Garena recently disqualified team 4UNKNOWN from its Free Fire India Championship Spring 2021 tournament, but left a lot of ambiguity in the wake of the disqualification. The company simply cited its rule 5.4, and stated that 4UNKNOWN had refused to participate in a dry run of the event, disqualifying the team from the entirety of the competition in the process.
For the sake of context, here’s what the FFIC’s rule 5.4 states:
“Upon initiating participation in a Competition, Teams and Competitors shall continue to participate in the Competition to its conclusion. Teams and Competitors shall not refuse to participate in the tournament for any reason including, without limitation, disagreement with a decision by Garena officials, an accusation of competitive integrity of the tournament, or imperfect playing conditions.
Offenders may have to forfeit the entirety of their monetary winnings from Free Fire esports events, be banned from future esports events, or both of the above.”
4UNKNOWN's captain, known by his online moniker Deadsoul, released a video on YouTube in the wake of the disqualification, calling it unfair. According to Deadsoul, severe time constraints, coupled with the limitations of Internet connectivity outside of major cities led to the team’s unfair disqualification.
In a video titled “Unfair by GARENA FREEFIRE ||Disqualified 4UNKNOWN ||”, UP-based Deadsoul spoke about the strict timetable that had been set for him by Garena on the day of the dry run, leading to the team’s disqualification. According to Deadsoul, the itinerary set for his team by Garena, coupled with dodgy Internet led both sides into a situation that led to the team getting removed from the tournament.
4UNKNOWN had to attend a photo shoot on the day in question which, according to Deadsoul, was 60 km away from where he lived. Since they didn’t have a vehicle of their own that would make transport easier, the team had to rely on a public bus, which ultimately led to the team not being able to make it to the photo shoot in time. After the delay, the team had to travel to yet another location for the shoot, and were only able to make it back home in time for the dry run by the skin of their teeth.
On reaching home, the team had to connect to a Google Meet call that would verify their identities for the tournament, but the team ultimately got disqualified without any rhyme or reason. According to Deadsoul, while the group was in the midst of its team verification on Google Meet, during problematic Internet connections, a WhatsApp group was created with an organiser asking the team if they want to pull out of the tournament. The team was given less than ten minutes to reply; the organiser quickly left the group, and the team was then disqualified from FFIC Spring 2021.
Following the first video, Deadsoul released another video on 4UNKNOWN’s YouTube channel reiterating the facts in a composed manner. A third video was a response to a video by YouTuber Skylord69. And this is where things get interesting.
Skylord69’s video posits that 4UNKNOWN was contacted several times by Garena to sort out the scheduling conflicts, laying the blame squarely at the team’s feet when it came to the disqualification. Deadsoul, in response, released a video answering all of Skylord69’s questions, and pointing out that the management of Garena’s FFIC Spring 2021 deserved at least some of the blame.
On some surface-level investigation, it became apparent that Skylord69 is affiliated with Global Esports India, an organisation that owns quite a few esports teams in India. Furthermore, Global Esports itself, as IGN India has discovered, is also handling much of the organisational and logistical side of things for Garena's FFIC Spring 2021.
IGN India noticed a few discrepancies in the affair, especially when it came to the management of the whole affair from Garena’s side. We have requested comments from Garena about the matter. We have also sent them a series of questions to which the company is yet to respond. For the sake of transparency, here are the questions in their unedited form:
“Is Skylord participating in FFIC?
To what extent is Skylord or Global Esports India affiliated with Garena or members of Garena's FFIC organisation team?
Is missing a single dry run session justifiable grounds for disqualification from the entire tournament? Even if it is part of FFIC's rules, does it hold in the spirit of the game or competition?
Can we get names or statements from the admins/organisers who were dealing with 4UNKOWN?”
We sent these questions to Garena in the middle of the week, and have yet to receive a response. The story will be updated when Garena sends a statement about the incident.
It is worth noting that Deadsoul has since released another video on the 4UNKNOWN YouTube channel that apologises to Garena, stating that the team was disappointed form the perspective of esports competitors, and that the team merely wanted to raise awareness about the possibilities of such issues.
Why This Matters
Since the ban of PUBG Mobile in India, Garena's Free Fire has become the biggest mobile battle royale game in the country. Sure, there are other competing games vying for the spot, but at this moment, it's pretty safe to say that Garena's Free Fire is THE battle royale game out right now.
A company in such a position shouldn't be making these decisions that could potentially destroy the esport career of young teams. Since Free Fire is the biggest game in the country, Garena comes under a much higher level of scrutiny than it would if it had any real competition in the mobile battle royale market.
Garena has also been trying to make a concerted effort to push Free Fire esports events in India, especially with events like FFIC this year, and not only do incidents like this create problems for smaller teams that have little in the way of recourse, it also gives Garena much more power over the esports scene than it should have.
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