rimgosu wins Battlegrounds Lobby Legends #5 – Magic of Azeroth. Was Ribapusa scammed again?

This past Battlegrounds Lobby Legends event had it all. With Blizzard releasing Quests on August 30th, just a few days before the event, Battlegrounds players were hyped about this Lobby Legends finals. However, the new Battlegrounds content wasn't the only highlight of this $50,000 event.

When Ribapusa was dominating and about to win the tournament, a server-side disconnect caused controversy. What happened there, and how rimgosu ended up winning Battlegrounds Lobby Legends #5 in this Esports.gg recap.

On September 3rd and 4th, during this past weekend, the Top 16 Battlegrounds players clashed for a $50,000 prize pool. The Lobby Legends Magic of Azeroth caused enormous interest in the audience due to the recent Battlegrounds Season 2 update bringing the new Quest mechanic.

On Saturday, players competed, divided into two lobbies, for a place in Sunday finals. After three games, the top 4 players of each group got their ticket to Battlegrounds Lobby Legends - Magic of Azeroth Top 8.

As it's usual, the format for the finals of this Battlegrounds Lobby Legends event was the Check Format. Under it, players needed to accumulate 20 points and then win a lobby to become champions.

Competitors were playing game 5, and Ribapusa had the lobby on check. When Ribapusa was about to crown himself, the unexpected happened. Only three players were still alive, and Ribapusas' composition was dominating. Just two battles separated him from winning the lobby and the entire event.

Suddenly, the burning rope kept on burning. The Player's faces showed that something had gone wrong. The game crashed on the server side. Players weren't able to reconnect and conclude the lobby. This was an unprecedented situation.

Ribapusa was about to win. He was highly favored against the two remaining opponents. Remember, this is the same player that got "scammed" by the Leeroy bug in the previous event when he was about to win it all.

Should the admins crown him as the Battlegrounds Lobby Legends #5 champion? Despite Ribapusa's advantage, there was a non-zero percent chance that one of his rivals could have defeated him. What happened then?

So, after the Server disconnect and the impossibility of completing the fifth lobby, everyone had a different opinion of what should be done. Bare in mind that under the Check Format, things aren't as simple as they look. Which were the possible rulings?

While many thought the fairest course of action was to crown Ribapusa as the Battlegrounds Lobby Legends #5 champion, there was a small chance that his opponents could defeat them. After all, who hasn't low-rolled a 2% lethal?

Splitting points, giving second place to the three remaining players, seemed to be fair. However, this would neglect Ribapusa's chance of winning that lobby and, furthermore, allow several other players to put the lobby on check.

The third option sounded counter-intuitive since it erased the success players had until that moment. Despite this, the Admins ruled for a re-game of this fifth lobby. Was this the best solution? While it wasn't a good solution, it was the best one available.

The mood was not the best, but the show must go on. Ribapusa wasn't able to win the replay of the fifth lobby, and the rest of the players started catching up. The tournament went on for other three more lobbies. In game number eight, six out of the eight players had the lobby in check, so it was almost a free-for-all.

Despite Xixo's amazing recovery and final lobby, rimgosu had a sick read about his opponent's board. Positioning was on point and made rimgosu eliminate Xixo, who was the strongest of the two players remaining. The final fight was just a walk in the park, and rimgosu took the crown in Battlegrounds Lobby Legends - Magic of Azeroth.

As we mentioned before, with Blizzard releasing a massive Battlegrounds content update days before the Lobby Legends - Magic of Azeroth event, fans were super hyped. That was on point and part of one of Hearthstone Esports' goals, to showcase new content. After all, esports are marketing tools.

However, with patches so important only days before events, risks are higher. Server disconnects were a known issue that has been contained but not resolved. Furthermore, balance hotfixes right before the event undermine competitive integrity as well. Sleepy, part of Battlegrounds Lobby Legends Magic of Azeroth event, complained about how the inefficient communication affected him.

With the Battlegrounds Lobby Legends #6 event coming up on September 24th and 25th, we can expect these issues to be tackled. For now, we get to enjoy the new game content that has been well received in the community after the negative impact the new monetization model had.

This is all for now, but stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time, in Bob's Tavern.