Flashpoint announced today that the opening round matchup for the Flashpoint Three Regional Major Rankings event between Ninjas in Pyjamas and Anonymo Esports will be replayed. The decision has drawn lots of outrage and complaints from all over the CS:GO community.
NiP and Anonymo faced off in a best-of-three on May 14 in an opening round matchup of a RMR qualifier event. This was the debut of NiP’s superstar acquisition, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz. Just a few rounds into the match, dev1ce tweeted out that NiP were being forced to play “on 30-40% [packet] loss.” For reference, any packet loss over 10 percent is considered unacceptable for streamers or pro players.
The match progressed with NiP losing the series 2-1. Dev1ce went back to Twitter to voice his displeasure with how the situation was handled.
NiP’s owner and founder Hicham Chahine echoed the sentiment, calling the handling of the situation by Flashpoint “a disgrace.” In an official statement, NiP placed the blame squarely on FACEIT, the Flashpoint tournament organizer, saying it “refused any alternate solution presented to them.” NiP thanked Anonymo for their “true sportsmanship” and willingness to be “open to any solution to help solve the issue.”
Flashpoint finally released an official statement today—albeit an unpopular one. In its first official statement, the tournament host explained the reasoning behind NiP’s packet loss issues and why the team made the decision to replay the series. The statement says NiP submitted a request to replay either the full series or just the final map, with the decision left up to Anonymo.
The initial statement was widely criticized by players, casters, coaches, and other CS:GO community figures for a few reasons. Primarily, people wondered why Anonymo would be forced to replay a series they had won because of mistakes FACEIT had made. Additionally, the original announcement said the replay would have taken place less than an hour after the announcement had been made. In an immediate follow-up post, Flashpoint updated its initial announcement to push back the time and date of the replay.
In their own announcement, Anonymo called the decision “unsubstantiated,” placed blame on FACEIT for the rushed decision, and also blamed NiP for pressuring FACEIT “on a business level.”
Several members of the CS:GO community have posted scathing commentary on the decision. Team Liquid’s Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski ripped the decision, calling the process of trying to have a match replayed “actual craziness.”
Heroic’s cadiaN criticized the timing regarding the decision, questioning why it took so long for it to be made, and why the match had to be replayed so soon after. Dev1ce’s former Astralis teammate Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander said he would have said no to the rematch if he were in Anonymo’s shoes and pondered what “NiP and Flashpoint have done to make them say yes.”
No matter what the outcome of the replay is, this is a less-than-ideal start to the first Regional Major Rankings event for 2021.
