The community has been extremely critical of Flashpoint’s handling of the situation. Would the TO take the same decision if Anonymo esports faced connection issues?
CS:GO fans were looking forward to seeing the exciting debut of Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz for the Ninjas in Pyjamas during Flashpoint 3. Instead, we got a series of controversial admin decisions to replay the NiP-Anonymo match despite the Polish squad having already won the series.
Flashpoint’s decision to replay the NiP-Anonymo match was met with a lot of criticism from pro players and community figures alike. NiP faced massive packet loss issues during the match. But the team continued with the series and did not decide to postpone it to a later date. Anonymo esports won the series 2-1 after Flashpoint admins forced the teams to continue the game.
Community reacts to Flashpoint’s handling of the NiP-Anonymo match
Flashpoint stumbled multiple times in its handling of the situation. The match should never have continued with one team playing with a 40% packet loss. The connection issues meant NiP players could not throw smokes, had no idea of their allies’ movements and could definitely not play to their full potential.
Flashpoint publicly announced the rescheduled match will take place almost half an hour after the announcement.
Such short notice makes it impossible for either team to prepare for the match and will also affect the level of gameplay. The Flashpoint Season 3 is a Regional Major Ranking event, allowing teams to potentially qualify for the PGL Stockholm Major.
Anonymo esports accused NiP of using its clout to pressurize Flashpoint into a rematch.
NiP is one of the biggest esports organizations with deep roots in Counter-Strike. The team recently signed former Astralis member Dev1ce who made his debut for the organization in this controversial match.
Here’s a thread with the in-game chat from GOTV for the NiP-Anonymo match.
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Where is the CSPPA?
As the community’s criticism of Flashpoint’s handling of the situation grew, demands for the CSPPA’s involvement started growing.
CSPPA board members said Flashpoint did not communicate with the player’s union before taking such a rushed decision. There have been growing concerns in the professional player community with many players raising the issue within the CSPPA.
The Counter-Strike Professional Players Association has not released any statement regarding this issue yet. However, multiple members have confirmed the board is actively looking into this matter.
NiP releases timeline, accuses Anonymo of misleading statements
The Ninjas in Pyjamas has released a timeline of events as its side of the story. The Ninjas statement says Anonymo’s management raised the possibility of imposing penalties on NiP in a separate chat with Flashpoint admins. The penalties could potentially lead up to NiP forfeiting the match (disqualification) in case of further delays in restarting the match.
NiP files an official request for a rematch on Saturday morning, as per rule 5.5a of the official rulebook. Meanwhile, NiP and Flashpoint also investigate the cause of the packet loss issues. Flashpoint's security settings were partially blocking traffic from NiP to the game server. The Swedish org claims Flashpoint was responsible for the team’s connection issues. Following a formal request, Flashpoint rules that the match should be replayed. However, Anonymo refuses to accept the ruling, referring the matter to Valve. Valve upholds Flashpoint’s decision and the teams are yet to decide on a new time.
Flashpoint has not announced the date and time of the rescheduled match at the time of writing. Esports.gg will update this article as and when more information becomes available.
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