Absolved withdraws from LLF

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We wanted to compete in LLF in order to gain valuable competitive experience for our players and we were excited to do so. However, circumstances dictate that this is no longer possible and hence we have decided with immediate effect to withdraw from La Ligue Feminine.

We entered the competition expecting a certain level of organisation from LLF but it has become clear to us over the past few weeks the team behind the tournament are not capable of enforcing any of the rules they wrote and on 2 separate occasions in a short space of time have been unable/unwilling to adhere to this.

On the night of 20th of May at 23:28 CEST we received a message from the administration team about a potential problem with a player from MoviStars being suddenly unavailable. They did not register a substitute with their team and the admins had asked us if it would be possible to move the match, after a team discussion we declined this as it was our prerogative to do so, with this the admin responded with:

https://gyazo.com/45a30c2217dfb8fb4d45d2ece2de38a8

In LLF’s official rulebook which was linked to every team before the tournament began it is stated clearly:

“A team can add/change 2 players maximum during the split. They have to inform a tournament 72h before their game. Keep in mind, NONE REGISTERED PLAYERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PLAY.”

At 13:59 CEST the next day (21st of May, Matchday) we were told by the tournament organiser ( the same person that sent the above message) that MoviStar had been approved to use an unregistered sub and sent us some additional details on the player. However, our girls had felt very strongly that this went completely against what was said to us previously and it would be extremely unfair for an unregistered player to compete in the match, therefore we requested an urgent meeting with the LLF Admin team to discuss the following. It was made abundantly clear to us that Movistars would be allowed to register a player just 8 hours before a match and they were expecting us to be fine with their decision, they were also offering us ban penalties for Movistars as a way of compensating us.

It was at this point the President of LLF entered the discussions, she was curious as to why we were still having talks on the matter and began to shout at us (present in the call was our team owner, manager and head coach; Nudo, Robinho and Wise Traveller), she accused us of trying to profit from the situation and exclaimed “Is one ban not good enough for you?! Do you want two bans then?!” and upon hearing our replies she began to immediately laugh at us and it was at this point she was asked to leave the conversation by her own administration team as she was becoming a hindrance to our discussions.

We were all heavily stunned by her outbursts and the way she conducted herself during our conversation, it had to be said at times the conversation got heated from both sides but we did not expect this type of behaviour, especially from the President of LLF.

In the end, the team decided that they would play the game and we declined all their offers of loss of bans from Movistars, although the girls agreed to play the match we could tell they were mentally affected by the hastily decisions made by the administration team.

After the match, we received an apology from both the administration team and the President of LLF for their handling of the situation and promised us they would review the rules and make changes so that every team would have a substitute as to avoid this scenario in the future. This provided us with some sort of closure on the problem and we wanted to move on from this.

Apology from LLF:
https://gyazo.com/1778b2807fc77c3509155ea8b7e6c871

Fast forward to our match vs Vaevictis esports the previous Thursday which was scheduled to begin at 20:00 CEST but did not actually begin until past 20:30 CEST, and again according to LLF rulebook it is stated very clearly that:

“A pro draft must be launched before the beginning of the games”
And:
“A team will forfeit if: Five minutes after the scheduled starting time, the team is not present or is unable to field 5 players ready to play.”

The admins explained to us that because Vaevictis’s Coach did not show up they were forced to wait for him and Vaevictis would be deducted 2 bans as a result of this, the pro draft also did not begin for the match until 20:14 CEST:

https://gyazo.com/89b57f2680eafbdca0d78c013d7b044d

The reason for our withdrawal from the tournament is that we no longer have any confidence with the tournament organisers regarding their ruleset as it seems rules can be changed/amended for teams in a short space of time whenever it suited their interests best, there doesn’t seem to be anyone enforcing any rules from the rulebook and they are far more concerned over trivial matters than sufficiently administering their own tournament to a satisfactory level for teams to complete in.

It is also worth mentioning that SNG Female recently also withdrew from LLF for precisely the same reasons as us.

Our female roster will continue to develop under Absolved in future tournaments and events but we cannot see how completing in LLF under the current circumstances will bring any benefits to our players. We want to call on relevant parties to look into a creation of a centralised female league so that we can help build and promote sustainable growth within the scene.

We do not think LLF deserves any more time from our staff and players after being mistreated and misquoted about the very rules they created. They have taken advantage of their power as admins and we feel as an organisation if the situation had been in reverse we would not be given the same oversight as the other teams. Furthermore, we feel the behaviour shown on stream by the casters towards our team and players had been very unprofessional and biased, giving us the impression that we were there to purely make up the numbers rather than working together to improve the tournament.

We thought they cared about the female scene but all they have shown is the total opposite and it's a reason why many teams paint a bad picture of LLF.

We will not look to compete in any tournaments hosted or affiliated with the LLF admin team and urge other teams to do the same to make a stand against this type of behaviour.

If anyone would like to discuss this matter further please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via twitter dms.

Regards,

ABV Management

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