The Overwatch League has come under criticism for a mix-up in the seeding for the Midseason Madness. The League blamed an “administration error” for the mistake.
Grey Zhang, the Head of the Hangzhou Spark, issued a statement on June 6 expressing his displeasure with the seeding for Midseason Madness and revealing that it is in violation of the contracts signed by the Overwatch League prior to the Spring season.
According to the League’s rules, Hangzhou Spark were supposed to have the second seed in the tournament as the winner of Bracket 1 of the East Spring Knockouts.
Hello everyone, this is Grey, Head of Hangzhou Spark.I am making a statement regarding the seeding arrangement of Midseason Madness. pic.twitter.com/4szOSQME4h
— Grey (@GreyZhang77) June 6, 2023
However, when the Overwatch League announced the match-ups for the Midseason Madness, the second seed had instead gone to Seoul Infernal, the winner of Bracket 2, due to the team having a better overall record.
As the highest seed in the East region, Seoul Infernal will get a first-round bye in the Midseason Madness. Hangzhou Spark, on the other hand, will have to take on Florida Mayhem in the playoffs’ opening round.
“It is absolutely unbelievable that this would happen in none of the top professional esports leagues around the world,” Zhang said. “This is not only against the spirit of a contract but also a challenge to legality.
“After League Office received our challenge, without thorough communication with us, they still chose to announce the seeding arrangement anyway, which we found disrespectful.”
Overwatch League apologizes for seeding mix-up
In a Twitter post, Overwatch League Head Sean Miller acknowledged the mistake, which he blamed on “an administration error when seeding rules were communicated and distributed to teams.”
“Our intent has always been to have the team with the best performance throughout Spring Stage be the first seed, and we’ve worked closely with impacted teams – both the Seoul Infernal and Hangzhou Spark – and apologized for the confusion this has brought,” Miller said.
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With Hangzhou Spark and Seoul Infernal having come through different brackets, there was no clear way to tell which was the better team. In the absence of a seeding match between the two teams, many believe that the Overwatch League should have simply followed the rulebook.
“Neither way of determining the higher APAC seed is particularly good when you have separate brackets and only two teams from APAC making it,” a Reddit user wrote. “That being said, the League is in the wrong for going against what they had the teams sign.”
“Turns out making the qualifying unnecessarily complicated had some negative consequences,” another user wrote. “Who could have seen this coming?”
To make up for the error, Miller announced that the League is bumping the Midseason Madness’ prize pool from $900,000 to $1.08 million — a decision that did not ease the Spark’s frustration.
“We were also offended by the increased prize money for Midseason Madness they mentioned, which sounds like an insult to a team that has been heavily investing and actively competing in the Overwatch League,” Zhang.
The Hangzhou Spark Head added that the team reserves the right “of using legal and/or arbitrational means to resolve this incident”, but he ruled out the possibility of boycotting the event as a form of protest.
The Midseason Madness will take place from June 16-18 in Goyang, South Korea, and will feature four teams from the West region and two from the East region.