(03-09-2020, 07:17 AM)iamslm22 Wrote:Hello all. I am thinking of doing a new media series. A History of NSFL scandals – as told by slm. A little background on myself for those who don’t know. I joined the league from reddit in S2 and was involved in the league pretty heavily right away. Became a DSFL GM in S3, joined HO in S4 and in S8 I stepped down from HO to become owner of the league (and GM of the Hawks) and have been owner since then. I was part of HO during some very tumultuous parts of the leagues and have been owner since then so needless to say I’ve seen a lot. The first article I’m going to write is about the scandal that is rather personal to me. The inspiration behind me writing this article is that many people have asked me over the course of the past several seasons bits and pieces the Arizona Outlaw Multi Situation, also known as the ER scandal.
By way of background we must begin this conversation with the utter dominance of the Arizona Outlaws at the beginning of the league. The Outlaws, GMed by ADwyer87 started out with a dynasty. Lead by a veteran sim leaguer in Dwyer and a reddit recruit ErMurazer (better known as ER), the Outlaws were the best drafting team in the league, had amazing sim testing and made some killer trades. Dwyer had a variety of co-GMs early in the league and ER was never one them, however he was instrumental in running the team. Starting in season 2 the scouting was done by ER not Dwyer. The sim testing was done by ER. Trades and Free Agency (certainly a major strength of the Outlaws) was done by Dwyer.
Early on in the league the biggest position of need was offensive line. The S1 Outlaws needed an O-Lineman and claimed Tim Pest. In season 2 the Outlaws were interested in several offensive linemen. Looking through the draft (http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=2048&st=0) and you can see relative to activity offensive linemen were drafted higher than their counterparts. Tim Pest specifically refused to go elsewhere and demanded to be drafted by the outlaws – going third overall. But that was far from the only OL controversy in the draft. There was the legendary hold out of Matt James. Matt James was an offensive lineman who did not say much prior to the draft and was drafted by the Liberty. but then went off and held out demanding trades. He was only willing to go to certain teams and needless to say, one of them was the Outlaws. (If you want to read some of Matt James’ classic media I highly recommend you check this one out http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=2518&st=0&hl=). So as this prized, potentially active OL is discussing a hold out and getting traded ER is telling Dwyer to try and trade for him.
In the S2 draft the Outlaws drafted extremely well – drafting amazing users like Asylum Party and Chess, but also drafting perennial Pro Bowlers in Tim Pest, Luke Leuchly and Christiano Ronaldo. It seemed like the Outlaws were unstoppable. Now – they were not the only team that seemingly drafted very well in the draft. The Baltimore Hawks were one of the worst teams in the league (along with SJS) during the inaugural season of the NSFL. The Hawks had 0 active OL and decided to go all in on OL drafting 5 during the draft. 1 wound up IA right away. And 4 of them wound up being active. The biggest success story was yours truly. There was also Dietor Koch AKA @Sleepy who wound up being a great pick as well. Then there was Pat Pancake and Brokk Lee. Early on Pancake was not active at all, he was a 9th round pick who didn’t do much, but halfway through S2 Pancake started beasting it with TPE. He was doing graphics and PTs and was a monster. Lee, was the opposite. Brokk Lee was a 2nd round draft pick and seemingly a lock to be a star. However about halfway through S2 in the Baltimore Hawks Locker Room, Brokk Lee posted that he was very sick and had to go IA, heavily hinting to having cancer. We were all very bummed by understood.
The Hawks were not the only team heavily interested in Offensive Line at the time though. The Yellowknife Wraiths also drafted OL in that draft (as did all teams, however the Hawks and Wraiths are of specific note for reasons that will be made obvious later in this article). The Wraiths drafted Jazzy Jay and Tyron Smith, taking flyers on two people who seemed like interesting stories who could be active. The Wraiths also threw their hat into the Matt James ring and wound up being the ones who traded for that offensive lineman. All three of these players wound up beings busts for the Wraiths.
The s2 season was mostly competitive for all teams but one. The Arizona Outlaws finished with the best record in the league by far, finishing 4 games above their nearest competitor at a record of 12-2, losing two road games to NSFC foes. The Baltimore Hawks made the playoffs and lost in a blowout to the Outlaws 33-6 giving the Outlaws their back to back title. In the s3 season it was more of the same except even worse. The Outlaws dominated yet again, winning a third straight title and beating the second best team in the league, the Baltimore Hawks in the Ultimus.
S3 offseason came with huge changes – the biggest of which was the OL switch. User OLs were all given a free 100% change and allowed to play any position they want. OL bots were introduced. And every single active OL changed from OL to a more fun position. Except for two. Tim Pest decided to stay at OL because the Outlaws were so loaded. And then Pat Pancake. He left the Hawks in FA despite having long conversations with me and Hendrix about possibly staying (I tried to find the PMs but they must’ve been deleted with Pancake’s accont being deleted). Pat decided he really wanted to stay OL and signed with the Arizona Outlaws. The league was frustrated at the Outlaws ability to reload even further and S4 was under way. Little did we know what S4 would bring.
The S4 season started relatively unremarkably with one giant exception. There was growing grumblings from the Philadelphia Liberty that the league was rigged somehow. They were talking about how the Outlaws success was impossible and there was some giant conspiracy. I am hazy on the details, but at the time everyone thought they were crazy. No one could talk to them in discord and it really an obsession of theirs. It was all over the forum and discord and it’s important to know that it was a tumultuous issue at the time, however no one gave them any credibility. The league was going fine aside from that but about halfway through it the founder of the league, league owner and de facto commissioner Ballerstorm told the HO that he was stepping down (this is November 8 2017, and keep the dates in mind because they come to be very important) in a timeline here. He told HO that he was going to step down, but said he was going to announce in the next week or so.
One week after Baller told HO that he was leaving HO a post was made on the forum at 10:56 PM by an anonymous user. On November 15 Sherlock (a guest on the forum) posted an article entitled “The Curious Case of the Outlaws Multis, Feat: TimPest, YoloSwag420, and Ronaldo” (here’s the link http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6102&st=0). In this post there was hardly any hard evidence. This Sherlock person was posting graphics that showed incredible similarities. Additionally, he showed that they had similar update pages and one PT was similar. This really did not prove much of anything. In fact it was dismissed at the time by yours truly “I'm going to guess that they've talked about graphics? And that it's not that they are all the same person.” Little did I know what I would come to find out.
In the comments of that article @adam2552 posted an image https://i.imgur.com/McQl5iv.jpg with the following quote “IP Search certainly doesn't help the case that these are different people.” “Looks like a whole bunch of multis registered from the same VPN, 173.239.228.x.” The most curious aspect of this was the days of signups, with 4 of these users being signed up for on July 9 2017, including Matt James, Tyron Smith and Yoloswag (Luke Leuchly). In response to this damning evidence I responded to him with “Or a bunch of people using a similar VPN. Pest isn't listed there and he's one of the three targets on the post. Also Brokk Lee is not a multi. I'm like 99% sure.” (Remember my confidence in Brokk Lee was because I felt no one would lie about having cancer). Some extra VPN related things were discussed in the thread – but nothing else that was that serious other than sweetwater locking the thread for turning into a witch hunt and imploring sherlock/adam (who at this point are confirmed to be the same person) to send any evidence to HO.
The following day, only 14 hours after the Sherlock article is posted, Baller announces that he is stepping down. This is November 16. In his announcement he says he is going to be accepting HO applications and names a new league owner. ER. This gave ER root admin perms. (This will be relevant later on). In taking applications I decided to apply as I felt the league needed an improved HO. I was very upset with how some members of HO handled things, and did not feel they were taking the needs of the community seriously. And while my application was pending, shit continued to hit the fan.
On November 17 Adam posted a post in Discussion on the forums. This was at 9:14AM. http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6131&hl=. It is quite the read. It goes through all of these different IPs that match with eachother. Starting with Sanctus (Christiano Ronaldo the best punter at the time), Adam matches his IPs to numerous people including Yoloswag, TimPest, BrokkLee, Tyron Smith, BrotherP (ER’s brother) and then matches with a t-mobile cell phone tower in California. Off of this tower there are 4 posts. Sanctus, MattJames, and 2 posts from ER. He then discusses a deleted post and that the moderator log of that deleted is gone. Adam mentions that he sent this information to HO, but it was too important to not share with the league. He then goes to make (from what I can tell) the first ever public accusation of ER. Saying ER is dedicated and had the means, motive and opportunity to commit the offense of running a multi ring. This topic was quickly locked but you can read the comments in there. In spite of this evidence no one outside of Philly thought this was a possibility. No one thought it was true.
After this post – 3 hours later two job postings come up. At the time league owner ER is the head simmer and he announces that is stepping down from that position http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6135. “Recent things have made the league even less fun and I wanted to be more proactive in getting a replacement for myself” In the post ER mentions The other position, player progression team, was baller’s position and he posts to hire that.
Also on November 17 we get a long post from the Head Office. Hawk posts this http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6134&st=0 stating that there was circumstantial evidence, and that it’s basically some smoke, but there’s nothing conclusive. The HO was taking this semi seriously, but again they did not think it was showing much. If you look at the posts in the announcement it is clear the league is taking ER’s side and blaming Adam much more so than anything else. I would recommend reading through it if you want to get the exact temperature of the league at the time.
Anyways two days after that the Head Office announces that it is hiring a new member. Me! On November 19th @AsylumParty (who I love dearly) posts this post http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6158. To give clarity at to the lack of transparency from HO at this point, I applied to HO and had not heard back. No one in HO talked to me. I found out I got the spot because @Unicorn @ed me in the Hawks discord saying congratulations. When I get in to HO there are a few pressing issues and right away there is the issue with ER deleting mod logs. We try to figure out what happened and while this was going on I wanted to figure out whether or not ER was running multis. As I get into the HO discord server I’m given some minor information about their investigation and I find out that they really did not do much. I brought this issue up so much that sweet and hawk got sick of it and we made a new channel in the server entitled Down the Rabbit hole (or something to that effect, it was a long time ago) dedicated to me, Dermott (@White Cornerback)and Asylum trying to figure out whether there was something there. We realize that there are in fact moderator logs deleted from the admin CP. In the admin CP we realize that ER erased admin logs and erased potential mod logs of Tim Pest. Over the span of the 5 days I was in Head Office we were able to agree and lock in on a punishment for ER. I don’t remember how the vote went down, but I remember pushing to give him a big fine and we wound up with 25% of his bank account.
After posting an announcement (which I cannot seem to find) announcing our punishment of ER @kckolbe, wanting to prove a point, deleted it. He was basically daring the HO to punish him. We agreed on the standard moderation suspension for him. http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6211&st=0&hl=. You can read about the details there. At this point, with our investigation I am convinced something is going on. Asylum and Dermot agree. We are continuing in our HO jobs but Hawk is burnt out and does not really do much of anything to help, and sweetwater completely leaves HO and ghosts us. Does not tell us where he is going, or that he will be away, he just does not respond to discord pings at all. This is a tumultuous time in HO and Sweet (and also kind of Hawk) really left me AP and Dermot hanging. Oh well. We fire sweet (telling the public he quit) and basically convince Hawk to resign (at least he’s responding to us) and we make a post announcing we are hiring HO. We get loads of applicants. I do not remember all of them but I remember there being a fierce debate over who to hire. One of the people who applied was @`BayleyIsland` who seemed like a complete slam dunk hire. The other question was who to hire for the second position. At this point I am convinced ER is guilty of something, but I needed someone to help me prove it while we ran the site. Enter adam. He applied and was an incredibly dedicated, yet obviously controversial member. I wanted to give him a shot even though him and I at this point in time had many personal disagreements. After talking it over with the other guys we unanimously agreed to hire Bayley and Adam, and on December 7th they were officially hired. http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6211&st=0&hl=.
After they are hired and brought in to the Head Office the next week is essentially trying to lock down the ER punishment if we could have one. We start doing more investigation. As Adam now is HO he has more tools. With access to the trash can Adam realizes that one of the multis (Pat Pancake) made a fantasy pick in the wrong group. That group belonged to another multi (YoloSwag/ Luke Leuchly). It was quickly deleted but this clearly showed something was amuck. I then think to look at scouting. We ask Ballerstorm for use of his account and dig through PM logs. As we look through scouting PMs we realize that ER scouted for Arizona before the S2 draft. He PMed nearly every prospect in the draft. Among those that he didn’t PM? Matt James, TimPest, Luke Leuchly, Tyron Smith, Pat Pancake, Brokk Lee and Christiano Ronaldo.
When utilizing IP tools we realize that various of these guys connect. At this point it is abundantly clear ER is running a multi ring and won 3 titles on the back of cheating. I am ready to throw the book at him. And I thought it would seem obvious to everyone. I quickly realized that was untrue. In HO chat the vote to punish ER at all was not unanimous. Bayley (who was a fantastic Head Office member for us, and a generally great dude) felt there was not enough evidence to punish ER. The rest of us disagreed and tried to come up with a punishment. We felt that a lifetime ban was too much. So we voted (4 to 1) to give him a season long ban, a season long suspension for his player and a lifetime ban on moderation with possibility of parole.
While we were discussing this punishment, I wanted to try to talk to ER and get him to admit it. For those who did not know, ER and I were very close. He helped me a lot in the league early on, and we talked almost every day on discord. As we were closing in on him I tried to get him to confess. I told him we would take it easy on him, but he denied, denied, denied. Later on he admitted to me that he didn’t want us to take it easy on him. He wanted the big punishment to come and he figured he would be done with the league. Anyways as we talked I realized he wouldn’t admit it, and I gave adam the go ahead to write up a draft of the punishment. Adam wrote some of it, I made edits and added parts and we agreed that the next morning (December 15, 2017) I would post the punishment. http://nsfl.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=6554&st=0
And I did. The posts on the punishment speak for themselves, but I got tons of PMs. People telling me we were too harsh. People telling me we were too lenient. Two different people thought we were punishing someone innocent. But I was confident. As I said in the post “This is not just a series of coincidences. The information shows, beyond a reasonable doubt, that ErMurazor has been running these multis. I understand that this is circumstantial evidence, but short of a confession you cannot get evidence that is much stronger.”
The last thing I want to talk about is the impact this had on the league. Obviously 3 titles were tainted. A GM (Dwyer) who did an incredible job building his team in many ways, was fucked over by this. Teams like the Hawks, Otters and Wraiths who could have won Ultimus titles during this run were not given their fair opportunity. I worked my ass off during this time. There were days where when I was home all I could think about was the pressure of trying to prove this case. Adam was ostracized from the league for months for seeming like a crazy person. People like sweetwater burned out. People quit the league over a lack of parity. Humans lost out on awards to perennial pro bowlers like Leuchly, Ronaldo and Pest.
I know the question on some of your minds will be were the sims rigged. Arizona was a dominant team, at dominant TPE levels, but their winning percentage was still very high for what you would expect. Plus if ER was willing to cheat with Mutlis why not cheat with the sim? There was no HO oversight of sims, no one watched ER sim live. So there is certainly a chance it was rigged, but I honestly do not believe it was. ER has admitted to all of the multis and is pretty open about it right now. But he denies rigging the sim. Additionally why would you put all of this effort into multis IF you are going to rig the sim anyways. The amount of time it took ER to keep track and do PTs on all these players is crazy. And that’s not even mentioning that he’s simming, running recruitment and working on PPT.
I hope to write more history series in the future. I will depending on the feedback this one gets. I decided to start here because I am asked about this moment in NSFL more than any other (by far). So please let me know what you guys think!
Big if true.
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