The final playday of the ESL Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Quake Live tournament was just awesome. Great games, great atmosphere and a really nice live production.
Something which did strike me as a little bit strange however was the presentation of the sportsmanship award to the fan-favourite Anton “Cooller” Singov. The reasoning behind the award was for his behavior at the IEM European final in his match against Maciej “av3k” Krzykowski. For those of you who don’t know, in that match Cooller got a great start on the first map (T7) and av3k had ragequit after 3 or 4 minutes. Cooller offered to give av3k a restart of the map which resulted in av3k winning. It could also be argued that Cooller was mentally thrown off at this point which caused him to lose the rest of the maps against the av3k, losing himself a spot in the final.
At the IEM World Final, cooller met av3k once again in the semi-final. But before the match was played, IEM Product manager Michael “Carmac” Blicharz presented cooller with the sportsmanship award. Firstly I’m wondering why this award was presented before the semi-final and not during the prize ceremony after the entire tournament. Wouldn’t it take away from the purpose of the award if Cooller were to do something un-sportsmanlike between that moment and the final prize ceremony?
The act of offering a restart to av3k in the European finals was very gentlemanly. However his behaviour afterwards was not, as he pretty much whined about regretting his decision afterward. In fact the whine was too much for av3k since he mentioned in a recent interview (in Polish) that:
“Cooller complains about everything that’s possible. Cypher is lucky, this one is lucky, that one is lucky. I am the best, but you’re lucky, lala lala, so for now I enjoy the lack of conversation with him, because I got tired of it. Yes, he’s the best, Russia owns, let him live in his dreamworld, but at least behave normally then. I didn’t want any rematch. He persuaded me, and then cried that he could [should?] have not given the rematch. Then a wave of complaints onto everyone that beat him, those with who he managed to win are the future champions, because they played so genius, that he beat them because he was smarter, and me and Cypher play so stupid, that he is too smart for our style of play and can’t predict what we want to do”
frenemies
Any human would have reacted the same way Cooller did though after losing that match and you can see his frustration in the post-game interview. While his initial gesture was that of incredible sportsmanship, his following behaviour was not.
During the semi-final match (20 minutes after he got his award) he participated in some small trash talk against his opponent, presumably a response to his recent interview. Would you call this kind of behaviour particularly sportsmanlike?
I pretty much just think that while it was nice to have that award, if it really was for that moment, it should have been given at the IEM European prize ceremony, not before the semi-finals at the World Finals. If there was to be such an award at the World Final, they should have given it at the end of the tournament. I still can’t understand how you can give out an award before the end.
What do you think? Should cooller have gotten the award? If not who would be more deserving? Reply below or tweet your thoughts @Helloliefje
Images via ESL.eu
Mar 16, 2010“Firstly I’m wondering why this award was presented before the semi-final and not during the prize ceremony after the entire tournament.”
Damage control. Yes, because after that infamous match restart and loss to av3k, cooller acted on his own. By giving him this award before a crucial game (semi finals), it was indirectly conveyed to him that “hey, now you cannot act the way you like because that would totally be unsportsmanlike given that you now have a trophy that proves your incredible sportsmanship.” And we all know how cooller disregarded this by indulging in trash talk when Xou/Rondrian had to step in.
I don’t think he deserved it because respect is commanded and not demanded. If he couldn’t command Av3k’s respect and chose the semi finals as the platform to reply to an interview (something that could’ve been addressed after the game), just goes to show how much anger/frustration he had in-store for his opponent.
Mar 30, 2010I think it was like giving Obama the Nobel prize – in advance, in an attempt to manipulate (for the good).
Mar 31, 2010I believe that av3k forfeited the match when he rage quit; ESL shouldn’t have allowed the restart (If Cooller was happy for people to aimbot vs him, would they allow that?). Therefore, no need for the sportsmanship distraction award.
Apr 11, 2010sportsmanship is done not said
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8:39 pm
Yes I think he deserves it. Sure, he might complain after, but at the event he acts very well. Look at the av3k situation, no one else would of done what he\\\’s done. No one would risk a map win against someone that good, ever. Cooller definitely deserves it.