I don't really feel like typing up a huge explanation of why everything went down the way it did but basically the rules are more there to deter unsportsmanlike conduct in lower divisions where communication between teams is more difficult and trolls out for easy wins are more rampant. The admins have always expected platinum to have higher standards for itself and plat has, more or less, been self-regulating. But this season shows that we just aren't capable of that anymore so the rules will be changed next season. The pause rules for sure and I think we might see some plat specific rules put in place to ensure the highest level of competition.

Was it? Usually when a server shuts down, the clients get kicked, they don't start loading another map as we saw on the stream.

Then it's pretty clear that the rules need to be changed if admins won't stick by written rules. If I see something like that written in the rules, I expect the admins in charge to stick by the words they wrote themselves and enforce, whether or not I choose to be a good sport about it. Relying on people to be good sports is a very poor way to run a league, especially one that has cash prizes now.

The fastest way to get people to start showing up at match time is to enforce forfeits. Once people realize there are actual consequences for being late, they'll stop being late.

So if MF9K had told an admin 5 minutes after the pause that GC weren't unpausing, what would have happened? Because even by doing that, they would presumably have delayed the game because the admin would want to get both sides of the story (even though the rule is pretty clear). And in the mean time, if GC's final player was able to rejoin, would there be any penalty?

I mostly ask because the UGC line seems to have changed. In seasons gone by wasn't it 'you don't need to be any more sporting than the rules allow, and it's actually unfair to berate teams for following the rules'?