I just sent them this email. Hopefully they get the message and don't just write it off.
I'd like to file a complaint of admin abuse by CEVO official Spangler. He oversees the CZero and 1.6 competition communities, and my clan is involved in the czero season 5 competition. This has led me and other members of my clan to have a series of very unfortunate interactions with Spangler. I will say off the bat that not one of these interactions has been in the least bit respectful, and many of them have been downright abusive.
For our first match, one member of our clan could not get the CEVO client to install. (Though the suggestions of the CEVO officials made it obvious that their technical proficiency is appallingly low, that is not really something worthy of the time required to complain - it might simply be something to look into with future hires.) My clan member approached the admin about a half hour before match time, but 45 minutes after the match was supposed to start, the CEVO officials were still unable to help. Instead of allowing us to reschedule the match (since without that player we were below the minimum required), Spangler decided that the first team to leave the server would be considered to have forfeited. While this is the least troublesome abuse of authority, it was extremely inconvenient to have to stay in the server until an hour after the match should have started. To make matters worse, after an hour he finally agreed to let us reschedule. It sent a message of clear disregard of the lives of the mere competitors in his czero kingdom.
We recently played a match in what was apparently Spangler's private server "donated" for CEVO events. I would point out that this server performed terribly, but again, considering the technical aptitude of future employees is about the best advice I can give. Right before the match began, I attempted to join the CEVO vent and ask Spangler if he could free up the 12th slot in the server for my clan's HLTV. Since the czero matches are 10v10, the two additional slots were presumably for HLTV servers. Since "configuring a server to not allow HLTV connections is considered unsportsmanlike conduct", I figured it must have simply been an oversight that he allowed for two HLTV slots but only configured one of them to be a proxy slot. Unfortunately, Spangler was afk and I didn't have the time to sit around and wait for him since the match was about to start.
After the match, I rejoined the CEVO ventrilo and asked Spangler how I could get the HLTV recording since I was not able to connect my HLTV to it. Instead of responding, he rudely suggested that next time I talk to him before the match to connect it. Since by now I knew to expect a base level of hostility from Spangler, I refused to argue and simply asked again how I could get a recording of the match. Again, he dodged my question and instead said (again, quite rudely), "You're going to have to wait, I'm still watching the match right now, it's obviously not over." (I guess he forgot that CEVO requires a 120 second delay and that the match was in fact over, and instead decided to use his ignorance as an excuse to address me with hostility.) I replied by saying that it was over and I was just interested in figuring out what I needed to do to get the demo. The reply was again hostile and not even close to helpful: "It'll take me a week or two, I have to download it." At this point, his attitude had gotten so over-the-top that another CEVO admin in the ventrilo channel actually said, "Dude, Spangler, you don't have to be a dick about it, just answer the question." But by then I had decided I was no longer going to subject myself to that type of treatment.
For the past two days, I have been attempting to schedule a match with another team. The link to the conversation is here, but I'm not sure if it's static, so I'm going to give a general overview of the situation as well:
http://www.cevo.com/index.php?page=acco ... d=11207077
Basically, on Sunday, the other team suggested playing the match on Tuesday. Since my team is spread out across all four time zones and is comprised of kids from 14 years to well-established adults of 40+ years with full time jobs, kids, and families, it is usually a chore to find a time that works for even five people on my team. We have managed to play all but one match so far, though, so it hasn't been too big of an issue.
On Monday, I rejected their propsed time and proposed one an hour later. The time they had proposed was too early for those members on the West coast. TWO HOURS later, Spangler posted in the thread to say that he would force us to play at 7:30 (a time half way in between the two proposed times) if the other team didn't answer by the arbitrary time of 4pm Eastern time. I told Spangler that it would be nice if he didn't force us to play and I guess that satisfied him because he didn't post again.
At this point, the other team rejected the time and proposed a time that an hour later still. Since many of my teammates on the East Coast work early morning shifts at their jobs, this time was now too late. On Tuesday, there was literally a one-hour window to play our match. It was really not a good day, and I would have rejected the time and proposed a time on a different day. Instead, Spangler again posted and said we were REQUIRED to accept a time on Tuesday or else we would be awarded a forfeit loss. Since CEVO's rules actually specifically say that we can play between Monday and Thursday, he was directly contradicting CEVO's written rules and instead forcing us to play at a day and time that didn't work for us. I questioned him three times why he would do that, pointed out that it was arbitrary, contradictory, disrespectful, and garunteed the other team the win, but he refused to budge. He basically said, "I'm the boss and you can't make me."
It is a shame that this has been my experience in CEVO. Unfortunately, it seems all-to-common. Any time there is a problem before a match and I suggest, "Want to get a CEVO admin to answer it for us" the response is always, "Lol no, I definitely don't want to talk to Spangler. I'll just figure something out." This is a huge problem because CEVO is about the only American CZero gaming league now that OGL has dropped CZ. We have had many serious discussions in our clan about dropping out of CZ competition altogether because of the way the CEVO admin treat players, and any time we bring this up to other teams the response is always the same: "Yeah, we've been thinking about doing that, too. It's just not worth it." Spangler's attitude, his blatant disregard for the lives of players, his complete and total disrespect for anybody, his power hungry attitude and his willingness to flex his muscles whenever and wherever he can, and the way his attitude is being reflected by other CEVO admin, is causing and will continue to cause a decline in the CEVO cz community unless something is done.
I'm not trying to bitch, but you really need to know about things like this. Every year the number of teams declines, and it's because participating in CEVO has become such a chore, requiring people to submit themselves to a level of disrespect that is almost dehumanizing, all for a game. I sincerely hope that this issue is investigated, because there are a severe lack of CZ competitions anymore, and it seems like CEVO is taking advantage of the high demand and low supply to act however they want to treat people in the worst way that they can. Bring back the professionalism of organized electronic sports and you will see your league boom. Allow it to continue on its path to the cesspool, and it will die.
[my name]
"Anubis"
Team: Absurd Mindz
Condition Zero Season 5