Caz Esports picked up a controversial win in the ESL UK & Ireland League of Legends Autumn Season Premiership this evening.
They beat Enclave Gaming this evening, despite Enclave having 15 kills to Caz’s 12.
The main talking point was the manner of their victory.
Enclave’s top-laner Igloo disconnected at the 20-minute mark, when his team were 11-3 up. It looked like a victory for Enclave at this point.
Igloo was gone for some time, due to weather bringing down his internet connection, according to Enclave’s Twitch account. The game was paused for around 16 minutes before play resumed.
At this point, Igloo was still out of action, so it was now four players versus five.
Apparently each team has a maximum of 10 minutes they can pause the game. Enclave had used all of their 10 minutes up, but Caz chose not to use all of their 10-minute pause time to allow Igloo to get back into the game. However, according to their player Skude, they gave up 6-7 minutes.
ESL’s rulebook states: “If a Player has not returned, or cannot be replaced within 10 minutes after the pause has started, then the Team with the dropped Player may forfeit the match at admins discretion.”
Esports News UK understands that extra time is sometimes spent as communication time, so the players speaking to ESL’s admins etc. This can of course slightly extend the time beyond the 10-minute pause time.
Igloo did eventually reconnect later in the game, but at that point it was too late and Caz had time to claw themselves back into the game.
They won with 38 minutes on the clock, but it was nearer an hour including the pause time.
The scene seems to be divided over whether it was right for Caz to do this or not.
Caz were technically playing within the rules, and a win is a win, but some have implied that Caz lacked sportsmanship and it was bad manners (BM) for them not to give their pause time up.
‘A heartbreaking loss’ says caster FrozenDawn
Will “FrozenDawn” Burgess offered his post-match analysis:
‘An unfortunate game’ – Enclave and UK scene react
Caz player Skude said any win is important and that Caz shouldn’t be made out to be the bad guys here:
We even gave them like 6-7 min and its not like they would have given us any more pause time, any win is important in bo1s
— Skude @i61 (@RangeExpire) August 2, 2017
Gave them 7 mins of our time yet we’re still the bad ones ;/
— Fastlegged (@FastLegged) 2 August 2017
Enclave remained humble for the most part, though Skudzy was upset with Caz’s decision:
Unfortunate game but it happens. We will be back stronger next week 🙂
— [PP] Joe Kent (@Joekerism) 2 August 2017
We waited all the time, ESL DQ’ed them not us! Please don’t think that of us.
— [PP]Britsaint (@TEBritsaint) 2 August 2017
Unfortunate game for us but we will be back boys, we promise. ? GGWP
— Enclave Gaming (@EnclaveGamingUK) 2 August 2017
Seeing people target CAZ players for not pausing. It’s a tournament, the other team didn’t sort their internet out. Their problem. Simple.
— [PP] Reclamation (@_Reclamation) 2 August 2017
CAZ did nothing wrong just weren’t pouring their heart out today
— [PP] Demo (@eademov2) 2 August 2017
Do you think Caz’s actions were justifiable or unfair?
Should @CAZeSports have given up their pause time to @EnclaveGamingUK? Controversial win divides opinion https://t.co/5HDH0d2olc
— Esports News UK (@Esports_News_UK) August 2, 2017
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
