5.
The DD Scandal
I’m sure so many people are tired of hearing about and frankly I don’t really bring it up that often, but I figured it was certainly an important moment in league history (for better or worse) and people should know about the impact it had. This is all from my point of view of course, so there are a lot of other perspectives to look at this event. I’m talking about DylanDeluxe scandal.
The Backstory
Where to even begin with this. DylanDeluxe was a really popular user from the S18 class, one class before I joined. Some of league knowledge of him and all the events are vague at best, as I was just getting my feet wet in the DSFL at the time. DD had become highly involved in what was considered at the time to be one of the best classes the league had seen. Notably, he became the GM of the Tijuana Luchadores. My first interaction with DD came after the S19 contraction draft. League numbers were down, and it didn’t make sense to have 6 DSFL teams when a couple of them (namely Kansas City and Norfolk) didn’t have the activity compared to the other teams. As such, DD reached out and let me know that Tijuana took me 2nd in the contraction draft. I was really hesitant for a moment, as I had kind of disliked Tijuana. It’s easy to dislike a team that wins all the time and when you don’t know anyone there, it’s even easier. DD and everyone else there were amazing though. He was extremely knowledgeable, and the locker room was more active than anything I could have imagined. I didn’t realize just how dead of a locker I had been in prior. I got to know him better and really enjoyed him as a user and as my GM. He taught me quite a few things about the league, the sim and just generally wanted my player and my experience to be great.
It’s worth noting that DD was great friends with some of the other really prominent members of the S18 class. They were a close group of people, and they actually had their own group chat. The group chat itself is probably quite a common occurrence I would imagine. This comes into player later, though.
The Rift
Dylan’s player was a max earning linebacker for Philly at the time that caused his rift with the league. I was still new enough to not fully grasp the meaning of everything at the time, but here is my understanding of things. DD and Philly were trying to use what could be described as a loophole for lack of a better term. HO didn’t agree with what they were trying to do and came down against it. Memory is fuzzy now, but I want to say it was either a contract related thing trying to save the team a little money or it was a TPE thing, and he wasn’t allowed to claim something for some reason (sheesh maybe I shouldn’t even be telling this story without remembering all the details anymore). Either way, grand scheme it appeared to be something that really felt like small potatoes. DD took a stand though and decided to die on that hill. The mood in Tijuana was really sad. We all thought highly of him, and he felt so slighted that it didn’t matter how big or small an issue it seemed. He was done with the league. He retired and stepped down immediately. In hindsight, this was kind of a shitty move to do. I would say that this did slightly stunt the team, as Bagel got the position and had to fill in right away. Fuzzy, Bagel and I were the ones leading the charge for the draft and almost accidently violated the don’t be a dick rule because none of us were even aware of it at the time. That’s a story for a different day though and one that would be titled “my biggest mistake/regret of the league”. That title is more dramatic than it sounds, but that feeling during the draft was the worst of my sim league career. Anyways, back to the DD story. Tijuana wasn’t quite the same for a while. Things took some time to get back to a more positive energy. Still, this doesn’t really make for much of a story if the villain walks away and that’s that. There has to be more, right? Yep, there’s waaaaay more.
The Scandal
I don’t recall how much time went by after DD had left before it happened. I want to say maybe 1-2 months’ time. He had come back to say hi in the locker room. I was stoked. We all were stoked. My first thought was maybe some time away from the league allowed him to cool down and he would be interested in coming back. How naïve of me. He was really pleasant and chatting up a bit before he sent us a strange link. I imagine he had done this in as many locker rooms as he was a part of. He also posted it in the general discord as well. Not sure what it was about, I joined this new discord. It was mostly plain and there wasn’t much to it for channels. I was literally one of the first to join and I start clicking around, still not sure what was going on. Finally, I get past the first or second channel and I specific league member’s names that I recognize. As I start to read in the first thread, it hits me what is going on. DD had spent a significant amount of time combing through every possible message from his old friend’s group chat. Every little slight, inside joke, or mean comment that had been shared in confidence for who knows how long had been leaked to the whole league. Now, I think it’s really important to note that I don’t condone bullying and wasn’t thrilled to read those messages. That being said, there is a big difference in what you say in confidence verse what you say in public. I know for a fact I have had not nice things to say about certain members of the league at some point in time. I sure as hell would never say that to them, though. It’s rude and doesn’t do anyone any good. Sometimes you need to vent and that’s the easiest/best thing to do. It’s also easy to get carried away in the moment if we are heated. I have no doubt a lot of those messages were in the heat of the moment. That doesn’t mean they didn’t mean what they said, but there certainly is a difference.
Regardless of what the messages said or what the intent behind them was, DD’s goal was pretty clear. He was trying to cause a lot of pain and even potentially trying to bring down various members of the league. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say he even possibly hoped the league itself wouldn’t recover from it. I think in a couple of instances he wasn’t too far off. There was a major level of distrust that had happened. There was even a separate scandal regarding tampering that stemmed from this. In the end, we as a group eventually moved in from it all. There was a higher general level of toxicity and distrust than I could have imagined a free fake football league could cause. I personally never had a desire to quit, but I was pretty bitter about the whole thing. It was strange to see such a well-liked member completely ruin their whole reputation and show a side of them that the was pure spite.
The Aftermath
Eventually things did settle down. There was an investigation regarding the tampering allegation, and nothing came from it. It really did quick quite a lot of time for things to come back to normal. A lot of people had a general distrust of HO as a whole and specifically certain members of course. I’ve rarely had a beef with HO in my time and still think quite highly of most members who have taken on that burden. It’s a thankless job that inevitably pisses off a lot of people no matter what.
The Aftermath of the Aftermath
Okay, now these titles are just getting extra fluffy but there is something to it. One day, DD had tweeted with his old twitter account that he had recreated as a multi in the new class. There was some skepticism if this was actually true or just a bluff. From what I recall, he did actually recreate as a multi and was doing things for a while. I don’t think much ever really came of it, though I know there was some fear that he was going to try to cause more issues. It seems that the full saga has run its course and now it’s nothing more than a weird blip in the timeline of the league. The goal in writing about this wasn’t to bring up sour memories, so to that end I am sorry if that has happened for anyone. It’s an easy topic to spew out a lot of words on.
The DD Scandal
I’m sure so many people are tired of hearing about and frankly I don’t really bring it up that often, but I figured it was certainly an important moment in league history (for better or worse) and people should know about the impact it had. This is all from my point of view of course, so there are a lot of other perspectives to look at this event. I’m talking about DylanDeluxe scandal.
The Backstory
Where to even begin with this. DylanDeluxe was a really popular user from the S18 class, one class before I joined. Some of league knowledge of him and all the events are vague at best, as I was just getting my feet wet in the DSFL at the time. DD had become highly involved in what was considered at the time to be one of the best classes the league had seen. Notably, he became the GM of the Tijuana Luchadores. My first interaction with DD came after the S19 contraction draft. League numbers were down, and it didn’t make sense to have 6 DSFL teams when a couple of them (namely Kansas City and Norfolk) didn’t have the activity compared to the other teams. As such, DD reached out and let me know that Tijuana took me 2nd in the contraction draft. I was really hesitant for a moment, as I had kind of disliked Tijuana. It’s easy to dislike a team that wins all the time and when you don’t know anyone there, it’s even easier. DD and everyone else there were amazing though. He was extremely knowledgeable, and the locker room was more active than anything I could have imagined. I didn’t realize just how dead of a locker I had been in prior. I got to know him better and really enjoyed him as a user and as my GM. He taught me quite a few things about the league, the sim and just generally wanted my player and my experience to be great.
It’s worth noting that DD was great friends with some of the other really prominent members of the S18 class. They were a close group of people, and they actually had their own group chat. The group chat itself is probably quite a common occurrence I would imagine. This comes into player later, though.
The Rift
Dylan’s player was a max earning linebacker for Philly at the time that caused his rift with the league. I was still new enough to not fully grasp the meaning of everything at the time, but here is my understanding of things. DD and Philly were trying to use what could be described as a loophole for lack of a better term. HO didn’t agree with what they were trying to do and came down against it. Memory is fuzzy now, but I want to say it was either a contract related thing trying to save the team a little money or it was a TPE thing, and he wasn’t allowed to claim something for some reason (sheesh maybe I shouldn’t even be telling this story without remembering all the details anymore). Either way, grand scheme it appeared to be something that really felt like small potatoes. DD took a stand though and decided to die on that hill. The mood in Tijuana was really sad. We all thought highly of him, and he felt so slighted that it didn’t matter how big or small an issue it seemed. He was done with the league. He retired and stepped down immediately. In hindsight, this was kind of a shitty move to do. I would say that this did slightly stunt the team, as Bagel got the position and had to fill in right away. Fuzzy, Bagel and I were the ones leading the charge for the draft and almost accidently violated the don’t be a dick rule because none of us were even aware of it at the time. That’s a story for a different day though and one that would be titled “my biggest mistake/regret of the league”. That title is more dramatic than it sounds, but that feeling during the draft was the worst of my sim league career. Anyways, back to the DD story. Tijuana wasn’t quite the same for a while. Things took some time to get back to a more positive energy. Still, this doesn’t really make for much of a story if the villain walks away and that’s that. There has to be more, right? Yep, there’s waaaaay more.
The Scandal
I don’t recall how much time went by after DD had left before it happened. I want to say maybe 1-2 months’ time. He had come back to say hi in the locker room. I was stoked. We all were stoked. My first thought was maybe some time away from the league allowed him to cool down and he would be interested in coming back. How naïve of me. He was really pleasant and chatting up a bit before he sent us a strange link. I imagine he had done this in as many locker rooms as he was a part of. He also posted it in the general discord as well. Not sure what it was about, I joined this new discord. It was mostly plain and there wasn’t much to it for channels. I was literally one of the first to join and I start clicking around, still not sure what was going on. Finally, I get past the first or second channel and I specific league member’s names that I recognize. As I start to read in the first thread, it hits me what is going on. DD had spent a significant amount of time combing through every possible message from his old friend’s group chat. Every little slight, inside joke, or mean comment that had been shared in confidence for who knows how long had been leaked to the whole league. Now, I think it’s really important to note that I don’t condone bullying and wasn’t thrilled to read those messages. That being said, there is a big difference in what you say in confidence verse what you say in public. I know for a fact I have had not nice things to say about certain members of the league at some point in time. I sure as hell would never say that to them, though. It’s rude and doesn’t do anyone any good. Sometimes you need to vent and that’s the easiest/best thing to do. It’s also easy to get carried away in the moment if we are heated. I have no doubt a lot of those messages were in the heat of the moment. That doesn’t mean they didn’t mean what they said, but there certainly is a difference.
Regardless of what the messages said or what the intent behind them was, DD’s goal was pretty clear. He was trying to cause a lot of pain and even potentially trying to bring down various members of the league. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say he even possibly hoped the league itself wouldn’t recover from it. I think in a couple of instances he wasn’t too far off. There was a major level of distrust that had happened. There was even a separate scandal regarding tampering that stemmed from this. In the end, we as a group eventually moved in from it all. There was a higher general level of toxicity and distrust than I could have imagined a free fake football league could cause. I personally never had a desire to quit, but I was pretty bitter about the whole thing. It was strange to see such a well-liked member completely ruin their whole reputation and show a side of them that the was pure spite.
The Aftermath
Eventually things did settle down. There was an investigation regarding the tampering allegation, and nothing came from it. It really did quick quite a lot of time for things to come back to normal. A lot of people had a general distrust of HO as a whole and specifically certain members of course. I’ve rarely had a beef with HO in my time and still think quite highly of most members who have taken on that burden. It’s a thankless job that inevitably pisses off a lot of people no matter what.
The Aftermath of the Aftermath
Okay, now these titles are just getting extra fluffy but there is something to it. One day, DD had tweeted with his old twitter account that he had recreated as a multi in the new class. There was some skepticism if this was actually true or just a bluff. From what I recall, he did actually recreate as a multi and was doing things for a while. I don’t think much ever really came of it, though I know there was some fear that he was going to try to cause more issues. It seems that the full saga has run its course and now it’s nothing more than a weird blip in the timeline of the league. The goal in writing about this wasn’t to bring up sour memories, so to that end I am sorry if that has happened for anyone. It’s an easy topic to spew out a lot of words on.