UPDATE: CEVO has ruled that OPTX won the round and therefore a OT round WILL be played at a later unannounced time. CEVO's decision is as follows.

After considering the circumstances behind this dispute, the following resolution has been issued. As a result of CEVO not carrying over the "LEAVING THE SERVER EARLY RULE" from our previous rule set, CEVO must take responsibility for this oversight and as a result MUST overlook that fact that the San Francisco Optx left the server before the match was officially complete.

Yes, this is unsportsmanlike and as a result the San Francisco Optx will be issued a formal warning for their behavior. CEVO has updated its rules at this time to include the for aforementioned missing rule to eliminate further disputes of this nature. With that said the last round was technically won by the San Francisco Optx as the bomb was not defused successfully by x3o.

This technically results in the match ending in a tie and as a result CEVO is requesting that the teams play the required overtime round to determine the winner."

USA - It looked as though the Optx had been dealt their first loss of the season Wednesday night in Week 4:1 of CEVO Pro Season 5 on Train. Things were not as they seemed however, as the match ended in controversy and has yet to have a final official ruling from CEVO administrators.

The match was a good one and very close throughout. x3o had a good offensive side the first half of the map, finishing up 5-4 and the match came down to the last round of the second half. In a 3v2 situation, Optx' Ryan "pham" Pham is able to get the plant and gets fragged immediately, the Optx' Yaz "Clown" Ammari takes down x3o's Justin "sunman" Summy as Ryan "NineSpot" Bell starts to defuse the bomb. Bell stops to frag Ammari and then returns to the bomb but he has no kit and no time. x3o's Tarik "rockyte" Elkhatib takes over the defuse but it is too late, the bomb explodes making it a tie match.

The problem is, as Bell begun to defuse, the Optx assumed the match was over and left the server before the bomb exploded. Upon realizing the match was not over, the Optx asked to have the overtime played. The first reaction by CEVO administrators was to let x3o decide if they would play the overtime round and they refused.

CEVO|Pipher, CEVO Director of Gaming Operations, gave the following statement on the matter.

"There has not yet or ever been an official ruling on this match at this point in time." Pipher went on to say, "We had asked x3o if they wanted to play the overtime, but they declined. The Optx then filed a dispute, so we're waiting until we can review the demos before we make an official ruling".

x3o team owner Nick Fitz seemed satisfied with the outcome of the match as it stood.

"I think it is pretty clear cut, and I would have made a similar decision if this happened on LAN," said Fitz. "All five players should never willingly leave a match without the final round being over. Teams do it all the time during scrims, but not when it counts."

Fitz went on to defend his team's decision not to play the overtime.

"CEVO did give the option to the team to play OT, however they made the decision collectively not to, and I had no part in that," said Fitz. "Overall both teams played very well throughout the entire match, and I stand by my team and their decision."

San Francisco Optx manager Kat Hunter had a totally different opinion after discussing the incident with CEVO administrators.

"We have gone through the CEVO rules and have not found anything that would support the 10-8 ruling, in fact what we have found directly supports the need for a 9-9 and overtime round," said Hunter. "We have faith in the fairness of the CEVO organization and using the rules as listed on their site, expect them to rule in favor of our challenge."

As it stands now, the match is being reviewed and no official ruling has been made by CEVO and the overtime has not been played. Stay tuned to GotFrag for further information regarding this incident and the official final CEVO ruling.

The rule that is being cited most commonly regarding this situation addresses leaving the server, specifically it says that if an entire team leaves before a match is over, the remaining rounds including the current round, are forfeited:

21.75 Players Leaving Early
All players are expected to remain in the server until the conclusion of the final round of the match. Leaving a match early is considered unsportsmanlike conduct and, at the discretion of CEVO officials, suspensions may be issued if repeated or aggregious violations occur.

If an entire team leaves the server prior to conclusion of the match, any remaining rounds will be forfeitted, including the current unfinished round.

The source of controversy surrounding this rule is in that it was added after the situation occurred, as stated by Pipher.

"It was added after the situation, we made it more clear. We had just finished revamping our rules and that particular rule didn't make it into the source rules, but it was clearly meant to be there as it is an accepted standard across all events for all leagues. Obviously the rules have been updated to correct the deficiency".

There is still no final decision.



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