Liquid: "Players should not decide"

HLTV.org was in contact with Liquid's co-owner Steve Arhancet to hear the American organisation's side of the story.

The final piece of the puzzle concerning the controversy which erupted between Liquid and Luminosity in the RGN Pro Series Upper Bracket semifinal concerning a decision to not replay a round is now complete as Liquid have reached out to HLTV.org to give their statement on the situation.

To that effect, HLTV.org spoke with Liquid's co-owner Steve Arhancet, as the teams' players have apparently received an outburst of condemnation online and are not comfortable with giving public statements at this time.

"I'm Steve, co-owner for Team Liquid.

I unfortunately was not attending the RGN event, however based on my conversations with both the owner of RGN, David and Hiko here are my thoughts on the matter.

A volunteer was on the stage of the event during a live match between Luminosity and Team Liquid. This volunteer should not have been on stage, as I understand he had no substantial purpose for being there.

For me, this is the first mistake made by RGN that could have prevented this situation from happening. However, once the power was cut out during the match, the RGN officials/staff should have then made a clear decision, based on their rules or judgement in the situation on how to proceed.

Instead a member of their staff decided to defer to players to make a decision for them on how to run their tournament.

I think this puts any player in a morally compromised position with no real positive outcome. I believe it was unprofessional for the RGN staff to act in the manner they did.

I have no ill feelings to Luminosity, their organization or players. I respect Steve, their owner and the great things he's done for his team. I hope that the next time we play each other we'll be able to do so where issues like these won't be a factor," Arhancet told HLTV.org.

As the situation has apparently relaxed relating to the two teams involved, it is now Liquid who are taking on Renegades in the consolidation final on the main stage of the RGN Pro Series.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter