Zenith withdraws from two tournaments

posted by Jaywalker, 291 days ago

In a shocking move,

Zenith has decided to withdraw from BeyondTheSummit World Tour despite progressing past the group stages and into the playoffs. Their withdrawal will mean that

Orange moves to second place, while

World Elite takes third in the group.

Citing their desire to train privately for The International 2012, the team will no longer be competing in the $1000 tournament.

Zenith has been engulfed in a few controversies lately, with a stand-in player of theirs using an offensive nickname, as well as dissatisfaction from the community after their controversial performance against

Counter Logic Gaming.

Zenith released the following statement regarding the standin:

During Thursday's match with Team Infused in the ProDOTA World League, xy- had an emergency just as the match was scheduled to begin. As such, Team Zenith had to hurriedly look for a replacement on short notice.

Regrettably, the nickname used by our stand-in was offensive and in poor taste. We offer no excuses for this oversight and would like to apologize to all who were offended. Zenith will make sure that there will be no repeat of this unfortunate episode. This individual's opinion does not reflect Zenith's and once again, the players and staff would like to extend our heartfelt apologies to all.

Zenith has yet to comment on their withdrawal from this tournament.

Edit: Zenith has also decided to forfeit their match against

mousesports for ProDOTA2 League and thus will out of the tournament as they are currently in the loser's bracket.

A statement has been released by Zenith regarding the matter:

Dear all, Zenith has decided to withdraw from the Beyond The Summit World Tour tournament. After attempting to play on a US West server, the players have found it counterproductive to play regular games on a server with significant delay. We have decided to concentrate our efforts on training for The International, using the extra time to train with teams from the SEA region. We wish all the other
teams all the best in the remainder of the tournament.

Unfortunately, Zenith had to forfeit the match against mousesports in the ProDOTA World League earlier tonight. This was not a flippant act of disregard for the tournament as some have speculated. xy- had National Service duties (army) which he could not take leave from. We have tried to talk to admins earlier in the day to postpone the match to 11.30pm-12.00am so as to accomodate xy- as he rushes home to play the match, so that we did not need to employ any stand-in. Regrettably, mousesports were unwilling to play at any other time and hence we had no choice but to forfeit the match. We apologize to fans who were looking forward to the game.

Moving forward, Zenith will be 100% focused on training solely for The International. We will most likely not be participating in international online competitions but we will still be taking part in tournaments hosted on SEA servers, such as the Alienware Game Victorious tournament. We hope to have your support in this last crucial leg of preparations before the team flies off to Seattle.

Sources: BeyondTheSummit

...

Nyvis wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:26 CEST:

In b4 disband.

hohi wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:27 CEST:

Well thay have to practice no delay lineups and heroes on no delay so good choice

hardandfunky wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:28 CEST:

#1 Not funny.
OT, Zenith is just, so damn professional. They are willing to withdraw from a tournament just because of a small controversy. Respect.

Layne wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:29 CEST:

I don't see this as a reason to withdraw. There are admins why didn't any of them tell the player to change the nick for this game? Anyways it's their decision.

DkN- wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:30 CEST:

What was the offensive nickname?

kris187 wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:30 CEST:

COME AT ME BRO? they think they're too good.

melvinwaaa wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:30 CEST:

I think they overreacted on the "controversy".

Nevertheless, hope Zenith made the right move. :)

njuub wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:31 CEST:

DkN- schrieb:
What was the offensive nickname?

ISLAYGAYS

henrydickenson wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:31 CEST:

As a homosex this offends me.

#10

skadoosh wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:32 CEST:

They didn't withdraw because of the offensive nickname. It's very obvious their main reason is so they can practice more before TI2. How hard is it to read?

"Citing their desire to train privately for The International 2012, the team will no longer be competing in the $1000 tournament."

Apology for offensive nickname ie. not the reason for withdrawing:

"Regrettably, the nickname used by our stand-in was offensive and in poor taste. We offer no excuses for this oversight and would like to apologize to all who were offended."

Seriously...

#11

ohne_caps wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:33 CEST:

what was his name anyway? I think I watched the game but did not notice it.

#12

renand3z wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:33 CEST:

Nickname?

#13

Luffydude wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:33 CEST:

It had nothing to do with some random standin's name. The tournament was just not worth it imo, only 1k for having to play with huge lags against top teams?

Atleast prodota is 30k which is something

#14

beifru wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:34 CEST:

Though disappointing, we should all respect Team Zenith's decision.

The BTS tournament was initially thought of by many teams to be an excellent platform to practice and explore strategies before TI2.

However, having an international tournament online was just too optimistic; especially one right before TI2. Not only do teams have to accustom themselves to high pings if playing with teams on the other side of the world, they are losing out on valuable time training on 0 delay as well.

Many top teams play strategies which require high precision and that cannot be replicated online. To use a Starcraft 2 analogy, a terran player cannot use marines to counter banelings under 250 ping. Marine splits require high precision and the slightest delay would be detrimental.

It's obvious that Zenith has opted to pull out of the tournament because, BTS world tour though promising, is counterproductive for their training towards TI2.

Hope that the guys here will understand their difficulties as well =) peace.

#15

Alternate. wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:34 CEST:

it was "islaygays" i think, correct me if i am wrong. and i dont think they withdrew because of this controversy because the controversy was in another tournament the prodota world league, and as mentioned in the article, they have yet to comment on this withdrawal so its most likely not because of this nickname controversy

#16

Timpeluringen wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:34 CEST:

#5 ISLAYGAYS,

who I don't really see as a problem, people are such drama queens these days, as soon as something is a little bit out of taste, you're a horrible human being. Grow the fuck up, deal with his nick, who gives a shit. He wasn't even a part of the team, just a normal stand in, can't expect him to be professional.

#17

collective- wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:35 CEST:

ZENITH is a team which isn't used to playing with high pings at all...Every game until now has been against Asian teams with normal pings but once they started playing with teams out of Asia(EU+US) they lost 2 games in a row to teams they shouldn't have...Ok CLG is a good team and that can be put aside but against Infused...I have nothing against them in fact I respect these guys but they were playing with 2 stand-ins and yet ZENITH still lost...

#18

tommys-guns wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:35 CEST:

People are putting waaaay to much into this "offensive" nickname thing, just because they are a professional team the standin they are using cant decide his own nickname.. people are way too sensitive.. And btw the nickname was "ISLAYGAYFAGGOTS", ppl need to stop whining!

#19

mamaMike wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:37 CEST:

For that issue they made it this big?

zzz
zenith showwing off i think

#20

beifru wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:39 CEST:

mamaMike schrieb:
For that issue they made it this big?
zzz
zenith showwing off i think

err did u read it properly bro?

they said they pulled out to concentrate on TI2 instead. Not cause of that issue.

#21

zopad_ wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:42 CEST:

Really? Because of a nickname? Like that takes more than a minute to change..

#22

CZEKing wrote at 04.08.2012, 16:43 CEST: