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I will speak in a roundabout way. By the time I've been thinking over what to write for my diary on Proplay, I've come to a conclusion that I should speak only about the third unfortunate day, the play-off day, where I was anyhow involved at once in the two most sensational scandals of the WCG. I mean games Norway - Korea and Russia - USA.
I'll start with the first match and tell you what had happened in reality. Glad Norwegians barge into the gaming zone a bit later than Koreans and I, as the judge assigned to team Norway, had to raise my voice, but REAL took out his guys from a crowd of chatting Scandinavians. Mates sat down at once, without any problems in about five minutes set all the options and stared at me with questioned faces. "Oh God! What a pleasure to work with professionals. They do everything in silence, quickly and without questions." - thought I, remembering my Greeks and Macedonians in the first and second days of the competition. Although it's a sin to complain of team Macedonia - the guys played calmly and without any remarks, that was really surprising. Attentively examined their devices for own satisfaction and started the CS, I began looking for the enemy. It turned out a team of five guys who looked like monkeys from the cartoon. By the way, there was monkey-mother in the cartoon and we could see her here too - the team-leader, who diligently defended the interests of the team from Samsung's and Boxer's motherland. It was a great pleasure that the other Russian-speaking judge from Latvia - Banshi was looking after the Asians. There were no doubts that we will find the understanding. The game began.
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I would say straight off I'd watched the game behind the Norwegians' backs and saw everything live so to say. On the first map our guys (excuse me for such manners, but I sympathies these guys a lot, especially after our talks) lost the first 5-6 rounds; Koreans seemed to be a machine crushing any resistance with headshots only. Norwegians played organized but not so loudly, as Koreans did, I could feel clearly a breakdown after such mad rounds. But then something creaked in the heads of MYM and headshots, at times unreal, went on by prb and REAL. It was a great pleasure to see how they managed to brace themselves and press the Asian 24x7 players. It became louder and louder around me with each round. I could remember one more nice detail - while the Norwegians were messaging and discussing the tactic on the next round in the game I could see the word "virtus", that means the relevance of Russian tactical schemes on the world market.
The further game was just like a beating, I saw it just like that. The guys relaxed and even started joking in the game, smiling to each other. As the result - The great pleasure and victory with 7 rounds of advantage. I took my judge protocol more comfortable, wrote down the result on the first map and went for the captains' signs. The nice Koreans didn't even understand what to answer when they are asked "Who is the captain?"
All the formalities were over and few MYM's players came to me and asked whether they can leave for the toilet. I warned them that they should come back as soon as possible, they just nodded. I should point out that they went to smoke and not to the toilet. But not all kinds of tobacco are equally useful. Sure, that was Nola's thoughts, while opening a box with snuff. I'd like to point out that when I was in Norway this summer I bought just the same for myself. The photos you can see below, by the way the snuff is absolutely legal and our grandfathers often used it.
As you see the mood was fine. The only thing that spoiled it a bit was that the players were late for a while. The second map started. The guys didn't slow down - and everything was over soon. I would admit, it was a great pleasure to see the guys playing - exactly in such games you understand what smart CS is, not a game with a count only on shooting. Speaking about the disciplinal fouls, there were no issues of fact. The guys were sitting in silence after death, no shouts after the black screen and all other things - the game was played clearly and professionally, without any remarks. Concerning the doubleduck that was found, I, staying behind the players' backs, hadn't seen it. Once REAL run on de_inferno from the library to the plant with the help of cntrl and turned to me to ask, whether it is allowed. On my affirmative answer he nodded and plunged back into the game. I spoke about it numerously with the higher judges. But they didn't listen to me. They listened only to the Korean team-leader, who spoke for the whole team. None of the Korean players knew English. I think some help was given to him from the head referee of the championship and the responsible for the judges' work, who were also Koreans. Terry connected; he was falsely named the head judge on many sites. No he was only the head in CS zone, and the superior judge was Joe, who, despite the European name, was from Korea. We should also mark that all the papers were signed, what means that there are no claims. It seemed that Norwegians have nothing to be afraid of - the match was officially finished with a 2-0 score.
But they didn't let me to hand in the match paper to the judges, responsible for the game results. They'd just said: "wait a minute, we will examine the situation". They didn't want me taking part in the discussion, just asked to step away, they had a meeting. "Nothing to do", - thought I and waited for the end of dispute. Ten… twenty… forty minutes passed. The Koreans were still clearing up something. It was about 2 p.m. and I went to the neighbor restaurant to taste the free WCG-dinner. The food was nice, what I cannot say about the lunches for judges from McDonalds. At the first day it was ok, but on the second I felt seek of McBreakfast. So I ate the soups of the day and salads as I was tired of the fast food. I was back in 30 minutes: the Koreans started to watch the game, seek the doubleducks. During that three-three and a half hours of their sorting out their relationships, I managed to judge one more game, to knock about the exhibition and to watch the match of our team on the scene. The funniest thing was that they didn't even accept me to the discussion. Terry took everything in his hands and I didn't call in question his authority by that time.
By that moment I was interested in a game of A-gaming and Team Roccat, where the first ones before my eyes won the second half on de_inferno without losing a round and took the map. The next map was de_train, which I'd not seen, but congratulated guys with the victory! I should point out that the Finns had some claims concerning doubleduck in some concrete moments, which were legalized by the judges after watching the demo. The Finns admitted their defeat with dignity. Everything was fast and elegant, thanks Team Roccat for the fair-play.
After a time, I, as a known Russian-speaking judge, was asked where KPOBb was playing versus the Americans. I was not up on, as I was judging Norwegian's game during the match versus the Netherlands, but still I knew about our victory. I looked around but hadn't found our guys in the gaming zone. I asked the other judges about the match, but none knew anything…
Only by chance I saw the match on the scene, while walking around the entertaining zone. I came to a group of Russians in the first lines headed by Groove and Lex holding the tricolor.
I came right to the end of the first half, that our players had won with the score 12-3 on de_train playing for CT. There was a small pause and I understood that I should appear in the gaming zone, to show that I'm there. Although there were not so many teams and about 2-3 judges for each match, I still should do my duty.
The scandal with the Norwegians and Koreans was going to an end. As it appeared, eSTRO pressed the judges and they'd found a doubleduck and appointed a rematch on only one map, despite the fact that MYM'd won two maps in the bo3 series. As the competent colleagues said the rematch should be on the best Korean's map. I think you would agree with me, that it was hard to play the crucial map after the three hours of pickling in Korean nippers, especially after winning two maps with a great advantage and having signed match papers, what should mean no discussing and changing the results. But the judges had made a precedent - the rules can be changed.
It would have been a miracle if REAL and his team won after such rough violation of all principals of the fair-play. The guys were squeezed and calm. The Koreans squealed with happiness with each headshot and round. Afterwards the whole world had seen KF3's phrase towards eSTRO: "Get cancer and die. Please."
I think it would be necessary to show the match protocol, to dot the i's and cross the t's, because the other news sites used to muddle the reality.
I felt the emotions overfilling me. It was anger and indignation because of judging of some members of our brigade. By the way, pay attention to the guy watching MYM playing. It's Terry the Canadian, the head judge in CS-zone. By the moment he had already helped the Koreans, but that was only the beginning. Remember him.
I went back to the scene to my new friends from the Kazakhstan national team and we upheld the Russian KPOBb, that was playing the second half, hardly taking the rounds. We'd literally deafen our American neighbors with our "Go Go!, Nice! Come on, Guys!".
The last round, the last frag and the Russian sector victorious raises its hands. Victory! It is hard to describe the feelings, just happiness, pride, pleasure and everything was mixed. A match in the most important tournament of the year with your national team participating and you watch it not with HLTV sitting at home about 10000 km away from the event, but live, on scene, upholding the team and feeling the comradeship. The thing you should try!
The match is over, but the pause tightens. Notwithstanding the rules the Americans go to watch the demo with the judges. They are looking for the flashbug. A strange thing, the maps were fixed. Anyway the fact of the flashbug was not verified as Mosk showed later - the American saw an edge of the flash bang. Even more so the incident had played no role in the game process: none was killed.
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Our national team is surprised by a half an hour pause.
Our old friend Terry interrupted almost an hour break and asked the gamers to go to the gaming zone, the Americans didn't want play on scene. The guys would find out the other details only in the playground.
The teams were back in gaming zone. Passing by near a group of Americans, the eMg, I heard that the Russians were accused of cheating. With a very annoyed voice I said that it was not true. They stared at me ashamed: the judge expressed another point of view than the head judge did. But I was already psyched and had no wish to stop. I was driven wild with all the things going on around me, I wanted to break something.
The rest of the time was like in delirium because of anger. At least I understood what the affective state is. The last thing to kill me was, the score that transformed from 16-13 into 15-15 because of strange judge's decision (still many sites showed the score 16-14). This information I received from the other judges, as I couldn't judge the matches of the Russians and the Americans, and they didn't want me to pass through. One more round was appointed, if I'm not mistaking not on de_train, but on de_dust2. That round made or broke the first map. Overtime. Unfortunately not in our favor.
During the game on nuke the Americans started insulting KPOBb, I couldn't control myself and passing near eMg shouted: "shut up". The whole gaming zone fell in silence. I could see a lot of uncomprehending views…
I was at the breaking point, I couldn't contain myself. I've found the supreme umpire Joe and claimed that I would like to leave the referee's brigade because of preconceived judging. He took me to Shiva , the judge's brigades chief. He listened to me, asked not to worry and said that it's mine decision. Then we had a private talk, which I cannot publish in my diary. After the talk I took my bag and put on a specially made jacket with two labels - Russian Flag and National Emblem. Some of my phrases were even quoted on A-gaming.ru, but still there were some inexactitudes - I'm 18 and some other details. I'm not going to quote those phrases here, the people who are interested may ask in the comments. So I've put on the jacket not to show my judge's T-shirt and to quit the brigade. I was the first WCG GF referee from Russia and, perhaps, the first man who had left this organization during the tournament. It didn't trouble me at that time. It is hard to describe a match on nuke. I've never seen such a heat of the struggle. I want to say thanks to our guys. A few more words about that shouter from the American team. His name was hostile, if I'm not mistaking. This is his face.
The person, who shouted all that phrases towards our team, that different sites quoted, that was his job. I think it would be interesting to know some other situations with him. He seemed to get it often, because he had a blue towel all the time with him (or just a rag), which he used to wipe his hands and mouse. And if he was still dead, but had already dried his sweaty hands, he covered his mouse and pad with the towel. Not sure it is necessary to speak about his squeaky shouts; everybody had seen the video of the game. After the match on train our hero claimed to the referee that our captain (Lex) called him gay - another amusing fact. Having heard it, Lex with a stoned face stood up and went to them. The fans whispered: "Lex is going to hit him". Thanks God he could control himself. The American decided to leave, having seen Lex coming.
In the end Lex said: "See you in Moscow". It is rumored that the final of one of the greatest international tournaments would be in Moscow… But this is another story.
There were about 40 fans, even non Russian speaking behind the guys. It was strange to see Canadians behind our backs.
By the way, speaking about the team's shouts. The thing is that only Russians can understand, what is shouted by our players, as the shouts of the Americans can understood by anyone and by our players too. That's a huge disadvantage, because it could tell upon the moral. Maybe we should invigorate ourselves in English? Anyone would able to understand us, the enemies too! When I tried to shout as a guy near me "one by one", the American fans shut up for a long time. Maybe our teams should take a note?
I think there is no use to tell you about the match, you can see everything. The only difference was in the version of CS. It was played on the LAN version and there was no HLTV-translation, as about 3 servers or 4 players disconnected because of the Steam.
After the game a decision was made that the team will appeal, as eMg used the doubleduck. Both the head of ESL and bsl, one of the most famous and world known CS progamer, had noticed that. No documents were signed; we wanted to discuss the moot points. From the words of Kazakhstan's players, who watched the game behind the American team's backs, the doubleduck was used under the tower on de_train. This fact was claimed to the referees, who even didn't want to watch the demo. At last Joe said, that he wanted everything to be fair and 5 referees were watching POV seeking the doubleduck. Each player of KPOBb looked after them also. I was messaging my close friend at that time, who worried about me. Moreover I rushed to the press-zone to print the CS WCG-rules. Unfortunately I had to download some soft to open the file, as it was in .pdf and the Acrobat Reader was not installed. The tries to find and contest the judges' mistakes were unsuccessful. Terry just didn't listen to us. By the way, when the Americans or Koreans had troubles there he was, ready to help. Moskvin had found the proof that it was not the flashbug, the man could see an edge of the flash bang. The referees ignored all our attempts to explain what it's all about. There was a feeling that we were speaking with a wall: the judges listened to us but didn't hear us. The whole discussion dragged out until late at night. It was hard to tell how much time it took, but more than 3 hours for sure. The match on the scene started at 2-3 p.m. and we were at home at about 11 p.m. Grieves that the Americans had to go with us by the last bus to the hotel, but because of some unknown circumstances they'd refused and chosen to go by foot. It's a pity.
I should mark the game of our team on the second map - after that pressing from the audience on the WCG, judges and American players, they looked great. Round by round they tore out the points playing for T's on nuke, as they'd played for CT not the best way. That was a strong-willed match. A confrontation of Russian national nature and ill-wishers, that surrounded us. And we held out. With a 13-16 score. It was difficult to play in the strange lands, when even the referees were against you. It was hard to control yourself after the insults from the people sitting by the other computers, when the judge listens to you and then says the other things. I'm glad that we'd managed to save our pride and honor, not to shame our country, that had sent us there.
Comment: All the photos are made by me in person and I ask to save the copyrights. This article was written in Russian and fully by me.
Author: Anton "Cyclone" Lapshenkov
Translation from Russian by Andrey "free1ancer" Zimin
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