1) Server Selection Issues
Recently there has been discussion regarding LA and server selection between central European teams, EU North East based teams, and the idea of ‘home-ice / server advantage’.To be concise, we have been aware for a while now that sometimes central European teams (specifically German-based ones) have issues connecting to the EU North East server, resulting in higher than expected pings and packet loss. This came to a head a few days ago where multiple series had to be played with the EU North East team treating the EU North server (located in Stockholm, Sweden) as their ‘home’ server, as opposed to the EU North East one.
We decided at the time to go with this compromise as we felt it unfair to force German teams to play with legitimately unplayable connections. Additionally, we also felt that the idea of swapping players out from the affected team so that no-one had the ping issue was a wholly unfair proposal.
Ultimately in our eyes, this comes down to a couple of important points. One, while we understand the advantage of playing on a server that is located closer to the majority of your team, vs the other team. Teams also have to realise that there is a difference between server advantage based on geographical location, and server advantage by way of the server itself not working as intended. German players getting 60ms+ with 20% packet loss is so incredibly obvious that the server not working as intended, and any players that even attempt to say otherwise are in our eyes being unsportsmanlike, because I think we all know for a fact that if the roles were reversed and these EU North East teams had the same issue connecting to the German server, they would balk at the thought of ‘just playing’, or being told to ‘just swap out players’ – so please, can these players in question get some much-needed perspective and think ahead for just a slight amount.
Two, in this case, the difference in ping between the EU North, and EU North East server is functionally minimal. We appreciate that it is frustrating having to move away from your preferred server but can we please be frank here. If you have a good to great connection ping-wise to the EU North East server, chances are you’re going to have a good connection to the EU North server, Stockholm and Helsinki are not ‘that’ far away from each other. Furthermore, please consider the fact that a central European team’s ping is not going to differ wildly between the two servers either, so it’s not like they are gaining a meaningful upside in connection quality by having the server switch from EU North East to EU North.
Furthermore, LA has not decided on a whim to tell teams to play on the EU North server. Again, we’ve been made aware about the issue that central Europeans have in connecting to the EU North East server a while back, and we verified that the players in question were having legitimate issues that lined up with what we have previously seen – in other words, we can confidently say that these cases were not manufactured in an attempt by the central European teams to ever so slightly gain back some ‘server advantage’.
Finally, to set the record straight. LA did not come to this decision because another LA member was involved. We arrived at this conclusion and suggested the process well before an LA member’s team happened to be impacted by the server issue – as can be evidenced if need be. To be clear, the LA member in question was not a participant in the LA discussion about what should happen in the series where they were involved. Additionally, we will not tolerate lies being spread by individuals on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) or other social media simply because they are upset that they lost and want to blame someone else instead of their on-ice performance. Hopefully, this post makes it abundantly clear that all we are trying to accomplish is to make it so that teams aren’t punished for clear and obvious server-related issues that are far from simply being explained as server advantage.
To end this portion of the text, please find below the procedure to follow in the event that this or other connection issues presents themselves:
- Start on ‘home’ server
- Check in-game connection (note: not the lobby screen before the game begins, as that can sometimes give unreliable ping that turns out to be fine in game)
- If substantially higher than expected ping or packet loss is present, the player impacted should record evidence of this
- Please record video clearly showing the problem is in the game you are supposed to play to remove any doubt of tampering
- The player should then restart their router and console in an attempt to see if the issue is their own connection, or the server itself
- Both teams should change lobby host / captain
- Attempt to restart the game, taking video evidence of the ping and / or packet loss
- If the issue is still present, then the team affected should start a support ticket detailing the issue and attach the aforementioned video clips as evidence
- At which point LA will decide whether the server switch should go ahead or not
Edit: Please use this form to provide information to League Administration about all the server issues you or your team are experiencing: https://forms.gle/iVbP4tak6aDysqAR7
The information provided through the form will be shared with EA SPORTS in an effort to assist them to tackle the issue(s).
2) Player likenesses and use of all-white sticks
On a second note, we are also reminding teams and players in ECL Elite & Pro alike of rule 11.8.1, wherein we ask players to at least make an attempt at making their player resemble some of their likenesses.
It has come to our attention that recently there has been an uptick in players using faces in game that could be interpreted as racist and derogatory. As such take this as an advance warning that if you are still using faces of this nature in the next ECL, you could be suspended. The suspension will start at 2 games, rising to 4 if caught using the face again, then 8, then a rest-of-season suspension.
In addition to a reminder about rule 11.8.1, we would like to remind all players in the ECL about rule 11.8.2, in which players are not allowed to equip ‘all-white’ sticks that look to blend in with the ice.
3) Suspensions related to lying about game result
Recently player @RojuppiGG was knocked out in the ongoing 1v1 tournament qualifiers. However, after losing their game Rojuppi attempted to cheat their way into the next round by lying about the result and claiming that they had won. To strengthen this attempt, Rojuppi recruited the help of two friends (@Bipes_bip0rus & @NikooqG) who were used to support Rojuppi’s claim. Allegedly Rojuppi told them that his opponent was lying and he needed their support to not get cheated against.
These actions are wholly against the values and competitive integrity that SportsGamer wishes to foster, as such Rojuppi has been banned from all SportsGamer hosted tournaments for 365 days (from the publication of this article). Additionally, for their role in assisting Rojuppi, the two friends have been suspended for 10 games starting from the beginning of the ECL ’25: Winter season.
While the actions of the two friends shouldn’t be overlooked, we feel that this can be a teaching moment for them to hopefully understand that blind faith in anyone – even friends – is not something to give lightly and that they will possess a better sense of integrity going forward.
Thank you,
LA
LA
Recommended Comments
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.