A aggressive Tekken 8 match led to controversy this weekend after a rogue controller connection prompted a probably game-winning combo to be dropped, resulting in a match reset which led to a loss for the would-be winner.
DreamHack Dallas noticed practically 500 Tekken gamers descend on the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Conference Middle this weekend, vying for a $50,000 prize pot and a spot on the Esports World Cup in Riyadh this summer time, which itself is boasting an enormous $1 million prize pool. Two of these gamers have been Korean professional Kim “JDCR” Hyun-jin and Filipino professional Alexandra “AK” Laverez, who have been duking it out on the winners aspect of the highest 64. Each gamers had received one sport apiece and have been each one spherical away from successful the third and last sport to proceed their run on the winners aspect.
JDCR had smacked AK with a helluva combo on a 90% well being lead, carrying his opponent to the wall prepared for the ultimate killing blow. However proper earlier than he may do it, the PlayStation 5 controller join display screen appeared, killing his inputs and inflicting him to drop the combo. Commentators Tasty Steve and Kai Kennedy may be heard exclaiming “Oh no!” because it occurs, as JDCR takes off his headset and sinks his face into his arms.
The Twitch chat descends into absolute chaos as match organisers try and discern whether or not one of many gamers had their controllers disconnected—which leads to an automated loss for the defective pad consumer—or whether or not another person who was beforehand linked to the setup had tried to show their controller on. It was deemed to be the latter, resulting in a reset of the ultimate spherical to play from the start, which Kai Kennedy described as “fairly the windfall for AK,” including: “This can be a heartbreaker, you hate to see conditions like this pop up nevertheless it does occur. Dwell competitors is stay competitors.”
Because the match will get reset, Twitch chat may be seen saying issues like “JDCR received that truthful and sq.,” “JDCR ALREADY WON,” “JDCR bought screwed” and “Jdcr received. That is rigged.” Regardless, the sport goes forward and turns into nearly a mirror of the pre-controller disconnect spherical, as AK will get a tidy life lead and clinches the win with 22 seconds to spare. Twitch chat as soon as once more loses its thoughts, calling out accusations of rigging and saying JDCR was “robbed.” Shortly after the loss, JDCR tweeted “Idk it hurts a bit however yeah”.
The dialogue spilled out onto Reddit and different social media, with followers who have been watching accusing the rogue controller connector as doing so maliciously in an try and purposefully sabotage JDCR—somebody had apparently tried to attach a controller previous to JDCR’s first win in opposition to AK, although this had additionally occurred throughout an earlier set between UK professional Joka and American participant Jahzzo.
The state of affairs has additionally led to AK getting a heaping of moderately undue hate flung his manner, with some going so far as claiming AK orchestrated the entire thing to present himself one other shot at taking the win. Others mentioned that AK ought to have forfeited the sport which, as some identified, greater than probably goes in opposition to the official Tekken World Tour guidelines round “partaking in or permitting consequence fixing.”
As Kai Kennedy famous through the kerfuffle, finally guidelines are in place to take care of a state of affairs of this sort. Within the official Tekken World Tour guidelines relating to match disruptions, it dictates: “If a match disruption happens that’s uncontrolled of the gamers of the match, such because the motion of one other participant’s un-desynced controller or a sport software program crash or console {hardware} failure making gamers unable to proceed a set, the match organizer workers member shall order the gamers to restart the set, however with the identical spherical rely from the purpose that the match disruption occurred.”
DreamHack founder Alex Jebailey addressed the controversy on Twitter, saying he was “extremely sorry for what occurred through the JDCR vs AK match,” including: “I take full accountability for an exterior pause that should not have occurred.” In a follow-up tweet, Jebailey mentioned: “I really feel horrible for the top consequence for JDCR and can assist him attend future qualifiers for an additional probability however the quantity of loss of life threats and loopy issues being mentioned to me are fairly horrendous.”
JDCR, who went on to narrowly miss out on prime eight and a qualifying place on the Esports World Cup after shedding to Pakistani participant Arslan Ash, took to Twitter to say: “Completed at ninth. AK and the TO checked on me many occasions if I felt comfortable with all the things. I ought to’ve checked the bluetooth and I may’ve achieved higher. Thanks for supporting.”
In the end, it is mighty unlucky that it occurred proper as JDCR was clearly about to shut out the set. It has generated a much-needed dialogue across the accountability of making certain controllers are desynced between units or, as Jebailey identified all the way in which in 2020, utilizing the PS5 perform to show off bluetooth all collectively and making people play their matches wired.
I’ve attended and competed in a handful of tournaments because the starting of final yr, and have solely had one occasion the place match organisers have taken the freedom of hopping on stage between video games to verify all pointless bluetooth gadgets are deleted off the console. Contemplating you could not even desync your personal pad on PS4—however can now on the PS5—it is unsurprising that many gamers do not take the initiative to do it themselves. Personally, I really feel prefer it must turn into a extra sturdy a part of a match organiser’s obligations, particularly in relation to the primary stage setup. Having one thing like this happen in a prime 64 match is brutal, nevertheless it turns into a fair larger mare when it may probably occur in one thing as huge as a grand finals sport.
