Saturday the 2nd of November, the second round of this year’s FACEOFF season took place at Nordstrand Arena in Oslo. In the Crew competition, Team Lynx won, thereby qualifying directly for the Main Event on December 7 at Jyske Bank Boxen in Denmark. Team Devils and Team Rapazes followed in second and third place.
After the competition, FACEOFF received a complaint from Team Devils, who pointed out that Team Lynx had not followed the rules in the final discipline, The Battle. According to the regulations, substitutions are only allowed between rounds, but Team Lynx made substitutions during the rounds, which is a violation of the competition’s official rules.
After reviewing video material, it has been confirmed that Team Lynx violated the regulations by making unauthorized substitutions.
FACEOFF aims to host fair and transparent competitions where all participants have equal conditions. It is an unfortunate situation, and we acknowledge our responsibility as the organizer to ensure that the competition proceeds correctly. It is important to emphasize that there should be no criticism directed at the five judges who officiated the competition. They had not been instructed to be particularly vigilant for any unauthorized substitutions and therefore cannot be held accountable.
FACEOFF is a live sport, where competitions are judged in real-time, and we do not change results retroactively unless errors of a significant nature are discovered. Therefore, we have decided not to change the result from last Saturday’s competition.
We want to promote the continued development of FACEOFF as a professional and fair competition, and we have therefore decided to implement the following measures:
- Clarification of the regulations:
We will clarify when and how substitutions can take place during the competition. Furthermore, we will specify what actions will be taken if substitution rules are not followed. - Establishment of a communication channel for coaches:
FACEOFF will create a dedicated platform for communication for all coaches, where questions about the regulations can be discussed. All questions and answers will be publicly available so that all participants can benefit from the information. - Stricter control over the gymnasts’ location:
Requirements will be introduced regarding where gymnasts may be located during the execution of a discipline, particularly with regard to those gymnasts not participating in the current discipline. - Increased resources for judges:
FACEOFF will allocate more resources to the judges so that any rule violations can be detected and handled quickly and correctly.
We wish to emphasize that we continue to strive to make our competitions a platform for creativity and athletic development. We believe these changes will strengthen FACEOFF as a professional and fair competition where rules are enforced consistently.
We look forward to continuing to develop FACEOFF and thank all participants for their continued support and commitment. We are open to feedback and view complaints as an opportunity to improve our event.
// FACEOFF
