CP REWRITTEN, United Media Headquarters – The March Madness tournament staff have released a statement on the controversial Ice Warriors-Water Vikings quarter-final battle, alongside the semi-final information and times.
Statement Regarding the IW-WV Battle
The results of the Ice Warriors-Water Vikings quarter-final battle has been the topic of much debate since it took place on Saturday. The battle was extremely close and entered an overtime room, which ultimately saw the judges declare an Ice Warriors victory. Following the battle, the Water Vikings requested a review to take place due to the emergence of screenshots that suggested one of the judges, Sweater, could have swayed the result of the battle in favour of the Warriors due to past drama between himself and the Water Vikings.
The tournament rules state that under no circumstances will reviews take place, and it was decided the rules would not be changed or amended mid-tournament in order to respect the army leader’s decision on this specific issue. An army leader vote will be taking place at the end of the March Madness tournament to see if there is a majority interest in setting up a review system, which could be implemented in tournaments moving forward.
As for the bias allegations against Sweater, the tournament staff launched an investigation into this matter. After much deliberation and an evaluation of the judging group chat, we have concluded Sweater did not sway the battle from a Water Vikings victory to an Ice Warriors victory. In fact, all three judges agreed that the Ice Warriors were the victors of the overtime room, which was the contested room that saw the Ice Warriors claim victory.
However, we were disappointed to witness multiple instances of poor and lazy conduct from all three judges. This includes a lack of in-depth discussion and general communication with each other on both army performances, as well as failing to follow the stated procedure for lag issues. The judge to post the summary did not consult the other judges before publishing the evaluation, which they should have done as part of the standard protocol.
It must also be noted that the Water Vikings did not use their remaining veto to stop Sweater from judging the battle, despite the previous drama they shared. Each army has two vetoes available to them in each round, and this is to ensure they are comfortable with the people judging their battles. Despite several ping reminders, the Water Vikings did not use this to stop Sweater from judging. Aaronstone has spoken out and said he believes the drama was behind them.
The battle has certainly highlighted issues within the judging system that we are eager to discuss with the CP Army Judges organisation after the tournament has concluded. Moving forward, we will be ensuring all judges understand the importance of adhering to the judging policies when evaluating the battles. For the final two rounds, each battle will have 5 judges. If needed, judges will use videos recording by the armies to come to a final result. This means the results may not be instant and could take some time to deliver.
Semi-Final Information & Times
The quarter-final round of the March Madness VII saw the Ice Warriors, Rebel Penguin Federation, Templars, and Help Force triumph in their respective battles to advance into the semi-finals this upcoming weekend. The bracket below reflects the current standings, with more information including the judging, available on the tournament’s dedicated Discord server. Please be aware that the UK timings are different this Sunday, as the EU clocks move forward an hour due to daylight savings.
Saturday, April 2nd
Help Force vs. Templars
3pm EST | 2pm CST | 1pm MST | 12pm PST | 8pm UK/GMT
Sunday, April 3rd
Ice Warriors vs. Rebel Penguin Federation
3pm EST | 2pm CST | 1pm MST | 12pm PST | 8pm UK/GMT
The United Media team would like to wish the best of luck to the competing armies. We are excited to be bringing a range of content again this week, including our ‘Judges Eye’ column, Bracketology, community predictions, and a special editorial based on the previous weekend’s events.
