Let me kick in to explain a few things:
Please consider that this tournament, for us, the managers, is very stressful, as in we get bombarded with a lot of questions, blames, issues, stuff (not to speak of the secondary business running parallely to the OWC), therefore it can result in getting a bit more hectic and heated up in the Match Rooms as we actually intend it to be.
For the case everyone talking about: Yes, I am sorry, it turned out like that. I understand the implication that this odd passive joke may not have warranted a silence under this circumstances, yet please understand that several people were already blaming me for silencing Happyjon, who pretty much got himself silenced by BanchoBot for spamming #minecraft (his fault, we can not revoke BanchoBot silences). Let's say, I was pretty much agitated people spamming me already with that stuff. This said, some rosters or players here intentionally or unintentionally eat up time without any clear purpose. They chitchat in the Match Rooms, delay the picks, do not listen to the management at all, they pretty much do what they want. Sure we start to put pressure then, by letting them only 1 minute time to decide their pick, to decide their substitute, to get ready (in case someone has to pee, he can say it beforehand and we can wait for another 2 mins or something, that's totally fine). But most delays are unneeded delays. Whilst the viewers are moaning about "why does it take so long", the players mostly just mess around. And then they tell me constantly "to chill" or to "calm down please", whereas they take literally 15 minutes to pick 1 map. Consider, that there are also other matches running that we want to stream, fully. From start to end. People being selfish enough to delay the match needlessly, because they don't care about the other matches (because we have to delay the runner-up ones sometimes for this slow behavior), I start to give time limits.
If people constantly make fun of more for that or start to still mess around, ignore the managements requests and then start to make passive-aggressive jokes, just because to be funny or to agitate me, then yes, I can overreact. Okay, it was an overreaction in this specific case. Luckily, Netherlands won anyways, so at least this was no loss directly.
Anyways, for the future: Please respect that the tournament is constructed around a tight schedule, especially to comfort viewers and players the most, considering all the time zones and masses of players antipiciating this event. Therefore, also respect that if we give you a request, you shall follow it. If we ask you to pick a map within 1 minute, do not take yourself 2 minutes. Do not discuss 5 minutes for exchanging people. Do not start to talk about your latest birthday party. Try to make the match go fluent and fast, so everyone is calm and happy. (refer to the Japan vs Sweden match). I know you all have a strategy or want to play trump cards. That's totally fine. But you have 1 week to prepare yourself on all maps, you also have all the time you need to prepare the maps you want to ban and all the possilble rosters you want to use for a specific map. You also could already plan ahead who uses what mod in a freemod pick. This is all planable. Every delay you can reduce from your side makes everything happier and fluent. Ultimatively, I revoked the silence from HappyStick and I apologize sincerely for the issue, yet beg for your understanding that this was a fault that does not solely lies on my side.
Whereas I promise to be more chilled and calm, polite and nice, I ask you all, players and viewers, to also be more disciplined and respectful towards the tournaments, its rules and the requests of the referee.
Thanks for your attention.