Maybe if the forfeiture came off as more genuine people would believe it. To most people it looks like the following:
Curbstomp the other guild early on, run your mouths.
They catch up and start building distance.
Realize you under no circumstances can bridge the gap, forfeit and cite mental health reasons.
To most people this does come off as a desperate excuse to avoid looking like you’re quitting because you’re losing, except it’s even worse because a lot of people do take mental health seriously so it becoming essentially a scapegoat is a bad look.
If he just said what was mostly at play which is “Hey, race went on way longer than we expected, real life must come first” nobody would be saying anything.