HCS London Major 2024 Competitive Ruling
BACKGROUND:
During Pool Play at the HCS London Major, Complexity were onstage preparing for their match against FaZe Clan when during routine equipment checks, the administration was lead to discover that Spartan's SSD was not the official tournament SSD. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the software on the SSD was not provided by the administration and furthermore contained new, unapproved software as well as other changes to the existing software in an effort to increase the performance of the PC. No software of any other nature was discovered. When talked to, Spartan cooperated with the investigation.
6/5/2024 Update: After further investigation, it was later discovered that the SSD device itself was part of a separate batch owned by the administration. The unapproved software was still loaded onto the SSD as described above with a flash drive. The ownership of the SSD was never weighed in the determination of the ruling. The Administrative team will be doing an audit of the existing fleet of hardware and removing any anomalous drives which are inconsistent with the rest of the other SSDs to ensure this doesn't happen again.
RULING:
Competitive integrity and fairness are paramount to the HCS, our partnered teams, players, and community. Due to the tampering of official league provided equipment and the nature of gaining a competitive advantage in the tournament as a result of tampering, Complexity have been disqualified from the tournament.
HCS 2024 Program Handbook v2.0 (emphasis added):
“C. Cheating
The Administration understands that it has an obligation to facilitate a level playing field for all competitors. Competing fairly and to the best of your ability is important towards fostering a healthy competitive environment, and the Administration is committed to ensuring the facilitation of fair competition throughout the duration of the Program and beyond. Any form of cheating, whether intentional or not, by any Participant is strictly prohibited. Participants are required and expected to maintain cognizance of these Official Rules and any form of cheating or violation of these rules, or the spirit of these rules, either intentionally or unintentionally, will result in penalties in accordance with the Code of Conduct. All Participants are prohibited from influencing or manipulating a Game or Match so that the outcome is determined by anything other than fair and reasonable play….
6. League Required Equipment
- Failure to use Provided Equipment
- Using unauthorized or unapproved equipment”
"3. General
- 3.1. Any violation of the rules set forth in the Handbook, Code of Conduct, or in these Official Rules, including, without limitation, any form of cheating, may result in a forfeit of the Game/Match and/or disqualification from the Tournament."
Per the HCS 2024 Program Handbook v2.0 and the HCS Major London 2024 Official Rules v1.3, the HCS administration has disqualified Complexity from the HCS London Major. Further rulings against Spartan will be determined after the tournament.
TOURNAMENT UPDATE:
Due to the disqualification of Complexity, the following tournament rulings have been made:
- Complexity receive an automatic last place in Pool C.
- The match that took place between FaZe and Complexity will be ruled as a 3-0 map count in favor of FaZe, their match record is 2-0 headed into Day 2.
- The match that did not take place between Cloud9 and Complexity will be ruled as a 3-0 map count in favor of Cloud9, their match record is 1-1 headed into Day 2.
- There will still only be 1 team from the Open Bracket that will qualify for Pool C following the conclusion of Open Bracket Play. They will receive and automatic match victory over Complexity with a map count of 3-0, and will enter Pool Play with a record of 1-0.
- Complexity will receive 0 HCS points and 0 prizing.