Three Teams Miss Regional Deadline, Will Not Face Penalties

Credit: Will Michels

As reported earlier, three teams, including the No. 1 ranked Lone Star Quidditch Club, allegedly failed to submit rosters for the Southwest Regional Championship by the event’s announced deadline. USQ management has informed The Eighth Man that the teams will not face penalties due to the ambiguity of the policy.

According to an email sent to team captains and presidents by Assistant Tournament Director Alicia Norman, teams were required to submit a roster by Saturday, Feb. 14 at 8 a.m. CST and “any submissions after this time [would] be invalid.” Lone Star, Lumberjack Quidditch and University of North Texas failed to meet this deadline, submitting their rosters late Saturday evening.

USQ’s Gameplay Policies page states, “Each team’s roster of up to 21 players must be submitted on the USQ website seven days before the start of the game.” Additionally, the instructions presented to captains on their roster page read, “You must submit your initial roster one week before the event. Afterwards, you can make changes up to 24 hours before the start of the event.”

The Eighth Man reached out to USQ Management for further comment.

“While captains were told by tournament staff that rosters had to be submitted by 8 a.m. and it is important that captains pay attention to instructions and policies conveyed to them by TDs, in cases where there is conflicting information, we do not want to penalize teams who consult the website for clarification,” said USQ Commissioner Alex Benepe. “For this reason, we will be allowing those teams (who submitted after 8 a.m. but still before the league deadline) to participate in the Southwest Regional Championship this weekend.”

He elaborated on the decision to allow the teams to participate by stating that submitting the roster “later on Saturday” did not provide the teams with “any sort of competitive advantage.”

“If the rosters were unable to be edited after submission, it would definitely be a cause for concern that some teams would have been able to review opponents’ rosters and take additional time before submitting their own,” he said. “However, since all teams are able to revise their rosters as many times as they like until 24 hours before the start of the tournament, there is no competitive advantage conveyed to the teams who submitted their rosters later that day (which was still before the standard, official league deadline).”

This brings about additional concern regarding a flaw in the roster submission process that has been mentioned publicly by players on multiple occasions this season. Though USQ’s Tournament Director Training Session Outline states, “the site will lock out captains who try to submit rosters past this deadline,” a team can still activate and submit a roster less than seven days before the tournament with no hindrance.

The Southwest Regional Championship will take place Feb. 21-22 at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Lone Star, with just one loss this season, will enter the tournament as the favorite.

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