I would like to have some opinions with the results from last nights Week 13 Poker Tourney. I got knocked out early but I watched the action mainly because there were several players that had not scored any points yet that were playing a great game and I was in hopes that they would finish in 1st or at least in the points. There is a controversy on how the points were awarded and I would like some opinions please. Points are awarded to the top 4 players as they finish.

Here is the scenario: Two players did not show up for the tourney and they were "blinded off" BUT they were still there with chips when there were 5 players left. At that time there were two players with even deep stacks of about 13k in chips each, a player who had about 2500 chips, and the two players that did not play that were about to be blinded off. The two deep stacked players got involved in a hand that resulted in an ALL IN bet and one of the players was eliminated. The next hand had the all four remaining players involved including the two players that had not played any hands. The two remaining players "checked it down" and the hand resulted with the one deep stack and the 2500 short stacked player remaining placing 1st & 2nd. Again, points are awarded for the first 4 places.

Here is the question: How did the other three players finish? Should the points be awarded to the players that did not show up to play? Or should points go to the player that was knocked out with 5 players left?