NiP and Anoynmo to Rematch in Flashpoint 3

In our last Flashpoint Season 3 article, we mentioned that Ninjas in Pyjamas was set to face HYENAS in the lower bracket. However, during the match between Sprout and FaZe Clan, it came to light that the second series of the evening wouldn't happen. On Saturday, NiP filed a formal request to replay their match versus Anonymo Esports following an investigation into the issues that they faced last Friday. For those out of the loop, the Ninjas in Pyjamas players were experiencing very significant packet loss, ranging from 30-40% packet loss, during their series with Anonymo. On the third round of the first map, NiP called a technical timeout, which lasted a few hours, in order to attempt to resolve the issue. It was determined by NiP that the issue was a routing problem, as changing FACEIT servers or using a VPN didn't work, and NiP's internet service provider confirmed that the issue wasn't on their end. 

Rather than postpone the match to a later date, FACEIT admins gave NiP the option to play the series with their connection issues or forfeit the series. NiP decided to go with the former, and managed to win the first map 16-3. However, Anonymo managed to upset the Swedes and win the two following maps. Anonymo played very well during the series, but NiP players were left very frustrated with the situation considering they had to play under terrible conditions. According to Flashpoint's statement, "...an admin could not, on a purely subjective basis, make the decision of postponing a match because one single team was claiming to have issues; because then any decisions of postponing a match taken on a similar basis could compromise the competitive integrity of every match." 

Following an investigation on Saturday, it was determined that NiP's connection issues were caused by an issue with FACEIT's servers, meaning that fixing the situation wasn't a possibility for NiP. The issue was apparently caused by the security configuration of the server, and was causing severe and persistent packet loss for all the NiP players. Once the evidence had been presented to and verified by FACEIT, the organizer decided that a rematch would be necessary, and offered Anonymo the possibility to play the whole Best of 3, or simply replay the final map of the series. 

Initially, Anonymo refused to play the Bo3, feeling as though they had won the match fair and square. Should the match have been rescheduled to begin with? Probably. But NiP only made their formal request to reschedule the match after playing the first map. As such, the match was played out in its entirety, with Anonymo emerging as the victors. Understandably, they don't feel enthusiastic about replaying a match that they already won, feeling as though they've been punished while doing nothing wrong, but at the same time, it's now been proven that the situation was also out of NiP's control, so they shouldn't be penalized either. Criticism from the community has mainly been directed towards FACEIT's handling of the situation, and while both organizations released a few statements on social media, it was agreed behind closed doors that the final map, Mirage, would be played once more tonight at 22:00 (MSK). FACEIT also announced that a revised rulebook would be shared with the teams tomorrow, March 19th, in order to avoid similar situations in the future. 

The victor of the match will go on to play FunPlus Phoenix later in the week, while the loser will face HYENAS tomorrow, who are also victims of having their match postponed due to this whole situation. The rematch will be casted on WePlayCSGO_ru by Aleksandr "Enkanis" Polishchuk and Oleksii "yXo" Maletskyi.