Just curious, after seeing the coverage of evo on the main page of SRK and there were those two SC2 players who had an agreement during the finals…
How come players do this? I understand why they’d agree to split the pot, but after they have that agreement why don’t they have a real match and split the money anyways?
KINGDOM sums it up nicely. Both players get to take something home, but when they do this there is no way on earth that they will play 100%. The prize may be inconsequential, but it is the presence of a prize that goads people to do their best.
This prize splitting also occurs in other competitive fields (such as card games), and one thing I’ve also noticed about players agreeing to draw is that sometimes its an ego thing. When two players are so good (and they know it) sometimes they’ll just refuse to play one another, especially if there is tangible evidence of winning or losing (such as the presence of a prize). They secretly nurse thoughts that one is better than the other, but since they have more to lose if they do manage to lose (both pride and prize) they’ll just simply won’t face each other. Sometimes it even happens before the finals. Shamefully, this is one conversation I sometimes end up in:
“What, we playing against each other? We both know we’re the best here. If we play against each other one of us will be knocked out of the tournament and other will likely end up facing some snot-nosed kid thinking he’s hot stuff because he made the finals.”
Or something to that effect.
Magnifico also makes an excellent point: “We’re goofing off. But, despite this, we’re still better than the lot of you.”
That makes sorta sense, but it still kinda confuses me why they’d do that.
I thought of it as like an insurance policy against losing of course, but if you trust the other guy enough to split the pot with you (since if you’re goofing off ONE of you is going to get the cash, so you have to trust him to not be like “…WHAT agreement?!”-It’s not like the Canons handed each of them “their share”…) , you should trust the other guy enough to split it even if you play a serious match and lose to him.
In the Evo case, those two guys (I don’t play SC2, so I have no idea who they are, sorry) were supposedly good friends. If so, why not just play the match for serious and split it either way, then people won’t think you’re both assholes.
I guess it really is THAT big an ego thing to lose to another good player? Pathetic…
No, this doesn’t happen in cases where you don’t know the guy. Against strangers, they will unlikely split the plot, both as insurance to the prize and ego.
As for playing then splitting, agan, friendship comes into play here. You might say that the deal was already cemented longbefore the tournament itself.
they were friends and they didnt want to see which one was better and acually won. I’m the same way with my friends. I would hate to lose to them(though it rarely happens), but when I do my ego feels like shit. They were probably thinking that if they got off splitting the pot then a superior player wouldnt be known of and people would just think of them as equally skilled. My point is that they didnt play for real because they just wanted an excuse for after the loser lost. If the winner said “haha I beat you at Evo I’m better.” Then the other guy could just say “Yeah, but we werent playing for real.”
Either way what they did was gay and when people do that kind of shit they just ruin the whole point of a tournament. :lame:
That’s what I meant. All i do with my friends is talk shit. It’s why I hate losing to them. These guys knew they were closly matched so neither of them didnt want the title of loser so they both just decided to play like pussies.
Because they were only playing as pussies against the friend they tied against. Sure there good players. Thats how they got into the finals, but when the time came they decided to just be gay. I see what your say though. That people are just angry at the fact that they lost, and there really isnt any proof that they wanted to split the pot(I assume, I wasnt there).
I don’t think anyone cares if you agree to split the money, but why would you throw the finals instead of playing the game for real and splitting the money anyways?
well i suppose im not to guilty of that, ive only done that a few times. usualy I still end up playing, but a lot of times its just like fuck it, ive already played you i dont care.
I suppose you could chalk it up to lazyness. Plus I think a lot of times when you get to that “level” in both ways in taht you can say you can just split the money before the tournment beacuse you know its very very doubtfull that you will lose, and the fact that you tell someone else(I guess in agreeing with them)that you will split money with them. Means that you are at least aqauintences, so the chances that you have played are pretty good. So theres not much more to come from playing in a tournment to I guess…
I guess its kinda selfish shrug…
Anyway again though i guess ive only done this a few times so I guess im not as guilty as some others maybe shrug…