Taiwan Team "SadStory" Disqualified from IEM 2019 Katowice because of a "Regional Issue"

[BananaInSandals]

Sources: 

 

Facebook post of the team captain:

Quote

我們因為國籍問題被取消資格..他們說我們要報名中國賽區 （We were disqualified due to natiojnality problem. They said we have to registered in China qualifier.)

我們很久以前也是以為要報中國比賽，但是中國比賽需要中國護照，這次也是規則寫說國家就是你得護照，問題是我們的護照是綠色的TAIWAN不是紅色得CHINA... (We thought we have to register in the China qualifier a long time ago. But you need to have Chinese passport for China qualifier. This time's regulations says the country's definition is the passport. The problem is our passport is green Taiwan one, not the red Chinese one.)

4

 (Apologies if the translation isn't that great.)

 

ESL's response on Reddit:

Quote

...if your country is not listed, you should contact ESL administration to seek clarification on which qualifier you should compete in.

Lots of responses about the passport rule - if you have a Taiwanese passport, it makes you eligible to play in the China region as per our rules. Perhaps the confusing part is the name of the region (as opposed to country).

China was put with Taiwan as one qualifying region for ping reasons (we have Hong Kong and Taiwan servers for China qualifiers).

For this rulebook ESL used the United Nations list of countries as a measure of determining countries and regions.

 

Personal opinion:

This is bull crap. Even the Olympic list allows Taiwan to participate as "Chinese Taipei" instead of not listing and then outright disqualifying them. And ESL's explanation for not allowing the Taiwanese team to compete in the East Asia Qualifier (worse ping for the Taiwanese team) is complete garbage as SadStory won 16:1 against the opponent team. While it's true that SadStory should have been a bit more cautious and contacted ESL before registering, ESL disqualifying looks a bit shady.

[Guest]

Well it's just a game, Im sure there are more matches out there. 

[Shally]

17 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Well it's just a game, Im sure there are more matches out there. 

What a bullshit reply.

There might be plenty of matches out there but this can be a big break for a lot of up and coming teams, and it's taken away by shitty politics and ESL policies. 

 

[GoldenLag]

Well its kinda bullshit they cant use a Chinese passport to register as China. 

 

While it makes some sence that Taiwan registers as China it is kinda surprising that they cant use a Taiwan passport as it is China. 

 

Feels like China had a hand in it, though it makes more sence to be a accidental misstake caused by the circumstances between each country (within the country? Idk, Taiwan is China and China is also Taiwan... Yes its dumb)

 

Sort of wierd they didnt have a good workaround for this. I mean they had one, but it doesnt seem to work well....

[Trixanity]

33 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Well it's just a game, Im sure there are more matches out there. 

That's like saying "it's only a world cup; you can try qualify again next time" because that's what they're missing out on. It's the most important event for these guys and a good run opens up a lot of doors.

[BananaInSandals]

8 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Well its kinda bullshit they cant use a Chinese passport to register as China. 

 

While it makes some sence that Taiwan registers as China it is kinda surprising that they cant use a Taiwan passport as it is China. 

 

Feels like China had a hand in it, though it makes more sence to be a accidental misstake caused by the circumstances between each country (within the country? Idk, Taiwan is China and China is also Taiwan... Yes its dumb)

 

Sort of wierd they didnt have a good workaround for this. I mean they had one, but it doesnt seem to work well....

Well, technically speaking, the Taiwanese passport's cover is printed with "Republic of China" (RoC) while the "China" ESL referred to is "People's Republic of China" (PRC). That's why normally Taiwanese won't consider choosing "China" in form most of the time. 

[laminutederire]

1 hour ago, BananaInSandals said:

 

To be fair we just don't see them winning the tournament any time soon for starters, then when you think about it, it makes sense like this and if they don't agree they should have contacted ESL.

Besides the decision of ESL is quite clear: they took countries of the UN, which to be fair is comprising most states in the world anyway, assigned them to online qualifiers, then they added that if your country isn't on the list you should contact them and they'll tell you where to go. That team didn't ask and went to the wrong event.

 

Now ESL is at fault for actually allowing them to sign up in the first place, and I'm pretty sure someone there is getting fired over this. The thing is that that team can actually compete by going through the right qualifier. Not doing so messes up the balance. It's like if a CIS team goes through the middle east qualifier because it's usually easier. It's not fair for the other cis teams better than them who didn't qualify because there were better teams in their area.

[laminutederire]

35 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Well its kinda bullshit they cant use a Chinese passport to register as China. 

 

While it makes some sence that Taiwan registers as China it is kinda surprising that they cant use a Taiwan passport as it is China. 

 

Feels like China had a hand in it, though it makes more sence to be a accidental misstake caused by the circumstances between each country (within the country? Idk, Taiwan is China and China is also Taiwan... Yes its dumb)

 

Sort of wierd they didnt have a good workaround for this. I mean they had one, but it doesnt seem to work well....

I'm pretty sure the argument of passports etc is invalid here. They can't use their Taiwanese passport to compete in lans in China, but this is an online qualifier so it shouldn't really matter does it?

That's why the ESL guy repeatedly said that the only place they have to visit with their passport is Poland, where they actually can go.

That argument seems mixed up here to confuse and outrage people where in reality it doesn't have anything to do with it.

[GoldenLag]

5 minutes ago, laminutederire said:

but this is an online qualifier so it shouldn't really matter does it?

Well i believe it is local hosted in the country. It might be online, but it brings some latency to the table.

[Amazonsucks]

Taiwan is a country. China can deal with it. P.S.  6-4-89 free tibet. This post is now censored in China(the bad China, not the good Taiwan China).

[Syntaxvgm]

11 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Taiwan is a country. China can deal with it. P.S.  6-4-89 free tibet. This post is now censored in China(the bad China, not the good Taiwan China).

Most of the world, including the us, disagrees to appease China. There was big freakout in the US when trump had a call Tsai Ing-wen when he won. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump–Tsai_call
The One-China policy is the norm when it comes to this, and really only republicans defended trump (they probably wouldn't have defended Obama) and even the media criticized it as an insult to China. Trump eventually backed down on this issue. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/trump-now-says-he-would-check-with-china-before-another-call-with-taiwans-president/2017/04/28/eac3480c-2be3-11e7-86b7-5d31b5fdc114_story.html

[BananaInSandals]

8 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Taiwan is a country. China can deal with it. P.S.  6-4-89 free tibet. This post is now censored in China(the bad China, not the good Taiwan China).

Emperor Xi would like to know your location.

[Amazonsucks]

2 minutes ago, BananaInSandals said:

Emperor Xi would like to know your location.

Tell him I'm watching that Christopher Robin movie. I hear he was good in it.

[GoldenLag]

10 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Taiwan is a country

Depends very much on who you ask. Ask Taiwan and they will say they are China. Like the whole thing. 

11 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

This post is now censored in China

Considering they have an ETA on annexing the island (that is theirs but isnt). Not all that surprising

12 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

the bad China, not the good Taiwan China

Good thing Taiwan went democratic after a while. They were nationalist up untill very recently. Good by circumstance, which is great.

[Amazonsucks]

Just now, GoldenLag said:

Depends very much on who you ask. Ask Taiwan and they will say they are China. Like the whole thing. 

Considering they have an ETA on annexing the island (that is theirs but isnt). Not all that surprising

Good thing Taiwan went democratic after a while. They were nationalist up untill very recently. Good by circumstance, which is great.

Democratic and nationalist arent mutually exclusive though. 

[williamcll]

21 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Good thing Taiwan went democratic after a while. They were nationalist up untill very recently. Good by circumstance, which is great.

Feels like Taiwan is going the Australian way of politics where the leading party flip flops between the two.

[GoldenLag]

32 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Democratic and nationalist arent mutually exclusive though. 

Well, by nationalist i mean a authoritarian regime. Sorry i didnt make that clear

[GoldenLag]

14 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Feels like Taiwan is going the Australian way of politics where the leading party flip flops between the two.

Welcome to the roman republic 

[AlTech]

1 hour ago, GoldenLag said:

Depends very much on who you ask. Ask Taiwan and they will say they are China. Like the whole thing. 

Considering they have an ETA on annexing the island (that is theirs but isnt). Not all that surprising

Good thing Taiwan went democratic after a while. They were nationalist up untill very recently. Good by circumstance, which is great.

Taiwan is still communist tho so....

[mrthuvi]

8 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Taiwan is still communist tho so....

That is decidedly the most ignorant thing I have heard this month....

[Bcat00]

Don’t get why this is an issue.

 

the team messed up when checking for info on where to register. Of course, the league also has responsibilities for letting them register like that in the first place but leagues aren’t responsible for a holding a contestants hand.

 

you learn some you lose some, these kids just got a big lesson in life 

 

[GoldenLag]

20 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Taiwan is still communist tho so....

Um, no?

 

They are at least on paper democratic (havent looked into it much) and were a authoritarian regime untill like 1980s/90s (someone has to doublecheck that)

 

Socialist, shure. Communist? no. 

[laminutederire]

3 hours ago, GoldenLag said:

Well i believe it is local hosted in the country. It might be online, but it brings some latency to the table.

Sure but you don't need a passport to connect to servers that's my point. And latency goes both way since they have server in Taiwan and mainland China.

[GoldenLag]

6 minutes ago, laminutederire said:

Sure but you don't need a passport to connect to servers that's my point. And latency goes both way since they have server in Taiwan and mainland China.

Not really. Last time i checked the position the server reports is their actual position. Meaning Poles have an advantage. That is unless they do it differently in the games they play

[AlTech]

1 hour ago, GoldenLag said:

Um, no?

 

They are at least on paper democratic (havent looked into it much) and were a authoritarian regime untill like 1980s/90s (someone has to doublecheck that)

 

Socialist, shure. Communist? no. 

Many community countries claim to be "socialist" tho .