On Germany vs Poland,
Some rather egregious errors were made on both sides with regards to the scheduling procedure, as well as the side of the admins. To not derail the tournament for a single match, the following will happen as well as why.
The situation
The contacts of team Poland and team Germany contacted each other initially on Tuesday. Team Poland clarified they are only able to play on Sunday, whereas team Germany is willing to play any day other than Sunday. On Wednesday, the administration was contacted regarding the situation by team Germany. No further progress was made regarding the scheduling after that point.
What do the rules say?
The relevant rules with regards to scheduling include the following.
Rules & Regulations said:
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§ 7 Scheduling[/anchor]
(2) Matches must be played by midnight BST on the date given in the fixture thread. The default time for matches between European teams will be 19:30BST on that date. Teams are free to schedule their matches as seen fit however in case of a disagreement:
- Team A must post in the fixture thread, at least 2 dates with a default time of 19:30 BST at least 24 hours before the match deadline. If Team A fails to do this on time Team B may post their preferred time/date.
- Team B must select one of those two times/dates (by posting in the fixtures thread) at least 12 hours before the match deadline. If Team B fails to do this, both teams will be on disagreement so the default time of the match will be the chosen time and day to play.
(3) Teams may agree on a non-default time by posting in the fixtures thread.
(4) If neither team manages to schedule their match correctly, it must be played on the default date/time. However, if irregularities happen in the process of scheduling that match (including the private chats), the admins will always have the last word to decide the official day and time (based on evidence from both sides).
The admin view
Note that rule 2 would have been appropriate in this situation, but was not applied. It is an archaic rule that is generally overlooked in favour of a mutual agreement; it was indeed overlooked by all parties involved, including the administrators. I wish to apologize for this, as we failed our part of reminding the captains of this rule. That said, our mistake does not take away that both captains failed their responsibility of scheduling the match properly.
As a result, rule 7.4 now becomes the relevant rule. However, the administration is under the impression that Poland frustrated, or at the very least expressed a non-cooperative attitude with regards to the scheduling process to play under this default time. The irregularities clause in rule 7.4 is partially there to avoid teams abusing the scheduling rules to enforce a favourable Sunday date.
What happens now?
As such, we have decided on the following ruling in the spirit of rule 7.2. Team A (Poland) will have to provide 2 dates in the range of Sunday 17th of November to Saturday 23rd of November. As team Poland has made it clear that they wish to play on Sunday at 19:30GMT, they only have to provide one more date. This date has to be posted by Tuesday 23:59GMT, but we would prefer it is posted asap. This date is subject to a 24 hours clause, ie. in the case Wednesday 19:30GMT is desired, it has to be posted by Tuesday 19:30GMT. In the case that team Poland fails to set a date, team Germany can pick any date in this range. Team Germany is expected to be able to play on the date that team Poland picks.
The victor of this match is
expected to perform picks and bans as well as set the date for the semi-finals match on the same date that their match was played. If this somehow does not occur, their opponent in the semi-finals will get to set the date.
We wish to sincerely apologize to teams Belgium & Netherlands/North America, who potentially have to play their semi-finals match not knowing the maps or date until the day before. We will convene as administration to determine whether it is necessary/desirable to extend the tournament by a week.
Final words
I believe I speak for all administrators when I say that we are really unhappy with how this situation turned out. We are heavily reliant on team captains to see eye-to-eye and solve any disagreements through compromise/mutual agreement. In the end, we all play this game to have fun. Please keep this in mind for the final few weeks and good luck to all teams still struggling to be the winner of the final Nation's Cup.
Best regards,
Watly