I've posted this on the Facebook IPL Group Page which I find the most convenient for interaction and replies. I would suggest anybody with a Facebook Account to join the discussion there as opposed to here. It's just easier to keep track of discussions on FB. Hope to see you all there. Here's the link:Search: Itaewon Pool League (If you're not a member and join)Link is: www.facebook.com/groups/5419118089/
As team captain of Wolfhound Dark Horses, I’d like to state my case here on the IPL league page, and submit my official appeal to the recent decision of the executive committee to disqualify my team from the playoffs. I prefer this site because quite frankly the league site is a bit difficult to interact with… (I’ll be sure to post a link there leading to this post) The following thoughts are not just my own. I’ve shared them with my team, and they’ve given me the permission to speak on their behalf. I apologize in advance for the lengthiness… there’s lots to say. I do hope though that the dialogue that this post generates may be sensible; void of explicit name-calling and minimal condescension. Please share your thoughts on how things should have been dealt with to ensure the integrity of the game (not just the league) in the years to come. I divided my post essentially into two parts: the first are the facts as they occurred and the second are my personal views about what happened. I’ll also post some add-on/side thoughts as comments to this original post.
The Facts.
1. Bella (Soye) Han is an unsponsored Pro Korean Pool player who played in 17/20 regular season matches, and 3 out 4 Playoff matches for the Wolfhound Dark Horses this past season. (Bella plays as a Handicap 8) Bella started with a basic rating of 1600 and finished with a rating of 1738 this season, winning 12/19 (60%) of her singles games, and 8/14 (57%) of her doubles matches. She had one special game during the season.
2. In contrast: Roland (Thoto) Kondes (an “apparent” amateur) from the Pinoy Mafia won 40/51 (78%) single games, 18/26 (69%) of his doubles. He had 7 special games. His rating at the beginning of the season was the default 1600, he is now 2019. I'm pretty sure that's a record of some sort if not at least rookie of the year. He also won both single tournaments, the trophy and the money tournament. He was instrumental in getting the Pinoy Mafia to the finals, going undefeated and set to receive (by order of disqualification of the winning team) the team championship trophy. An impressive amateur for sure.
3. As Captain of the Wolfhound Dark Horses at the beginning of the season I interpreted the rules for the playing of a “pro” in the IPL as referring to sponsored high-skilled Pros who make a living from their playing both in leagues and tournaments. Bella is not and does not fall under these criteria. Thus I played her freely and without regret throughout the season.
4. Although she played against a number of players/teams who knew that she was an unsponsored “Pro” Pool player (I use that term loosely because of how Korea rates/ranks its Pro Players – more discussion on that later), nobody contested a single game or match until the Finals in the playoffs. (Assumption: Whoever complained, must have known about it for some time. The question is, why did they wait so long to speak up about it? And why didn’t the IPL have a screening process in place to weed out “pros” in the first place? At what point does the statute of limitations on playing an “ineligible” player come into effect, during the regular season? only the playoffs? Whose fault was it that allowed Bella to play the entire season without notice? The captain’s? The league’s? The mysteriously patient whistle-blower?) Was she really ineligible to play? If she had been eligible to play for an entire season, matches and games which as of today still stand, and even all of the playoffs, why wouldn't she be eligible for the Final match of the season? Simply because someone didn't know? Or complain loud enough?)
5. During the finals when it looked like our team was coming back from an incredible deficit to triumph over the Pinoy Mafia (PM), I received notice from the president of the IPL (Lenny) that a complaint had been raised about Bella’s eligibility. Two players had raised this issue.
6. One player raised the issue of Bella’s back in the second round of the playoffs. He simply mentioned it, but encouraged Lenny not to contest. Conversation ensued, Lenny and his team decided that they would not contest since it indeed would look like they were being sour grapes. But it was something that should be discussed the following season. The playoffs continued.
7. The second player that raised the issue according to Lenny was Sechul who plays for a team that we played twice in the season before (Pinoy Mafia, yes) (Now Sechul denies the fact that he was the one who raised the complaint and has taken issue with this – so please correct this if it’s wrong – it would be interesting to know who exactly was behind the drive to finally bring up Bella’s Pro status and have Dark Horses disqualified.)
(Personal opinion inserted here: Why did it suddenly become an issue in the Final game? It wasn't an issue when we beat this team twice in during the regular season, it wasn't an issue when they beat us once in the playoffs, it wasn't an issue when they were winning 2-5 in the finals, it wasn't an issue UNTIL we started making a comeback and it was 6-6. When a woman started playing somewhat as good as good as any of the other men in the finals, that someone raised the issue. How can a women play so good? Who is she? We must dig through The Internet to find some dirt on her... she must be a pro...Let's investigate... Was Thoto put through such rigorous investigation process after winning both tournaments, and finishing so high in the ratings? Are strong men players investigated as such and accused of being pros? I highly doubt it.)
8. Following the match, the Executive Committee (ExCom) discussed at length what to do about the matter and ultimately concluded OFFICIALLY that we had won and were deserving champions. I received the OFFICIAL personal message of congratulations from the IPL President and the scores to our match were OFFICIALLY uploaded on the IPL website. (Evidence of this is attached to this post) I sent his message to my entire team, and we celebrated and rejoiced in our win.
9. However, a day or two later after this, I receive another message from Lenny, but not a personal one this time; a group chat. Included were the members of the ExCom and Troy (Captain of the Pinoy Mafia team) The message is the same as was posted on the IPL page, and essentially said: the ExCom changed their minds. Pinoy Mafia would be declared winner, and the Horses would be disqualified from the playoffs (Well technically only one match was disqualified, the final match. The three other matches/scores are still valid on the IPL page and players received individual rating points for these games, and the result of those matches affected the pairings for the following rounds. Also our entire season is still valid according to the stats… which when you think about it, doesn’t make any sense…)
10. My team was distraught, frustrated, angry… For us, something had been taken away from us that we truly deserved. Some of my team members including myself expressed these sentiments on Facebook albeit not always very eloquently, and in some cases recklessly. My apologies if some of those on our team used tasteless language. But please understand our unique situation. I hope that the dialogue that these facts and personal views may raise can remain free of outright name-calling and minimal condescension. At the same time I hope that members will share their thoughts on how things should have been dealt with to ensure the integrity of the game, not just the league.
Personal Views
There are numerous arguments that my team has raised, and discussed on Facebook already which I will just put aside for a moment, or perhaps chime in later when others have brought them up again. We can talk about the interpretation (Or misinterpretation as some might see it) of the rules, the discussions about what defines a woman “pro” in Korea, or if “pros” should be allowed in the league (a topic which has already been brought to the table by Mark B.) But for us Dark Horses the main issue is the one that follows:
The major problem with this whole fiasco has to do with the ineptitude of the ExCom regarding our particular issue. (I’m sure the ExCom has been doing great in the past… and they’re not totally inept, but when it comes to what occurred with us… simply put: they choked) Again, I’m not attacking anybody personally. And if it has felt this way this past week on behalf of my team, I apologize. Emotions are still raw and high. Truth is, I like Lenny. I’ve always had a great relationship with him. He was my first captain when I joined the league back in 2013. I played with him on the Rats for a year. He’s also been an excellent President, and I’m sure there’s little doubt in anybody’s mind who’s been playing on the IPL for longer than I have or shorter, that without him, this league would have struggled immensely if not have floundered already. Also, I would still vote for Lenny to be in the Hall of Fame on Friday night, maybe not based on how this situation was handled, but just based on pure merit. He deserves it. I second the motion.
Ironically, in all of this mess, I think Lenny as president was the one person trying to make the sensible decisions. Notice I didn’t say the right decision, just the most sensible one that would do least damage to the league and the game. Lenny is fair. He has great instincts. When he got wind of Bella’s possible eligibility, he did what he had to do. Talked to his team, asked them, what do you guys think? Shall we contest? And then another great group of guys who I get along with as well… did the most sensible thing as well: they decided that no, why are we going to contest now? We lost fair and square. She’s played the entire season… we played them a couple times before, nobody brought it up before, doesn’t make any sense to bring it up now. Just make sure for next season it is clarified… Done.
That was Lenny’s first great decision in my opinion. He’s apologized for this, but after thinking about it carefully, I realize he made the sensible call. He made a presidential executive decision, and if I was part of the ExCom, I would have backed up him up on it 100%, even if it was a team that I had lost to. The problem came when another person brought it up. Who this person was, what is their relationship to the league or to any team, nobody is really quite sure…
Again, Lenny came in after our Finals match which we had won, talked to his ExCom, they discussed extensively according to him, did research, found out that indeed Bella was a pro, talked to the opposing team, they weren’t contesting, and they came up with a decision: The Champion was Wolfhound Dark Horses. As I mentioned earlier, I received the personal official congratulatory message from the president and I shared it with my team. That was the second right call that Lenny and his ExCom did. That was no easy decision understandably. But it really was the most sensible one when you look at all the facts. It was not like Bella had played 4 games, and suddenly showed up to play in the playoffs… It’s not like she was trying to cheat the system nefariously throughout the season, it’s not she was taking over the league… The stats were all there, out in the open. Yes, mistakes seemingly were made on both sides of the court, this needed to be fixed for next season, it was the right call. We had won and deserved it: by merit of the final score, by merit of it not being contested by an opposing team, by merit of the official decision of the ExCom of the league. It was indeed OFFICIAL.
But see this is where everything goes dark horse. And it’s a bit unfortunate that the ExCom really hasn’t given much detail about what exactly happened from the moment they crowned us OFFICIALLY the champions to the moment that led them to have a change of heart. What extra evidence was recovered that made Bella more of a pro the next day then the day before? Either she’s a pro or she’s not, you can’t be more of a pro the next day. If you didn’t do your research right, that’s not our fault. The prosecution/defense is rested. All evidence has been submitted, cross examination has completed, the jury meets, decides, the judge reads the sentence. And that’s it. The decision is final. That’s why it’s called an “OFFICIAL” decision. Not, “Well it’s official, unless we find more evidence tomorrow… then it’s not so official… and we stand by our right to reverse this official decision… well because we’re the officials…” Does that make any sense to anybody? It’s a simple procedural defense called Double Jeopardy, the Romans called it “non bis in idem” (“an issue once decided must not be raised again”) You can’t be tried for the same thing twice once an official decision is made. It’s very simple. That’s a right in any constitution…
That the Excom couldn’t do their homework the first time around and still made a decision, and that at least one of the ExCom members admittedly hadn’t even read the rules concerning pros carefully until the next day AFTER the first OFFICIAL decision, just screams incompetence. Sorry, but that’s the nicest way I can put it really. Your first decision whether correct or not, WAS the most sensible one, and it was the one you really needed to have stood by regardless of the heat a few people might have given you. In the end, it almost seems like there was pressure from outside the ExCom, and outside the immediate teams affected to revisit for some unexplained reason the issue…
Who really raised the issue again? Did someone on the opposing team appeal? Did someone on the ExCom appeal? Or have a change of heart? Or did someone not even on the ExCom approach an ExCom member and influenced them to review the situation… Regardless of who appealed, logic says, I, as captain of the DH’s should have received a notice about this, and been informed that there would be a review, and perhaps even invite me to that meeting so that I could plead my case. No invitation transpired. I never received any indication or information that our championship win was under review again. Not one single message, phone call, or invitation… To all those captains and players out there, if your team had just been crowned champions after some deliberation, wouldn’t you have wanted to at least be notified that you were under review for the second time? If the person who appealed was on the ExCom itself, then that makes it even worse. It’s kind of like a person on a jury or even a judge filing an appeal on behalf of the defendant because he wants to change his vote the next day. It’s ludicrous.
I then received the message posted on the IPL page: “Upon further review…” I was livid, and I still am. What bothers me the most is that members of the ExCom and those sympathetic to the ExCom keep defending their decision as if it was their FIRST and FINAL decision…Nobody talks about how they secretly met a second time to reverse the ruling… “Rules are rules” keeps getting quoted… “We’re here to enforce the rules…” “If you want to change the rules, then submit a request….” “Rules need to be enforced not ignored…”
The conversation we need to be having is not only about rules, and interpretations about the rules, but about the sensible decisions that were OFFICIALLY made and then reversed by a committee that failed to do a good job the first time around. The pain would be much less had they first told me, Josh, we’re sorry, but rules are rules… you’ve been disqualified… I’d have complained and appealed, but the pain would be much less… It almost seemed like they were playing a sick joke on my team. They should have taken the heat for that first decision regardless of newer evidence... In my opinion, they were not really trying to protect the integrity of the league, but instead they were trying to protect the integrity of the ExCom. And being pressured by some external influences...
I could keep on writing much more, but I’d rather let others add their thoughts and opinions. I’m not sure that much will be changed as a result of this today. But I do feel that our team needed to have their chance to state our case clearly and factually so that everyone knew the details, and our opinions about what happened this season. I do call upon the ExCom to reconvene, even after the Banquet is finished, and revisit the events that led to this unfortunate situation; to reconsider their decision of disqualifying us from the Finals, and find ways to avoid this from happening in the future.
As for my team, in our eyes, and I’m sure in the eyes of many in the league, we consider ourselves as the official Champions to a hard-earned victory in one of the most difficult divisions the league has ever seen. Even though my team consisted of only 7 or 8 active players all season long, they were loyal to the team and consistent. My team members averaged 16 matches played each throughout the season. None of the players who I played in the playoffs played less than 11 matches in the season. We came back from a 2-5 deficit in the finals to beat arguably the toughest team in the league… through sheer grit. Bella, by the way, only won half her games in the playoffs... she was not the reason why we triumphed, it was indeed a team effort. I chose to put all of my team to play in the playoffs and especially in the finals, the top ranked, and the lower ranked. If we won, I told them, it would be a team effort, not just our best players…That was in keeping with the spirit of the IPL. Somehow we came back and won. Thus in the words of my friend Lenny, we “won the championship uncontested,” and it really was a “great comeback,” “your team should be proud.” We really are. Thank you. See you all at banquet tonight!