성박휘운차이Disclaimer: This article was originally produced by 달려라람머스 from Inven. The link to the original article is shown above. This is merely a translation. Also, the translated Korean names may not exactly match with what they mean in Korean. All of the I's in the following article, unless specified, do not refer to me, but the original author.
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Currently, there are two huge flaws to Challenger Division. One is that recruits get one week immunity from demotion, and another is that there can be Challengers with low mmr. Towards the end of season, veteran Challengers who remained Challengers all season long conceded their positions to more than 20 newly promoted Challengers. On 11th of November 2013, 11PM (Korean Time)- One hour before the announced season's end, there were two games that would determine the last Solo Queue Challenger spot.
1. First game: Apdo's Draw of Luck
소환사의진 (henceforth SummonerEugene) was at a two-to-one series with one win away from Challenger promotion. On the verge of becoming the last Challenger of the season, the next player to be demoted from Challenger was 잉뽀유 (henceforth IngForU). High with anxiety, IngForU was spectating various broadcasts from Afreeca.com (a korean equivalence of Twitch.tv). All the while, a queue for a new game popped for SummonerEugene, and there was SKT T1 Faker on the enemy team. At this point, no one had expected what this would mean for SummonerEugene...
Diamond 1 players that had failed to get promotion did not have much interest in the outcome of this game. However, this game was significant for two players in this game.
One was, obviously, SummonerEugene. As noted above, he is one victory away from becoming the last challenger of the season. On the other hand, there was SKT T1 Faker, who was also one victory away from beating out KT Ssumday for the rank 1 in season 3 Solo Queue.
And the game was going heavily in favor of SummonerEugene's team. The birth of the last Challenger was due.
However, suddenly Apdo (Shen in this game) insisted that a Mid Lane player has to be rank 1, and proceeded to throw the game. Apdo, who already secured Challenger with his new account, Tar ar ais, had no interest in the outcome of the game. Also, Apdo's logic was such: since there was another one-hour time window where Eugene can get another game, he would help Eugene win in that game so Eugene would get the promotion regardless. As a result, the game took a turn to a strange direction.
(Jin Air Mystic got a Penta this game)
(Apdo's predicament: Challenger promotion for his teammate, or rank 1 for Mid lane player. To this, 엑트신=Jin Air Actscene (Nunu) tells Apdo: "you are not human")
(The Horror of 6 mejai Apdo, to Eugene: "let's queue right away!".)
In the end, Eugene gets an undeserved loss. However, one thing to notice is that since the game was 4:5 since Apdo had been throwing, the game should have ended at around 20 minutes mark. But the game somehow lasted 44 minutes. Eugene had to queue for the next game with a huge time pressure.
Apdo also noted that "Since the game is not ending with this much throws, someone on the enemy team may also be trying to throw"
Even if there is no clear evidence, I suspect that with SSG Spirit's rammus going full AP build, and Actscene's nunu keep getting caught for no reason, they may have been trying to throw in secret. Also, Mystic, who was ezreal that game, refused to surrender and tried really hard to win may have tried to prevent Eugene's promotion by prolonging the match (translator's note: another member in the team, KT Leopard, also tried really hard to win, to secure KT Ssumday's rank 1, which prevented the team to surrender). Nevertheless, nothing is certain, and all of this is merely my opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt.
2. Second Game: Apdo, The Justicebringer
After a drawn-out troll game, Eugene queues with just 15 minutes left before announced season's end. Adding to the problem, but Eugene had 2 dodged queues untill he finds a game.
So it may be said that even the queue was a battle between the promotee and demotee. Eventually, the last queue happens at 11:56 PM, and a twist of fate? Apdo is on the enemy team.
One interesting thing is the composition of this queue.
On the side of Eugene, there is Actscene, who was half-assing the last game as enemy of Eugene. And there is IM kur0, who just got demoted from Challenger, and lastly there is 시간끝 (henceforth EndTime) who acted in favor of IngForU in his last game. This will be explained in the following story.
Before I go on, let me talk about the circumstance surrounding kur0's demotion, because it is also not unrelated to Eugene.
Today, there were three players who got Challenger promotion series. They are
SSG Deft
SummonerEugene
해녀왕이될남자 (henceforth DiverQueenGuy)
were the three. However an intertwined queue between these players made a very interesting situation.
firstly, Eugene and Deft meets each other as enemies, and Eugene gets one victory. On the other hand, DiverQueenGuy duo queues with Savila (another Challenger player) and gets a victory.
<mid-promotion report>
SSG Deft 1L
Eugene 1W
DiverQueenGuy 1W
Then, Eugene and Diver meets each other as enemies, and Eugene yet again secure another victory. Eugene closes in to Challenger with 2 W.
On the other side, Deft, with the help of his teammate SSG PawN, gets a victory.
<mid-promo report>
Deft 1W 1L
Eugene 2W
Diver 1W 1L
In the next queue, Deft and Diver gets on the same team, but enemy Katarina explodes the game with 22/1/5 score. Eugene was not queued for this game.
<mid-promo report>
Deft 1W 2L
Eugene 2W
Diver 1W 2L
In the next game, all 3 meets in a game. Eugene and Diver gets on the same team versus Deft. In this game, Deft's team secures upper hand all game, and in the end, Deft brings everything back to even with 2W 2L.
<mid-promo report>
Deft 2W 2L
Eugene 2W 1L
Diver 1W 3L (promotion failed)
Diver faces bitter failure and perhaps his now nickname "I dont play ranked" is probably not unrelated to this series.
Then comes the next game, which is Deft's final promotion game.
At a glance, this seems like an ordinary game. But this was an unusally complicated match. If blue team wins this game, Deft naturally promotes to Challenger with 3W 2L. at the same time, kur0, who is on Deft's team, will get demoted as a result of Deft's promotion. On the other hand, at the start of this game, IngForU's (purple team Lucian) demotion immunity was due in 30 minutes.
Which means, if blue team wins in 30 minutes, kur0 will get demoted because IngForU's immunity would still be in effect, and if blue team wins after 30 minutes, IngForU's immunity would wear out by then, which would mean that IngForU will be demoted.
It is exactly the blind-spot of the current Challenger system where this situation took birth. Also, purple team had SSG PawN, who is Deft's teammate. All the factors were smiling upon Deft. Kur0 and IngForU, on the contrary, were in a state of high anxiety. Throughout the game, the two had a heated discussion on which of them deserves to remain in Challenger.
It was right at this moment when EndTime (Lulu) decided to play politics in all chat. Arguing in favor of IngForU, EndTime said if everyone was to be happy kur0 needs to concede. Endtime's point being even if kur0 lasts Deft's promotion, Eugene was next in line. So if kur0 concedes, everyone would be happy. Below is EndTime's pursuasion of kur0.
Eventually kur0 was pursuaded by Lulu, and with Deft's promise that he will buy kur0 some tasty meal (translator's note: Korea is a small contury, so players meeting up with each other is extremely common), kur0 agreed to end the game before 30 minutes. At 20 minutes mark purple team unanimously surrenders which resulted Deft's promotion and kur0's demotion. As for IngForU, he remained to be Challenger for now.
Even if it was kur0's decision to concede his Challenger position, it was not a decision by his will and he was very dissatisfied. It was in this situation that kur0 met Eugene in his game as a teammate.
As for the enemy team, there was Apdo, who was the determining factor of Eugene's defeat in the last game.
rgin-right: 1em;">
(Perhaps it was Apdo who persuaded everyone? Everyone is working together to help Eugene get promoted)
(EndTime, on the other hand, is trying to overturn the game just by himself.)
(Apdo: "I may have thrown the last game, but I am still human")
argin-right: 1em;">
(Heimerdinger is trying hard in a game of his own)
(Dance time)
(Unable to overcome his guilt from the last game, Apdo eventually leaves the game.)
(Actscene's Nidalee gets quadra kill off sniping fountain afkers.)
(Soraka decides to bodyblock Nidalee's spear with 2 negatron cloak.)
However, there was a twist: according to Riot Korea's announcement, Challenger reward is based on the result on 11th of Nov 2013, at 23:59. Thus Eugene, who got promoted at 12:10 AM, was to be rewarded as Diamond 1, while IngForU, who now got demoted to D1, will get Challenger rewards.
Thus Apdo, from being hailed as the Justicebringer, descend to mofking bastard. With his "achievement", Apdo goes to bed to sleep, while Eugene sheds tears of blood even with the promotion.
However there was yet another twist: An employee from Riot Korea posts an announcement at 1:53 AM. After all, Riot Korea was also paying attention to this Grand Battle of Challengers.
to summerize:
ranked game queue disable: 11/11 23:59
beginning of data extraction: 11/12 1:30
which means, if someone finds a game at 23:59, then that game will be included in the final calculation of rewards. This means Eugene's promotion is valid.
In the end, the final winner is Eugene with Challenger promotion and rewards.
On a side note, Cvmax, who was broadcasting the entire event via Afreeca, managed to reach a whopping 40 thousand viewers. The whole time he was broadcasting, Cvmax refused to play a game, calling the games "hell that he does not want to meddle with".
Here is the culmination:
SKT T1 Faker- secures rank 1.
SSG Deft- reaches Challenger after many obstacles.
DiverQueenGuy- fails the last Challenger series and changed name.
IM kur0- demoted even with a win, as a result of a ridiculous match-making.
CVMAX- had a very good broadcasting day.
SummonerEugene- reached Challenger with many obstacles. the final victor.
IngForU- failed to defend Challenger.
PhaseKiller- queues for his last game of the season, gets a queue in a ridiculous game, and got a free loss.
And the man behind all of this
He who determined rank 1 and 50,
He who determined the first and the last with his hand,
Apdo
*I am not trying to praise Apdo. Please do not misunderstand me.
(Translator's note: The article originally contained some untrue facts
about IngForU, and the original poster corrected them. He had personally
apologized to IngForU for this matter. Consequently I have corrected
the article accordingly.)
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