can points be deducted for a lineup change? How can you limit your squad to only 5 players … especially during the world quarantine period, when you are more likely to get sick!
– Mike (@navi_kane) October 19, 2023
On the morning of October 19, the second forZe coach Anatoly liTTle Yashin drew attention to the fact that the postponement of the match due to the health condition of Perfecto did not prevent him from playing on the retake server.
And yes it is him and yes it is in a couple of hours)
– liTTle_csgo (@csgo_little) October 19, 2023
According to the NAVI player, he entered the match for only half an hour, and this was not a training session.
In a few hours? About 5-6 after the expected start of the match, and I went in for 30 minutes maximum, and not “train hard”, do not make people laugh) And I wish that none of your loved ones were sick with the crown) Since this is very unpleasant.
– Ilya Zalutskiy (@perfectocsgo) October 19, 2023
It should be noted that, despite the controversy and different opinions about the situation, most of the participants in the discussion wished Perfecto a speedy recovery. NAVI will play the next match against the team ESPADA at IEM New York 2023, the beginning of the meeting is scheduled for October 21, 15:00 Moscow time. Whether Perfecto will play in it is unknown.
