Hitting start button in tournaments

Was looking at the dreamhack 2011 tournament and one of the finalist hits the start button by accident. He was made to forfeit the round.

Is this the same rule in all the big tournaments ?

Pretty much…

Yes, you are correct. In any tournament, really. If you pause the game, you forfeit the round.

Usually there is sort of a gentlemen’s agreement where the opponent can choose to ignore this and “play it out” anyway, but he is in no way obligated to do so.

I’m not sure of dreamhack’s rules but its not always an automatic DQ. Its usually up to the other player. Also there is usually some leniency if the pause did not affect the gameplay. Ex. Accidental pause during ultra or cinematic animation where neither character can move anyway or accidental pause when the person who paused is hitting the other person with a combo or mashing a super, so they couldn’t move or attack anyway.

Yes. It is an awful thing to have happen to you but a necessary rule in order to prevent people from cheating. Like others have said, it’s usually up to the opponent.

Happens to everybody… even the best. Doubly annoying because he SO would’ve won that.

Pausing during combos can really throw people off. That’s definitely a situation where I think it would be justified to take the win over your opponent if they did so (pausing during your combo I mean).

Wow, I think that’s the first time I have ever seen that rule enforced. Whenever I see this happen on a stream, usually the other player lets the offender slide; glad to see that doesn’t happen all the time.

That was honestly BS, there should be a point where common sense will out prioritize a rule in certain situations such as that. But meh…Rules are rules I guess…

Some sticks are built with the start and select buttons built into the front side for this exact reason. If the player’s hands are pressing the buttons they’re supposed to be, hitting the select/start buttons would be impossible under those conditions.

Wow, that Erickson guy…not sure how I feel about him. At least Juicebox pulled it out in the end.

Heres the dreamhack final with the pause:

[media=youtube]U1IY1OMRWGk[/media]