Wikipedia:April Fools/April Fools' Day 2022/South Carolina vs. Penn State Qix semifinal

South Carolina vs. Penn State Qix Semifinal

The South Carolina vs. Penn State Qix Semifinal was an infamous and controversial game of Qix played on May 15, 2021. Penn State initially won 21-18, but the game was overturned in favor of South Carolina the next day after Penn State player Kim Sun was mistakenly classified as female by the detection algorithm, giving him an advantage in what was believed to be three rounds. Kim Sun was also suspended for one year. On May 19, three days before what would have been the championship game, the result was overturned again after further analysis indicating that the detection was only faulty once instead of three times that mattered, and Penn State won by two points. In addition, the championship game was delayed to May 29, which upset ticket holders and reduced attendance by 30%. The suspension on Kim Sun was not lifted despite protests.

Background

The 2020-2021 Qix season was the fourth season of NCAA Qix. On May 14, UMass Lowell defeated Appalachian State in the semifinals, which meant that the winner of the South Carolina vs. Penn State game would be playing UMass Lowell on May 22.

2020-2021 gender equality rule change

As Qix is a mixed-team sport, there has to be a way to encourage women to play. In the previous season, 1/50 of a point per round was earned per female player, where the score would not be changed until one full point was earned. This was lukewarmly received; the main problem it caused was that toward the end of the game, teams would often switch to all-female or all-male rosters depending on whether they were close to receiving a point or not. Starting in the 2020-2021 season, a different rule was applied: female players would have a 0.3 second grace period after they should have been eliminated to get back to a safe location. This rule was well-received, although the grace period was reduced from 0.3 seconds to 0.2 seconds on November 1, 2020 after it was found that women had too much of an advantage.

Box score

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39
Penn State	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	4	5	5	6	6	7	7	7	8	9	10	11	12	12	12	12	13	14	14	15	15	15	16	17	18	18	19	19	20	20	21
S. Carolina	0	0	1	2	3	4	5	5	5	5	6	6	7	7	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	11	12	12	12	13	13	14	15	15	15	15	16	16	17	17	18	18

Substitutions

Penn State

• After round 12: Louis Xi out, Justin Case in
• After round 26: Patricia Idano out, Lynn Lawrence in

South Carolina

• After round 32: Pajero Hernandez ejected, Mia Bella in

Controversy

In round 2, Catherine Ball of South Carolina touched Kim Sun's trail as he was heading back to the safety of Penn State's own territory. The detection algorithm saw Kim Sun as safe, even though everyone watching could tell that he was out. Penn State would go on to win the round by capturing 90% of the field. In round 6, the algorithm failed again, making it clear that it saw Kim Sun as female and therefore gave him a 0.2 second grace period. However, round 6 was won by South Carolina, so that turned out to be moot. The person in charge of the electronics fixed the error after round 10, the first scheduled commercial break. Despite this, detection errors were suspected in rounds 17 and 21, both of which Penn State won, but these two were extremely close. As the final score was 21-19, if South Carolina had won the three faulty rounds in question, they would have won the game 21-18 in round 38, if they had won two of the three, it would have been inconclusive with South Carolina in the lead 20-19, and if they had won one of the three, it would have been inconclusive with Penn State in the lead 20-19. Analysts were reasonably confident that the outcome of round 21 would not have changed if Kim Sun had gotten out, but the mistake occurred too early in rounds 6 and 17 for anyone to know what would have happened in those rounds.

First overturning

On early May 16, the day after the game, the NCAA ruled that South Carolina had actually won the game, as it was very likely that they would have won if Kim Sun had been programmed into the detection algorithm properly. They spoke to Kim Sun, who said that he had no part in the programming error and knew nothing about it until it happened, and that he did not try to take advantage of it once it did happen. The NCAA said he was complicit, and they suspended him for a year. This led to outrage and protests by Penn State. A Gallup poll was taken among college Qix fans, and 41% said South Carolina should have won, 32% said Penn State should have won, and 16% said the game or the last few rounds should have been replayed. The poll also found that fans overwhelmingly disapproved of Kim Sun's suspension 64%–22%. However, this poll was not released until May 21, after the second overturning.

Second overturning

On May 18, a fan watched the game again and saw that Kim Sun properly got out in round 33, where the delay between Mia Bella touching Kim Sun's trail and Kim Sun getting back to safety was 0.18 seconds. If the programming error had not been fixed, Kim Sun would have been considered safe. As it was after working hours, the NCAA saw this early the next day. As the suspected errors in rounds 17 and 21 were hard to tell whether Kim Sun reached safety first, it was determined that the problem was fixed in round 10 as claimed, and only one round, round 2, was affected. Because Penn State would have still been in the lead with only one round overturned, the game was given back to Penn State. However, Kim Sun was not unsuspended. There were protests from both teams, South Carolina for the overturned result, and Penn State for not unsuspending Kim Sun. Because there were only three days between the second overturning and the championship, the championship was moved back one week to May 29, which infuriated ticket holders. As some of them couldn't make it, attendance of the championship game was 30% less than the previous year. Penn State won the championship over UMass Lowell 21-16 with no controversy in that particular game.