Acend, a Halo team featuring two UK players, have suffered a controversial 3-2 loss at the Halo World Championship 2022 in Seattle this weekend.
Acend were playing eUnited in Group C, when one of their players experienced their game freezing and audio cutting out, according to Acend UK player Respectful. The players stopped playing, but were told to continue by an admin. eUnited continued playing, and won the match.
Acend includes UK players Respectful and Snipedrone, and French players Sica and Lqgend.
Respectful said on Twitter: “My teammate’s game was constantly freezing and his audio stopped working at 7-7 in game five. The admins have awarded a win to eUnited with us being unable to play the game. It was 3v4 and the issues were raised immediately.
“The admins have still issues the win without us being able to play the game five. This is our livelihoods and it is absolutely ridiculous. I can’t believe what I have just witnessed.
“This is the biggest load of shit I have ever seen in my entire life. Unacceptable isn’t the word, I have never seen this happen in my life.”
Respectful, Acend
“I have seen full replays after somebody’s equipment stopped working several times just over the course of Halo Infinite. I honestly can’t believe this. We didn’t even get to play a game five and they were awarded the win for free. I’m lost for words.
“[The organisers] literally took an admin’s word who was flustered and said he didn’t even see the issues. Shoutout to eUnited for not replaying too when asked if they wanted to. Bad sportsmanship isn’t the word. We are all the same and do the same thing so imagine if it were you. And by the way, they swapped out the faulty PC after the ‘series’.”
The official Halo Championship Series (HCS) Twitter account posted the following update on the situation, saying a player on Acend ’caused the disconnect of his own headset’ and players were instructed to continue playing.
“In the event of an issue, players are expected to immediately raise their concerns, and continue to play their match unless otherwise instructed by the referee.
“Because this was a player-caused issue, a restart is not appropriate and the results of the game are final. Administration was unable to verify these claims [of a malfunctioning PC]. The administration swapped the PC despite the unverified claims out of an abundance of caution.”
Respectful said the organiser’s response was a ‘false narrative to save face’ and ‘an insult to the players and integrity of competitive Halo’.
There’s a clip of eUnited player RyaNoob shooting unmoving Acend players while the situation occured. Some said he was right to play to the admin’s decision and continue, while others criticised him for doing so.
The Halo World Championship 2022 is now entering the group stages, and several UK talent and teams are taking part.
Acend will play in the lower bracket round one next, while the likes of UK-based orgs Fnatic and Jlingz Esports are in the playoffs too.
Earlier this year, Acend won HCS Valencia 2022.
Thanks to DatedRhyme for the intel
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.
