To Hi-Rez Studios

We the Smite Community Strongly disagree with the ruling that has resulted in Five Angry Men being removed from the Wildcard Event with the result they will no longer be able to take part in the World Championship in January. We feel the decision was hasty and the punishment unjust.

We fail to see the proof in the “evidence" you have provided.

1) They were whispering saying that they were going to lose. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they would throw; and even if you interpret it as letting Five Angry Men know they were going to throw that is completely on Acceleration

2) It is not uncommon for teams in early rounds to troll hard and fail spectacularly. Everyone has seen a game where a team gets completely stomped and starts trolling near the end. So it’s not even obvious if the behaviour is ‘throwing’ or just idiotic trolling.

Before the game started Acceleration said they would “go full Clow this game”: Assuming that this was true it doesn’t show that the teams colluded. It’s just one team telling the other that they were going to use unconventional strategies.

So with your ruling, an amateur team could just tell a pro team that they were going to pick unconventional picks and the pro team would get DQ’d? And if a team loses you can just whisper a friend saying something like “we could have won but we just wanted the other team to win,” and that proves they colluded?

Further More.

In the questioning of Clow it is easy to see that Clow was scared and was just trying to get 5am put back into the wildcard. He made a jumbled post after the fact, with the ruling made before that post. The other team also stated that Clow, at no point, asked them to throw.

At this stage and seeing what was happening anyone would do exactly what he has and would try to take all the blame and repercussions on himself so the team could play.

Please listen to our request and reinstate Five Angry Men back into the Wildcard Event

Regards

The Smite Community.