A_E declaration of bias regarding Aimstrong and DevM

As event organiser it falls upon me to make decisions that directly influence the tournament and the players.

I will admit I am friends with Aimstrong and to some extent his clanmate DevM. We all have friends in CoH2, but as the organiser of the biggest event at the moment, I need to be open about any bias so it can be kept in check.

I would like to make a public announcement of what I've done to stop this friendship affecting my decision making as much as much possible. But also mention a possible failing that could be perceived as bias even though that was not my intention.

This is so hopefully I can ensure trust in my decision making and intentions can be ensured going forward. I also hope it will ensure that any bias I have is kept in check by you the public.

Aimstrong

With regards to Aimstrong, as one of the biggest name players from previous big tournaments, and knowing that due to Noggano and Jove's participation was in doubt I did my best to convince him to play after the project was announced, and motivated him as much as I could.

It is worth noting I have also attempted to motivate other key players including: Jesulin, HelpingHans and Noggano, all with mixed success.

However I was also aware his automatch rankings were heavily inflated due to lack of decay, and so insisted he play placement matches despite being a finalist in his last tournament 'OCF'.

As his friend I also helped him work out the meta based on his own play, and made a point to myself and him of not discussing thoughts on other players for fear of bias.

Due to a few players not being able to play Noggano (exams), Jove (army), Paula (visa) and Price (DQ), Aimstrong's seed mathematically ended up being one of the top 8 players along with other players Barton and Talisman. This was higher than I would have liked.

I now openly admit that there was wasn't enough logic to the seeding of these three players, I went with my 'gut' instinct on where Talisman and Aimstrong would be based on their practice levels and gave them seeds 7 and 8. Upon doing that I realised Aimstrong and his clanmate DevM would fight early on, and so switched Talisman and Aimstrong around again.

I did this was for one main reason: I was worried about top level players that are clanmates meeting early on. I'm keenly aware of what can happen in those situations (uncompetitive games). So Barton vs. Price, Noggano vs. Jove, and in this case Aimstrong vs. DevM should have been split. This was my motivation at the time.

Aimstrong ended up with a harder bracket, Jesulin then Luvnest, and based on his recent practice levels and improvements would now have been given a much higher seed (possibly seed 5). However I'd like apologise to anyone that this switch betwen him and Talisman has offended, and hopefully you understand the thought processes involved. The switch happened whilst the seeds were in an unfinalised stage, but were being populated onto the public spreadsheet.

Now that I declared this bias I will take the following steps to mitigate it:

• Ensure I cast any Aimstrong related games with a positive outlook for both players as much as possible. And will actively not cast as his friend but attempt to cast in an unbiased way.
  
• Ensure the referees Hooligan and Currahee are consulted first on any decisions to ensure scrutiny is maintained.
  
• Go public with the small amount of bias that crept into the seeding process. Like I have done here, so it is in the open.
  

DevM

With regards to DevM he announced as soon as he could to me and the referees the day after his round 1 match had finished, (three weeks warning), that he and his League of Legends team are in the finals of a big money tourney.

The refs and I felt it proper to instruct VonAsten and him to find a better time to play that would suit the tournament but also not restrict DevM's chance to win money playing another game. We also did the same for Talisman by moving his game so he could play in a competitive Overwatch tournament. If any player has a valid reason that is deemed to be a significant event that can't be moved, in early rounds, we will accommodate as much as possible.

It should be noted that when DevM was 20 minutes late for his first game, he was issued a warning and penalised 100 victory points. I know this didn't affect his match, but I hope this shows that when it comes to refereeing decisions there is no room for any prisoners.

Thanks for being so open about this A_E. Keep up the good work.

I personally don't mind any of this, like A_E said if you think you got enough skill to win the tournament you won't mind who you are against.

Also cheers for helping out with my Overwatch tournament dates, I wouldn't even be playing this tournament otherwise.

Honesty is the most valued of virtues. I love that everything is explained in such a clear way.

Good for being honest A_E. Cheering for Talisman regardless of his opponet.

LUL AE teach Aimstrong how to play coh2 ? PogChamp