We started Lex, Shadowseeker, Savman and Jeru (all birds) with myself (warbird) and Nick Rivers (weasel) as subs, and a lot more about those two subs later. EF went with DeathKnight (weasel), Haz-mat (warbird), A-soul (warbird) and Stem Cell (warbird) as their starters and their only sub was five o ford (warbird).
I should of foreseen how the game was going to go after the start. When the 60 seconds to go warning came up both Jeru and Haz-mat were specced and got locked so we started the game 3v3. The two eventually got back in and were burned, but we both agreed to allow them to sc to get full ships.
We started really well. We played tight, showed good teamwork and were pushing EF back. We got a break when haz-mat lagged out. He returned and was soon killed by Savman . Haz lagged out again and while we were 4v3 up Sav got his second kill, on DeathKnight.
Five o ford subbed Haz and things settled down. The next two kills were made by EF. At eight minutes Sav was killed by DK and at twelve minutes A-soul killed Jeru. Although the score was tied at 2-2 we were still the more aggressive team and were still looking good. When Sav hit 0 reps on his second life I decided to sub in Nick Rivers to keep our slots strong and that's where the fun began.
I'd added Nick to the league roster about twenty minutes before the game was called. There's no seven day waiting period so he was eligible to play, but the Mr-Bots had already taken their rosters from MasterRater so as far as the bot was concerned he wasn't on our roster and wouldn't allow him to sub. This brings up a problem with how games are run these days. The bot is king and the ref is just there more as an observer than anything. Our ref (WarEngine) couldn't do anything as the bot wouldn't accept Nick as a player and the arena was locked. So I was shouting at the ref to get him in (in my usual chirpy happy-go-lucky manner that I reserve for staff members) while trying to explain that Nick was on our roster. Our spec freq was a mess and in-game we were 3v4 for two minutes and our teamwork fell apart.
EF only got one kill in this period (Shad kb five), but the effect on the game was much bigger than that. In the end I decided to sub myself in for Sav as I felt we couldn't afford anymore time trying to get the correct sub made.
The next kill was made by us (five kb Jeru) to tie the game up at 3, but really we weren't the same team we were before the sub. We had lost that push and control we had earlier in the game. Also I was trying to play and continue to talk to WarEngine to get Nick set up us our next sub.
The next three kills were split two-one to EF to make the score 5-4 EF and also War had PM'd me to say that Nick would now be able to sub in. So when Shad, who was on his last life, hit 0 reps he specced for Nick to finally get in. Except he couldn't. He was still locked. This was fixed after 47 seconds and he finally got in, but by then it was too late. The two attempted subs and everything that followed on from then on had killed us as a squad. We had lost our teamwork and our control of the game. Although I was playing I had spent a lot of time typing and we didn't get another kill in the game. EF won 12-4 in 28 minutes.
After the game was over I immediately submitted an appeal, but I'm not hopeful that it will be granted. In my opinion at the very least the game should be replayed from the first sub, with Nick in the game rather than me and the score at 2-2. There is a clear problem with the MR rosters and the Mr-Bots rosters for regular season round 1 games that wasn't known about before our game. This might be a small problem, but it cost us the game.
Unfortunately it doesn't really show up in the match log how much of an effect this had on us and since the people who are going to rule on this appeal were not (I don't think) at the game then they will rely on the log and base their decision on it. That's why I'm not confident of winning the appeal.
At the very least from now on the staff should tell their refs about this problem so when IML has their round 1 they can inform the squad captains that any players added in the hours before game time may be on the MR roster, but might not be on the MR-Bot roster. So they can check the two rosters and make sure that anyone they're planning on playing in the game will be eligible in the eyes of the bot.
Anyway, here's all the stats and stuff from the match:
Box Score
Spec Log
Player Stats
Screenshot
We now have a week off for Easter. Thanks Jesus. We're back a week Sunday when we will be playing DOMINATION. It should be an interesting game as half of Dom's roster played for Vic during the pre-season. I'll keep you up to date with how the appeal for this game goes and I'll post results and stats from all of AML round 1 tomorrow.
posted by CelebPixx on Wednesday, March 23, 2005
