Alienware Overwatch Open by eSports Hero: An Utter Disgrace to eSports

To call what occurred on Saturday June 4th at the Microsoft Flagship store in Manhattan a tournament or even a competition, would be a disservice to the entire eSport’s community. Never in my life have I seen such disorganization, disrespect, disinterest, and clear favoritism displayed at any tournament, let alone one sponsored by a major brand. So much went wrong over the course of the ten hours I spent at this event, that I will be providing an abridged account of the entire sham (believe it or not). That being said, I only attended the Overwatch tournament, and will keep my comments centralized around that.

The first round of the tournament was supposed to begin at noon.

The tournament organizer, Mr. James Heldridge the CEO and cofounder of eSports Hero, immediately looked frantic and disheveled. If only I had seen this a precursor for things to come, perhaps my day could have been better spent. The teams that were made to play at this time did not begin until 1 PM. Four teams were literally sitting at their setups, staring at their screens while Microsoft staff tried to get simple applications such as “Discord”, to function properly on their systems. No team was able to set up their communications in a satisfactory and timely manner, because the headsets provided by eSports Hero did not work properly with the computers. Teams were forced to choose to either hear the in game sounds, or use the microphone function on the headsets but not both. This resulted in one team, forgoing microphones all together and literally shouting their call outs to one another across the table. I understand that the argument can be made that the participants of the tournament could have provided their own headsets, but this is laughable. This was a sponsored event by a major brand, not to mention players were specifically told that they would not need to provide their own gear.

The setup of the room also reflected the lack of understanding and care from Mr. Heldridge. One spectator who arrived a little earlier than noon, informed me that the employees of the Microsoft store were not even aware the event was taking place that day. That really gives some insight into how little thought went into the entire affair. Computers were placed on square tables, three on each side. Players were not given chairs rather, uncomfortable wooden stools. For the first round, Mr. Heldridge attempted to have teams play one another, from adjacent tables. Obviously the players protested, claiming that not only would their communication be in ear shot of the opposing team, but nothing was stopping possible screenwatching. In fact, screenwatching would have been unavoidable. Eventually Mr. Heldridge understood, and began placing the teams further away from one another. It was finally time for the games to begin, or so you would think.

It became very apparent that many of the computers at this tournament (about 80%) were running on a wireless connection. Never in my years of attending eSporting events have I ever witnessed an oversight like this. When asked why the computers were not running on a LAN setup (you know, like pretty much every other tournament ever) the staff simply stated “oh they can’t do that up here.” So let me get this straight, you host a video game tournament in a location that can’t accommodate the games? It doesn’t take a computer engineer to realize how foolish that is. Was the tournament even on its own, individual router? No, the players were forced to play on the Microsoft store wifi, the very same wifi all the Microsoft costumers downstairs were using for their phones. It did not surprise me that the network couldn’t handle it, what did surprise me was that the staff clearly couldn’t handle running this event.

During the first round, I suffered in silence as I watched three players on one team literally freeze in place, then proceed to rubberband for three full seconds, before death. This was of course, in the final crucial minutes of a game which resulted in their loss and elimination from the tournament. I asked a particularly disgruntled young lady why she did not call the Mr. Heldridge over to address the blatant lag issues. She explained “We did already he didn’t do anything” and with a shake of her head continued “I just want to get the f*ck out of here, I’m pissed I wasted ten dollars.” That is NOT how a competitor should feel when leaving an event, they paid for. I would also like to point we all wasted ten dollars regardless of what a joke the entire event was, because nobody checked to see if anyone had tickets! It was specifically mentioned on the event page, spectators and competitors alike had to purchase their tickets. However, this rule was never enforced. This may seem like I’m being a stickler, but it just adds to the unprofessional mess this fiasco really was. At least that woman’s team was lucky enough to lose quickly, the same could not be said for the team sitting behind them.

They were supposed to be the first match up, and it took them four hours to finish.

Both teams were struggling with lag issues, but managed to complete their first round in what actually an exciting nail biter. These teams did not play again until 3’oclock. Both teams had to sit for two hours while the eSports Hero staff fumbled around without a clue, trying to fix their lag issues. Every time the match would start, a player would disconnect about a minute into the game. This happened five or six times, until finally both teams just accepted the lag and finished the game. As the game ended, two spectators congratulated a member of the winning team, and even asked him “How the hell did you play like that?’ referencing the rampant lag and rubberbanding. As the competitor rose from his unforgiving wooden stool to stretch he sighed, “I honestly don’t f*cking know.” To be honest, I don’t know how he did it either. At this point, two teams straight up abandoned the tournament. I could not reach either one of them for a statement, but using the context clues of how this farce was being handled, I can make a few educated guesses to the reason behind their decisions. Combine that with the fact that a team consisting of three members of Cloud 9 “called in sick” the tournament bracket now had three missing slots.

The event did not limit its scorn to the unfortunate players who were essentially duped into participating. Life for a spectator was not an easy one. There was zero seating at the event, meaning if you came to watch you better hope it wasn’t leg day. There were barely enough “seats” for the competitors, if you can call elevated wooden boxes seats. This setup is acceptable if you are trying to demonstrate to a customer how to make a skype call on a display model desktop, not for a professional gaming tournament. Well thankfully they had a giant projector taking up and entire wall of the room…. that was used to loop Alienware ads the entire time. That’s right, not only did eSports Hero not stream the first round of matches but they didn’t even bother to put them up for the spectators to see. This meant that the fans had to literally crowd behind players and watch their screens! This made for uncomfortable environment for everyone involved. When I asked the moderators why the first round wasn’t being shown, (which is so profoundly disrespectful to every team that put their hard work into getting prepared for this tournament) he replied “it’s the first round who cares.” I’ll tell you who cares, the men and women who came to this store thinking this was an actual tournament. To add insult to injury, the Twitch Stream was up, just not showing any games. Instead, it featured two members of the eSports Hero staff gorging themselves on burritos. Perhaps they did not realize their mics were on, because they began to discuss and laugh that they cut members of the production staff the night before the event. I guess I should feel relieved that eSports Hero does not reserve their unprofessionalism for the victims of their events, but extend it to their employees as well.

I was bewildered. How could an eSports group be so clueless? How could an event sponsored by a brand like Alienware be so inadequate? Part of me began to think it was some sort of joke. Some elaborate prank that would result in anyone crazy enough to watch the entire embarrassment walk away with some magnificent prize. Everything became clear however, once disgraced Ex CGSO (Counter Strike: Global Offensive) professional player Joshua “Steel” Nissan and his team arrived. His team, consisting of two other professional gamers, “Clockwork” and “PYYOUR”, were considered to be the favorites from the get-go. That being said, what I witnessed was borderline match rigging.

Steel’s team arrived four hours past “team registration” and was the only team that was allowed to choose their setups. They were placed in the back of the room, given wired Ethernet connections (while their opponents were forced to play on wifi) their rigs had newer graphics cards, and 144Hz monitors. When it was their time to play, all of a sudden eSports Hero decided to begin streaming! At this point I knew something was fishy. Watching the stream, which was literally focused on the three pros at all times, I quickly put the pieces together. Steel was hosting the stream, giving his viewers over to the tournament. In exchange for this, he was given the privilege of playing on superior equipment. I found this particularly funny, considering he was the odds on favorite to win anyway. I guess some people are really that insecure. As if that wasn’t bad enough, every time he got a kill in a match he began to scream like a wounded animal. “WOOOOO!!!” “FUCKKK YEAAAA” “GETTT REK’T” he shouted again and again without penalty. Finally, Mr. Heldridge mustered the courage to ask him to stop. This kind of toxic behavior would never be tolerated at any other event, but he gave them viewers so who cares right? Just when you thought someone couldn’t get any worse, he flags over one of the Microsoft employees and asks “Can you make sure no one comes near me while I’m playing?” I would like to point out that Steel was given his own rig, set up on its own table, away from everyone else no one was crowding him. I guess he wanted to play celebrity as best he could.

As I watched his first game, I simply couldn’t believe my eyes. The team that he was playing against was suffering lag to the point where it was unplayable. Finally, one of the players disconnects from the game. This was effectively a 6 v 5. The losing team flagged over Mr. Heldridge and showed him he was disconnected. When they asked for a restart they were denied and forced to play a man down. I would like to note that previously when players disconnected Mr. Heldridge allowed for restarts, that rule seemed to change once Steel had arrived. Naturally Steel and his goons won handedly, spamming disrespectful and belittling comments all the way through the game. It takes a special kind of jerk to taunt someone after winning with a handicap, but given the boorish, childish behavior they displayed from the moment they walked in, I can’t say I was shocked. At this point, a fourth team had dropped out of the competition. I asked Mr. Heldridge, now that there is an even number of teams missing, will the brackets be restructured. He replied “No, we’re behind schedule as it is we need to move along.” This put a team into the semifinals after having only played one match. Mr. Heldridge then proceeded to tell me “don’t worry, we compensated that last team for their time.” Excuse me? What exactly does that mean? Because it sounds like you gave them free stuff to leave. Oh wait, no that is exactly what happened.

Remember that team that finished their first round match at around 4 pm. Well the time was now 8 pm and it was their turn to get cheated by Steel and eSports Hero. Steel’s team was allowed to play their games one after another. They were warmed up and ready to go, while their opponents had to wait for four hours unable to practice or play. Do you know who was never asked to move, and was allowed to warm up from the moment he arrived? If you guess Steel, you’re tonight’s lucky winner! This next team wasn’t going to let the Mr. Heldridge rig this event without a fight. First they asked Mr. Heldridge if they could play on the wired computers as well. They were given three unique explanations. A Microsoft employee said yes, Mr. Heldridge denied there were wired computers, and another member of eSports Hero conceded that “only like three of them have Ethernet.” That’s 50% of a team. Imagine a hockey referee telling a coach that their team needs to wear sneakers on the ice, but its fair because only half of the other team has skates. All the while Steel, PYYOUR and Clockwork were badgering the team. Mr. Heldridge had set up the team on the same six computers that had issues the entire tournament. Begrudgingly, and realizing they would not be getting fair treatment, the team attempted to play. The first round was exactly what you’d expect. Constant rubberbanding, freezing, and computers attempting to reconnect. The round had ended in about two minutes which had Steel and his minions giggling with delight. The opposing team flagged down Mr. Heldridge and asked for a restart and were denied. One team member became so incensed he demanded the Mr. Heldridge and the other Tos watch his screen for the next round.

What happened next was truly appalling. The player managed to hit a five-man Graviton Surge (Zayra’s ultimate ability) When he tried to follow up, the computer locked up. Within moments everyone on the field of play teleported to different locations and “YOU HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED” flashed in red on the screen. He looked to both TOs who were silently observing. He shouted “did you see that?” Mr. Heldridge looked I’m right in the eyes and said “yea it seems laggy, but how much of a difference do you really think it would make?” This made me sick to my stomach. If professionals want to appear at these tournaments, that’s great. That’s how the eSports community grows. But to say that to a player who was working hard, who just wanted a fair fight, is downright disgusting. I’m not sure why they even continued the event. If they were so pressed for time, wouldn’t it have just been faster to give Steel and his lackeys their prizes and send them on their way? Needless to say this competitor wasn’t going to take that kindly and began berating Mr. Heldridge. He accused him of match rigging and shouted “I know you’re behind schedule, I know you know the pros are gonna win, and I know you don’t care, but f*ck you don’t have to rig the damn thing. You can see none of my hits register, this is bullshit.” Mr. Heldridge had no response.

It didn’t stop there. While observing another player his computer blue screened mid match! In ANY other tournament this would be cause for a reset. Doing the smart thing, the competitor took his hands off the keyboard and looked to Mr. Heldridge. He literally leaned over and said “you just gotta tab out see!” and made sure to hit the Q key on his keyboard, forcing the player to use his ultimate ability in the spawn room. This outside interference would ALSO warrant a restart, but the team got no such luck. When the player began shouting that he couldn’t play due to the blue screen error, Mr. Heldridge countered his argument saying “oh it only froze for a second or two.” Anyone who plays videos games, professionally or causally, knows that a LOT can happen in one second. It was comments such as these that solidified my suspicions of Mr. Heldridge and the entire event. Finally, once again a player disconnected right in front of the Mr. Heldridge eyes. In Overwatch, you cannot reenter a custom match unless you are re-invited to it. The eSports Hero moderators did not invite the player back into the game, forcing another 5 v 6 for Steel’s team. Finally, the opposing team realizing just how rigged this event was, simply got up and left their computers. I asked a Microsoft employee why none of these computers seem to run correctly, she responded “the network was never meant to run this.” The same could be said about Mr. Heldridge and the eSports Hero staff.

At this point I had become disgusted by the entire affair. It was clear Mr. Heldridge was not concerned with anything other than getting the event over with, and handing Steel his unearned prize. If you need a little context, the reason Steel was banned from CSGO was of course, match fixing. I guess old habits die hard. Having seen all I could handle, I journeyed down to the second floor to attend the raffle. Usually raffles are a way for spectators and losing teams to at least walk away with something. They’re a feel good event and often very exciting depending on the level of prizes. Right on cue, Mr. Heldridge came and ruined this event as well. He grabbed the microphone, shouted that they were out of time, grabbed a handful of tickets, read a list of names and said “just take whatever you want and leave the store.” What could have been a fun and friendly raffle turned into a free for all that felt more like looting than winning. I wonder if Mr. Heldridge’s cofounder knows just how unexperienced, unprofessional, and uncaring he really is.

All in all, the entire event was a disaster. The players were promised food and drinks, and the majority did not receive them. Then again, they were promised a fair tournament as well and look how that went. Everything from the hardware, the software, the connections, the equipment, the staff, the seating, the setting, the streaming, and the organization was hideous. At the center of it all, Mr. James Heldridge and Joshua “Steel” Nissan. Alienware should be mortified their name was attached to this circus. eSports Hero should be ashamed of themselves, as they acted like villains more than anything. Blizzard should feel insulted that their game was used as a platform for this mockery. I personally will never attend another event run by these charlatans, and it is a miracle Mr. James Heldridge has a job at all. What could have been a fun competitive tournament was turned into a sham in a facility that never should have housed it. My heart goes out to all those players who worked hard for this event, only to have Mr. James Heldridge spit in their faces. If you ever think about competing at one of these events, you have been warned.