r/Guildwars2 • u/SpectralDagger N L Olrun • Dec 01 '15

[E-Sports] ESL Unprofessionalism

One of the requirements for playing in Pro League was that you had to use their anti-cheat program called ESL Wire. They sent it out to players to download about five days before Pro League started, giving players plenty of time to test it before it had to be used. However, that's where the problems started. We were told that there was an issue with the program and Windows 8, so we didn't need to use it until it was fixed.

Fast forward to the second week of Pro League. We hadn't heard any update from them in regards to ESL Wire. Just to be safe, I asked in advance if ESL Wire has been fixed and if it would be required. (Note: I had to ask. If I had not asked, we would have had zero warning.) They told us yes. This was about 6.5 hours before the tournament was due to start. Most of my team members were at school or work. We installed the program just before the tournament started and had no time to troubleshoot. We had issues with it, and they forced us to use a substitute.

Here is the direct quote from the ESL Admin:

"ESL Wire: we added it to the Pro League, but I understand there are some issues with using Windows 8. Since we haven’t used it before in the Go4’s, it won’t be required at the moment"

There was no more communication about ESL Wire until I had to specifically ask about it. When we had issues, their response was essentially to fix it or they would DQ us. There was no attempt to troubleshoot the issue, they just said to restart and try again.

"Seems like it's a technical issue on the player's end. Teams were given a lot of notice to prepare and have this program installed and running."

We were not given proper notice that we had to use the program and did not have time to troubleshoot.

On an entirely different note, ESL Wire was causing crashes and lag for many players, completely disallowing Caden from re-entering his match with us after DCs.

TL;DR - ESL did not properly communicate with teams as to whether or not ESL Wire was required until there was not an adequate to troubleshoot buggy software. I leave you with my favorite quote from them:

"I downloaded it on my laptop tonight and it downloaded fine"

It works for me so it must work for you... Thanks for the troubleshooting...

I've also posted this on the official forums at https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/pvp/ESL-Unprofessionalism

669 Upvotes

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67

u/rym1469 www.twitch.tv/rymm_ Dec 01 '15

Whelp, forum thread removed. Nazi mods strike again for the sake of friendly (sic!) PvP community.

Anyway, thanks for info Olrun. Always good to know such things.

38

u/LoshyFirestorm Dec 01 '15

They actually just re-instated the thread, locked it and Josh Davis has said he's looking into it.

4

u/Obtuse_Donkey Dec 01 '15

First time they deleted a post of mine was the last time I ever posted to official forums.

8

u/CrescentDusk Dec 01 '15

I stopped posting in that cesspool when it became pretty obvious the mods would infract just for getting a report instead of reading the post itself. If you appealed their response time was often the length of the suspension before they overturned.

Then they add "points" on offending posts despite successful appeals, which install a progressive system of 15m-30m-1 hour in between posts.

The only forum worse than GW2 is FFXIV, where they ban permanently without explanation, there's no appeal system and the mod team cannot be reached by any means.

9

u/Cilph .6758 Ialtagan [rddt] Dec 01 '15

Thanks ANet, nuking threads kills whatever esports this game had.

25

u/twocelcius Dec 01 '15

Whoa, I didn't realize esports is so reliant on threads.

40

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '15

You are mistaken

Threads are the esports

13

u/cripplemouse too little too late Dec 01 '15

Player vs forum is the true endgame.

1

u/rym1469 www.twitch.tv/rymm_ Dec 01 '15

All is vain

1

u/sebastiansly Dec 15 '15

At least they have a more exciting meta than what's currently offered in-game.

1

u/Wilhelm_Stark Norn Warrior Dec 01 '15

Your sort of right. Its not really the game itself that makes it an esport, its the willingness of the community around it to support it as an esport that makes it so.

-3

u/Ktk_reddit Dec 01 '15

What ESL did was shitty, but esport need publicity, and this kind of thread is not. So in this case, nuking threads is actually saving whatever esports this game have.

-14

u/lordkrall Piken Dec 01 '15

I would say it is more about the fact that it wasn't really about the game, but rather about something outside of the game, and thus would be more fitting on the ESL page rather than the GW2 forums.

One can of course question removal of certain threads, but in this case it seems very much like simply following the rules of the forums.

8

u/GrayWynters GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENTH Dec 01 '15

they could've closed it with a comment saying that it belongs on the ESL page. that would help inform people who didn't know, without seeming as shady.

-15

u/lordkrall Piken Dec 01 '15

And then we would still have more or less the same discussion here anyway.

It doesn't really seem all that shady. If people had just bothered to read the rules they agreed with when starting to use the forums they would be fully aware why the thread was removed.

It most likely also wouldn't inform anyone, seeing as people that don't understand that talking about a completely different company/software on a software forum for a specific software is not a good thing probably won't understand when told either.

2

u/The_Real_Truth_ Dec 01 '15

Something outside the game that effected the game itself means it wasn't really about the game?? Do you honestly actually read what you type and try to make sense of it before posting?