Controversy in SA Call of Duty Championship qualifier

The South African leg of the Call of Duty Championship 2014 qualifiers took place this weekend on 22 February, but the event was not without controversy.

At stake was the chance to be one of 32 teams from around the world battling for the $1-million prize pool in the 2014 Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox, in partnership with Major League Gaming, which takes place in Los Angeles from 28 – 30 March.

As reported by Zombie Gamer, the controversy came about when it was discovered that two of the players in new clan RiZe were based in the UK. From clan RiZe, players ParadoxX and Pupsky were based in South Africa, while Dominate JB and Orbit Mance were from the UK.

This isn’t against the MLG rules, but the controversy arose when it was discovered that the UK-based players wound up hosting some of the matches. Remember, this is a qualifying tournament for South Africa teams. Matches took the format of 4v4 and this meant that 6 out of the 8 players were at a latency disadvantage when the matches were hosted in the UK.

A few teams reportedly fell victim of this latency problem, but it wasn’t until South African team Adept was to face RiZe in the semi-final that it became apparent that some games were being hosted by UK-based players. Adept refused to play games hosted in the UK and an MLG referee was called in to mediate.

This where the controversy escalated, as the United States-based referee ran a “lag test” and ruled it was acceptable for the games in the South African qualifying leg to be hosted in the UK, and Adept must play or forfeit.

Aside from the question of how a US referee is able to correctly test connection quality between the UK and South Africa (without a deep knowledge of our tricky telecoms situation), it should also be asked why a South African qualifier match, in which the majority of players are based in South Africa, should have to play games hosted internationally, with all the inherent latency and network stability issues.

Adept went on to lose 3-2 their semi-final against RiZe, with Zombie Gamer reporting that the two matches of the five hosted in the UK created an obvious disadvantage for Adept.

Clan Hi5 were to face RiZe in the final to earn a spot in the 32 team tournament, and they too lost 3-1, with Zombie Gamer reporting similar latency issues with the UK-hosted matches.

LosT Gaming, Team Adept, and Clan Hi5 have all lodged complaints with MLG, and Pupsky of RiZe has reportedly suggested they may forfeit the matches now.

Find the full results of the South African Call of Duty Championship qualifying leg here: Call of Duty: Ghosts Playoff Tournament Bracket – South Africa Championship Qualifier Tournament