Justin Wong Accused of Throwing Match - Disciplined by Evo

Big news went down yesterday, as Tom Cannon, one of the organizers of Evo, announced a ruling against Justin Wong regarding his dubious performance in the losers finals of the MvC3 Singles tournament at PowerUp this past weekend. He is being accused of intentionally underperforming in order to help his opponent and good friend, Noel Brown, place higher.

"In our judgment, by not making a good-faith effort to win, Justin intentionally underperformed. As a result, he forfeits the prize associated with the EVO 2011 Tournament Series portion of this event: his placement points. "

Justin was also issued a yellow card for this violation, meaning any further rule violations during the Evo tournament series this year will result in a full disqualification from the Evolution World Championships in July.

"Since we do not have any clear evidence of collaboration between players, we can only penalize the player whose performance reflects intentional underperformance. Noel Brown will still receive points for fighting his way into the Loser's Final match, as matches up to that point do not reflect evidence of any collusion or intentional under-performance. We feel the recorded evidence is clear, and internal action on this matter began immediately following the match."

On one hand, this decision is good for the spirit of competition. It shows that Evo will not tolerate this sort of action from anyone including top players like Justin. It sets a solid precedent for future occurrences.

On the whole however, I do not like this decision. They have no real proof besides the video of the match, which in my viewpoint is not enough to conclude that Justin was doing anything more than screwing around. Evo's case comes down to the strategy Justin chose to employ for the first match by putting Phoenix first and not even knowing how to properly combo with Skrull. However, Justin actually won the first match of the set with this moronic strategy. If anything at this point, Noel should be investigated for throwing this first game in order to make their match look closer than it should have been.

Without clear proof that Justin wanted to intentionally lose, how can you possibly fault a player for their actions in game? If Noel and Justin both wanted to pick Random for their entire set, what then? Where do you draw the line? Justin had been picking Adon throughout the SSF4 tournament at PowerUp, even during top 3. He clearly would have had a better chance with his other characters, but he chose to stick with Adon. In my estimation, Justin was not trying his hardest to win here, he was simply testing his Adon in a tournament situation. If Justin had not been playing Noel in the losers finals, I believe his actions would not be an issue. The closeness of their set should also be taken into consideration. If Justin was trying to lose on purpose, I find it hard to believe he could make it look so close.