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Nanyang Championships Folding Like a House of Cards?

By Phil Newman

This picture adequately conveys the black anger I feel at this news.Image used with permission of demiisak @ http://demiisak.deviantart.com/
This picture adequately conveys the black anger I feel at this news.Image used with permission of demiisak @ http://demiisak.deviantart.com/ /
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Team Secret withdraws from the Nanyang Championships following hot on the heels of Evil Geniuses. Reporter wonders sarcastically: did they have visa trouble too?

In light of these developments, I’m somewhat embarrassed about my post yesterday about EG dropping out of the running for the Nanyang Championships. That’s the problem with live reporting. Sometimes you jump the gun. I really should have saved some of that indignation for today, but I think I’ll be able to muster enough to write this post.

It's the bowtie that makes me indignant. Without it, I'm just dignant.
It’s the bow tie that makes me indignant. Without it, I’m just dignant. /

International tournament, not your friend’s barbecue

Cancellations are an unfortunate part of today’s culture. We’re all busy. I’m no different. Sometimes work just comes up or an event you planned to attend becomes inconvenient. Other times, you’re just looking for a reason not to go, in which case, you probably shouldn’t have said yes in the first place.

M stands for judgement.
M stands for judgement. /

Team Secret has claimed that “ongoing issues” with the tournament are what led to their withdrawing from Nanyang. I’m not here to tell you the Chinese government is great at welcoming non-natives to their nurturing, communist utopia. I tried to get a visa there once. The hoops I had to jump through at the time made it all but impossible.

But with three days left until the tournament begins, this is a deplorable display of unprofessionalism on Secret’s part. With events as big as this, things rarely go according to plan. There are countless logistical errors, cultural miscommunications, and personal complications that could crop up at any moment.

Vague is a noun that means… something

I haven’t the foggiest what “ongoing issues” means, and yeah, I’ll admit that with a term that vague it could be serious. Like, for example, if the Chinese government said you weren’t allowed to take your diabetes medication into the country and the tournament liaison rolled his eyes and told you, “Toughen up, it’s only going to be a four day event.”

This syringe is the only thing stopping me from becoming Wlford Brimley. Diabeetus!
This syringe is the only thing stopping me from becoming Wlford Brimley. Diabeetus! /

But, for some reason, I don’t think this is likely. We all know that following the Shanghai Major China gained a reputation as being somewhat, how should I say this… slapdash? Haphazard? Unpolished? I could go on. I have a thesaurus open in the next tab of my browser.

Still, this doesn’t change the fact that commitments were made well in advance. The Shanghai Major was four months ago. None of these “ongoing issues” should be a surprise! What, did you think a few months would pass and some farmer in the Chinese countryside would find a magic lamp to make the bureaucratic nightmare that is real-life China less of an obstacle?

*drops mic*

That sound you hear isn't people clapping, it's the deafening sound of me losing respect for you.
That sound you hear isn’t people clapping, it’s the deafening sound of me losing respect for you. /

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