PSA #1 Regarding SHOUTcraft America Participants
As the qualification period for the SHOUTcraft America tournament enters its final stage, ladder position now matters more than ever. While this has brought competition to the ladder it has also brought less above-board methods to ensure that player ladder rank remains intact. We have uncovered evidence that some players have been engaging in forced-draws in order to maintain their ladder rank. Several players within the top 16 have multiple ties on their match history in which the build order clearly indicates that both players consenting to a mutual draw in order to maintain their ladder rankings.
This is probably our fault, we did not specifically prohibit this behavior, however we think it is clear to see that it is against the spirit of the competition. Since we did not outline regulations against this behavior, we will be offering a one time amnesty for it. Win-trading and forced draws are against the qualification rules for SHOUTcraft America. Ladder points must be accrued in a legitimate fashion, by beating the opponent fair and square. We should also remind players that the account they are playing on must belong to them and any boosting to the account being done by players other than the primary user of said account, is against the qualification rules. Blizzard is working with us to individually verify each account and needless to say they have logged all IP addresses used to access these accounts. If it is found that multiple players have played on the account in order to rank it up during the qualification period then that account will be subject to disqualification.
The win-trading and the forced draws stop right now. There will be zero tolerance for this behavior going forward. Those ladder points are not worth your qualification spot, do not risk being disqualified.
Thanks and GLHF!
PSA #2: If you are a barcode account in the top 16 and want to be eligible to qualify for SHOUTcraft America, your contact is required prior to ladder lock. No shared accounts. Only the account holder whose name is registered on the account will be accepted as that is what we are using to verify ownership via Blizzard.
http://www.shoutcraft.com/contact/
Here is a snapshot of the North American Grand Master Battle.net Ladder as of April 30, 2013. We have attempted to link up the Battle.net ID’s to the more famous IDs to determine which players are eligible for SHOUTcraft America based on the eligibility requirements spelled out here. We have also provided links to all of the big tournament games that these players have participated in. If you have any corrections or additions to the player list, feel free to send us a tweet.
Assuming the barcode and anonymous players are ineligible, the current Top 16 who would qualify for SHOUTcraft America are:
qxc
Goswser
MaSa
Maker
hellokitty
Minigun
hendralisk
Leiya
State
Neeb
Suppy
Trimaster
Drunkenboi
Sonic
Kane
DuStSwarm
Prior Standings
4/26
4/27
4/28
4/29
Entered Top 30 Since Yesterday
rsvp
Sonic
TriMaster
Dropped Out Of Top 30 Since Yesterday
Bails
Believe
Xenocider
Note that DeMusliM is not eligible because he is not a legal permanent resident of the US.
https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/status/328537026716647424