Two reporters, Marcus "Wind" Ho and Mark "markvon" Ong, with the myMYM esports news portal have been banned from the World Cyber Games 2008 Asian Championship for leaking DotA Allstars match replays files online.
The pair were apparently told by "game officials" on how to obtain the replays, but did not check for clearance from the organizers to publish them online, resulting in a "ban without hesistation".
Wind has tried to draw attention to the fact that Garena has been broadcasting matches through their GarenaTV service to justify the duo’s actions. He further claimed, in a comment on the news item, that Garena posted up replays but were not banned due to Garena being a media partner for this year’s WCG AC.
However, one of Garena’s staff, Zhou "MaRs" Weicheng, refuted Wind’s allegations: "You can check that the games on GarenaTV cannot be saved. That’s why
they allow garenatv to stream it. Otherwise they will never allow
garenatv to stream it."
Commenting on the alleged release of replays, MaRs had the following to say: "I never released it man. Last year I released some replays then almost get banned. So this year I will never risk trying it"
It should be noted that a steaming broadcast – or spectated game – is an entirely different beast from a replay file which can be downloaded, reviewed and analyzed multiple times from multiple angles at a player’s or team’s own leisure.
While replays are good and great for DotA fans at home, putting up the replays midway through a live tournament is unfair for the teams involved. It creates the chance for some to gain an unfair advantage over others. Some teams might have internet access and a laptop to download and review their potential opponent’s strategies, while others might not.
The general public opinion on the fate of the two reporters so far is that Rapture has been too harsh with the outright ban and should have issued a warning first.
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