Hi guys, this is MatteusYM, and 4 days ago, 11th of October, I posted about how I was gonna address what happened to me during the Tekken Tournament at EVO France 2025, but in the end I preferred to not rush things, try to enjoying the weekend as much as I could anyway, and do this after I got home.

This is a case of bad TOing from a dude whose name nor gamertag I still don't know, but I don't think it's that important as a member of the staff may get this information from the pool I was in and that's all it's needed.
Also this post is not about bashing someone more than needed but to keep these kind of stuff from happening again in the future.
I understand how hard it is to TOing these kind of events as I've been in their shoes in other kind of events like this, but there are many mistakes that have been made that should have been handled very different in my opinion.

For starters I was in pool E123 ( https://www.start.gg/tournament/evo-france-2025/event/tekken-8-ps5/brackets/1907880/3028879 ) having to play from round 2 onwards.
5 minutes before the pool would have started (so 5 minutes to 6 p.m.) I went to the pool's referee to tell him I was there and ready to play, and he signed me as present accordingly.
After 5 minutes the pool would have started, and shortly after the ref would start match B that would determine who my first opponent of the day would be.
So I asked the ref if he could confirm me that was indeed the match B, and as soon as he did, I went to watch it.

For who was not there: any pool would play on a single Tournament station that was just a 5mt long table, and match B was played at the opposite side of where the ref was sit.
5 minutes after match B ended I went to the ref to ask him when I was supposed to play and he answered me "I DQ'd you because you didn't answer to my call".
I was "WTF?!" and started telling him this made no sense as only 5 minutes had passed, and I wasn't even alone but with a friend (who's not into Tekken anymore so no point saying who he was) so it couldn't possibly mean it was just me not hearing him.
At this time Raijin (winner of match B) was just sitting to play Dumian for match M in Round 3 despite Round 2 was still being played making this even stranger, so I asked the ref to stop and let me play match G against Raijin, but all he could give me was his grin claiming it was not possibile.

Now I REALLY want to point out that despite having shout at him from now on I NEVER insulted nor wasn't aggressive nor physical to the ref nor anyone IN ANY WAY.
So one thing that makes this unexcusable is that TWT rules clearly state that the ref should wait at least 10 minutes before DQing anyone ( https://www.bandainamcoent.com/legal/community-events/official-rules-twt#:~:text=Missing%20Players.%20Players%20must%20be%20present%20at%20the%20call%20time%20for%20a%20Match.%C2%A0Players%20that%20are%20not%20present%20and%20ready%20to%20play%20within%20ten%20(10)%20minutes%20of%20this%20call%20time%20are%20subject%20to%20Match%20forfeiture. ).
Also at this point I was DQ'd not only from the Winner side but Losers side too, as proved by the fellow Loci_AF stream here ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2588135349?t=01h42m45s ).
This is also bull as the pools were structured to make first play the Winner side in its entirety and only then playng the Losers side.
Funfact: that stream also records the ref "calling" a guy at some time, and he kinda "whispers" in a giant hall full of noise.

After sometime, Keeper came to deal with this issue, and after threatening me to kick me out of the venue just for shouting, he and other TOs started to find a solution to all of this, only after match M was also played (despite me asking to stop it earlier).
At this time I even had people testifying, I especially want to thank a girl I won't name (as she's not on X and such) that was so sweet and remembered seeing me at the Only the Best tournament in July, that pointed out I was there and the ref could easily spot me 5 meters from him.

The solution they came out with was to let me play from the Loser Side and reimburse me the registration fee, which I still haven't got back (understandably as only 2 days have passed since the event has ended).
First of all I wonder if they're gonna reimburse me only the Tekken Tournament fee (10 euros) or the venue fee (90 euros) too, but still what about my flight and my staying for the night? What if I had to take an Intercontinental flight to get there?
But it's not about the money anyway, I just wanted to play the Tournament as I should, but the TOs claimed they couldn't rollback match M anymore, but that's not my problem, they just could from my point of view, there's no way anyone would convince me otherwise.

So in the end I had to play the entirety of the Loser bracket with my pissed off mood WITHOUT a single pause (which I would have asked if the situation wasn't this tense): 5 matches one after another, going on with ease for 4 matches (no disrespect to anyone) until finally losing to FortyMudas on Devil Jin at the final Round of last game.

Now I can understand a mistake, but this situation was just one f-up after another from multiple people (IMHO), and what pisses me off the most is that I even had the guts to tell this ref that "despite I was in the right I was sorry for raising my voice like that" to which he answered "it's ok AND you were right" without even apologizing.

So this story felt really ass, and I was stressed from the day before already having to spend 14 hours between airports or flights having lost a coincidence due to a delay of my first flight of the day, making me go from Lamezia Terme to Rome to Frankfurt before arriving in Nice at 11 p.m.
What also feels like crap is that it's not like I have that many chances to prove myself at tournaments as the closest tournaments would still mean 4+ hours of travelling, and that also means spending money, that without any sponsor it's not like i can spend just like that.

So yeah, to sum it all up, I hope that ref (and not only him) will think twice before DQing someone against the rules, and drop the god complex (that I still feel is what really went through) because I would feel this was all intentional if only there wouldn't be any motive for him to do this.

In the end I'm still disappointed with how all of this was dealt with, but to finish with a positive note, despite that I had a good weekend for the friends I met and the new ones I made, and seeing my fellow Chaolanedx from my same hometown reaching Top 24 (the best result from an Italian player) gave me a reason to be happy.

The only thing I can hope for now is having the chance to make up for this with a good Tournament run sooner than later.
TY for reading all of this.