I’m not entirely sure about applying the standard rules of the game itself to analyzing this situation.

The tournament regulations do not clearly specify which rules apply in the games (it only states that the tournament is conducted according to the rules of tournament organization).

The "Mirror" regulations state:

II. Rules and Templates:
a) By default, games are played on HoTA version (1.3.8) + HD-mod with the HW-Rules 1.34 patch enabled; by mutual agreement, opponents may play SoD.

The players were playing HotA.

In the HotA section, there have been rules for conducting HotA games for half a year now. They state that these rules are based on HeroesWorld rules.
I did not find the clause mentioned by Vic in these rules; it was most likely removed from them, because the HD mod is used by default for HotA games.

And that’s the actual question. Why should we rely on the rules for SoD and WoG when analyzing a situation in a HotA game, if there are rules specifically for HotA?