It definitely feels like collusion, however, how would it be any different if they were buddies and swapped half their buy in with each other before the tourney?

Just to be clear obviously its against the rules:

A.
The competitive integrity of all Tournament play at the World Series of Poker is paramount. All participants must adhere to the spirit and letter of the Official Rules of the WSOP which forbid play or any action that is illegal, unethical or constitutes cheating or collusion in any form.
i.
Cheating is defined as any act a person engages in to break the established rules of play to gain an advantage.
ii.
Cheating includes, but is not limited to, acts such as: collusion; chip stealing; transferring non-value Tournament chips from one event to another; card marking; card substitution; or the use of any kind of cheating device.
iii.
Collusion is defined as any agreement amongst two (2) or more Participants to engage in illegal or unethical acts against other Participants.
iv.
Chip dumping is defined as any agreement amongst two (2) or more Participants for one or more of the Participants to bet chips with the intent of increasing another Participant's stack.
v.
Soft play is defined as any agreement amongst two (2) or more Participants to not bet or raise each other in order to minimize the number of chips lost by those Participants participating in the agreement.
vi.
Collusion includes, but is not limited to, acts such as: chip dumping; soft play; sharing card information with another Participant; sending or receiving signals from or to another Participant; the use of electronic communication with the intent to facilitate collusion; and any other act that Rio and WSOP deem inappropriate.

You don't swap before a tourney to nuke the chipleaders ICM advantage.

antonio unraveling

Ironic that this is a Shoetout. Me thinks not.

Fitzpatrick really chipping up. If he felts McCorkel, it won't be much of a lead for Antonio.

Whether or not the deal even happened or not it's flat out absurd that kind've deal would be brought up. If I was Antonio I would be pissed that they even mentioned making a deal between 2nd and 3rd..