Following a scandal at the HCS London Major that saw Complexity disqualified from the running, the organisation has dismissed Tyler ‘Spartan’ Ganza from the Halo roster. Now that a full investigation has taken place into Spartan’s actions at the Major, he has been banned from all HCS events through 2024 – HCS Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and the HCS World Championship. This ban includes online tournaments – but Spartan is set to appeal this judgement.
At the HCS London Major, it was discovered that Spartan had reimaged a tournament-issued SSD and applied ‘tweaks’ that were considered to be an attempt to gain a competitive edge. These tweaks included installing MSI Afterburner (or AMD Adrenalin), amending various Windows settings, and making registry changes. In a breakdown posted by Complexity, it was explained that Spartan didn’t act maliciously, but that his actions were ‘careless, unprofessional, and violated rules’.
In a lengthy breakdown, Complexity wrote out the step-by-step journey that Tyler ‘Spartan’ Ganza took during the HCS London Major. This path included transitions between practice sessions, the control measures applied to the tournament-issued SSD, and what he did to try and amend the SSD. It was confirmed that during one practice session, Spartan reformatted the SSD provided by the tournament organisers and installed a USB-based Windows image of his home PC, which included the software that kickstarted this scandal.
It was stressed that he didn’t bring his own SSD, but he did bring a copy of his own OS configuration loaded onto a USB, which is just as bad.
In the latest competitive ruling by the HCS, this was confirmed and the punitive measures were upheld. It was originally thought that Spartan had brought his SSD to the tournament, but that was a subject of confusion on the part of the tournament admins. Complexity fans were hugely disappointed by the scandal, as before the team could even get started, an untimely disqualification was handed down the line. In a statement posted recently, the team addressed this difficult situation:
‘As an organization we pride ourselves on principles of professionalism and integrity, and we expect those qualities to be shown by our personnel at all times. The above events do not reflect Complexity values and we apologize to HCS, event hosts Quadrant, our fans, and the larger Halo community. We are disheartened that this incident caused a premature end to our promising London Major appearance, but we hope to continue our work in the Halo community to set a positive example through our competitive team, community events, and more.’
In a follow-up statement, Spartan apologised profusely and stressed how his ‘silly actions’ had led to a devastating ruling that hugely impacts his career as a competitive Halo player.
Elsewhere, the HCS London Major failed to hit too hard with fans, with many criticising the underwhelming venue and shambolic trophy ceremony. It was a big moment for FaZe Clan after securing the win over OpTic Gaming, but it didn’t look all that impressive on stream.
For more Halo news, stay tuned to Esports.net
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