Halo Esports Team Acend Loses Over Alleged Unfair Technical Issues

The Halo World Championships 2022, a prestigious, global tournament with $1 million on the line, is currently embroiled in drama, riling up the community regarding a supposedly unfair ruling involving eUnited and Acend Club. This controversy comes after one of Acend's players experienced technical issues during the fifth game of their play-in match against eUnited on 21st October 2022.

Despite allegedly raising these issues immediately with tournament admins, the victory was awarded to eUnited, reportedly without restarting the match. This sparked an uproar amongst Acend players and the broader Halo esports community. However, amid this controversy, Halo Esports' (HCS) official account released an official statement later that day, referencing their HCS handbook, stating that the issues were "player-caused" and the scoring for the match-up was "final."

Acend Slams HCS Over Alleged Unfair Ruling Against eUnited

The controversy began during Acend’s play-in match against eUnited. The score was 2-2, and both teams were neck and neck in their final game. During this match, an Acend player reportedly faced “constant freezing [of their game],” and “audio stopped” at a score of 7-7. 

According to Acend player Brandon “Respectful” Stones, these issues were “raised immediately” to admins at the start of the match. However, Acend was supposedly forced to play the match regardless of these aforementioned problems, ultimately giving their opponents an unfair advantage. As a result, eUnited took the fifth match by a landslide.

My teammates game was constantly freezing and his audio stopped working at 7-7 game 5. 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

— Bran | Respectful (@BrandonStones) October 22, 2022

Respectful claimed the admins asked whether eUnited wanted to replay the match since Acend was encountering problems at the start of the game or take the victory. However, the team reportedly chose the latter rather than replaying against Acend.

No one is celebrating. This situation sucks.

— eU RyaNoob (@RyaNoobHCS) October 22, 2022

The incident has since sparked heated debate. Accordingly, critics believe that the HCS’ admins didn't perform or solve the problem properly, especially after they provided eUnited with the choice to take the victory rather than just replaying the game.

Furthermore, if these admins were notified of these issues at the start of the match, critics argue there would’ve been room to immediately pause or restart the game.

Several pros have given their thoughts so far pic.twitter.com/mD8sCCbX4W

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) October 22, 2022

In addition, eUnited’s choice to take the win has also riled up the community over “bad sportsmanship.” Subsequently, HCS' technical team replaced the alleged faulty PC right after their game, which sparked even more controversy.

HCS Responds, Claims Technical Issues Were “Player-Caused”

Following the controversy, HCS released an official statement on Twitter on 22nd October 2022, referencing the HCS handbook that ultimately governs its tournament and players.

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In the Tweet, HCS essentially stated that Acend caused the issues that lost them the match-up against eUnited, citing that “because it was a player-caused issue, a restart [was] not appropriate, and the results of the game are final.”

Regarding Acend vs. eUnited: pic.twitter.com/sbKtFk2vWX

— Halo Esports #HaloWC (@HCS) October 22, 2022

In response to this statement, Respectful called HCS’ decision and remark on the issue an insult to “the integrity of competitive Halo” and such a “false narrative.”

This is such a false narrative to save face, I cannot believe it. Game freezing and audio issues but we’re supposed to play 3v4?

Saying we disconnect our own headset is such an insult to us players and the integrity of competitive halo and everybody knows it.

I know the truth https://t.co/ogNuzjxmVB

— Bran | Respectful (@BrandonStones) October 22, 2022

For now, it seems HCS’ statement remains absolute, but despite this, the community continues weighing in on the situation. We'll update you if the situation changes.

For more on the game, visit our section dedicated to the latest Halo news, guides, leaks, update, and much more.

Featured image courtesy of Twitter via DreamHack Halo.