Last night, tired from a long day, I went to bed in good spirits, had a quick wank, and fell asleep thinking that all was well in life. This morning, I awoke to find out I was being punished for cheating and that my name had been slandered across the entire league. I didn’t think this would be possible. Surely, no investigation can be completed without contacting the individual, right? Apparently, that is not the case.
I have worked quite hard on keeping my anger in check, and I think I’ve made some great progress. However, I have been angry all day, and I will be venting that anger in this post. I will, however, attempt a logical rebuttal first.
On the 28th of November, I published the aforementioned article having already known who was picked. However, as will be seen, I did not use any of that available information at any point in the writing of that article. Let’s go pick by pick.
#1: I narrowed it down to Smyles and Riposte, but recommended Riposte, who was picked first overall. Pretty shady, huh? Well, I suppose. It’s probably even worse that I told my entire locker room to pick Riposte first. That wasn’t mentioned in the announcement, probably because they didn’t know. Or, maybe they did know, and maybe they also knew that I made that post on 24 November, 3 days before the pre-draft started. For reference, here is the post:
SPAM11/24/2018
Hey guys, just posting this here before the pre-draft starts, but it looks like Riposte, Maddox, Mughes for the first 3
Riposte is a guess, but Maddox is from slm himself
As you can see, I not only THOUGHT it was going to be Riposte, I felt confident enough about that prediction to bet my entire team’s TPE on it, and did so days before the pick would be made. I stated nothing in the article that I didn’t confidently state beforehand.
#2: I named the exact pick. Again, reference the above discord post. The GM of the Balitmore Hawks told me the pick, and I shared it with the locker room immediately. Granted, he could have been lying, but I consider him a friend and did not think he was. Again, nothing in the article that wasn’t already public, because I’d made it public days beforehand. (EDIT: Tagging @`To12143` since he posted in the announcement thread that this info was not public, so hopefully this information changes his opinion)
#3: Actually provided LESS information in the mock draft than I’d given to my locker room. Again, look at the discord post. Hornbacher wasn’t mentioned. However, he would have made sense, and since prior to the pre-draft Hornbacher was being considered by ARI, I mentioned him as well.
#4: Philadelphia had just lost 2 DL and a DB. I said to pick a DL or DB. Pretty straightforward.
#5: “Didn't name anybody, did say he wouldn't pick hornbacher, who was not picked here” Really, bovo? In a 60 person draft, the fact that someone wasn’t picked is significant to you? Honestly, this pick is a big one because, as has been stated, I knew who the pick was, and yet said nothing that would steer someone toward Bishop. I could have said “COL recently had a big WR retire” or some shit like that if my goal was to give away as many tips as I could with plausible deniability, but I didn’t, because I had no idea who the pick would be (other than people I said to avoid) prior to the pre-draft. And since I made a point to write the article WITHOUT using the info available in the pre-draft, I didn’t use it.
#6: I said don’t pick a guy who has been inactive for over 3 weeks. As was admitted, this was pretty common sense advice. Again, I knew the pick, and gave 0 hints toward what to actually pick, sticking with my clear trend of only giving away non-war room info.
#7: I said to go with DL. Name another need BAL had. Please. They needed 2 DL, and their second round pick was slm. So saying they would go DL here, knowing they were going WR at #2, was ridiculously obvious without knowing the pick. Again, I gave away only what I knew separate from pre-draft results.
#8: I said not to pick someone who wasn’t picked. The points on this one were so obvious as to be laughable, and were being mentioned in the twitch stream about how Bayley had made an RB and how they could have had Adam in the 2nd round if they wanted him, so why pick him in the first. For the record, when I mentioned later learning other stuff, THIS was what I was referring to. This was the only knowledge I gained between my initial speculation and time of posting that went into my article, and everyone in the league knew about it.
I challenge both HO and user to provide any evidence to the claim that I gave away information that I learned in the war room. Every bit of info provided in that article was known to me either well before the pre-draft, or in public forum threads separate from it. Even HO admitted
Here’s the reasoning given (emphasis mine).
It would seem that the sole basis for this punishment is that I am willing to cheat in order to gain 1 TPE. Bold claim, HO. But okay, I will answer the challenge of refuting that perception.
First off, I do not cheat. If anyone knows this, it is bovo, because he likely remembers me telling him that his attributes were too low in the index only a day or two before ARI played NOLA. By remaining silent, I would have increased my (pathetically low) chance of beating him, or at least made a rival QB look worse, making my own player look better by comparison. Ask any Outlaw. I love seeing my opponents fail. I am an unhealthy, petty, competitive little shit. However, I was not willing to even passively allow my unfair advantage to continue once I spotted it. Knowing that, does it really seem likely that I would actively do anything unethical? An appeal to character may seem inappropriate as part of a response to punishment, but bear in mind: I am being punished with 0 proof of wrongdoing.
Secondly (part a), how much do I care about having a TPE advantage? That, as much as the first point, is extremely relevant. Have you ever cared about getting a season prediction right? If so, you may have looked at my power rankings, my favorite of which is this one, where I say “enjoy the TPE, bitches!” (note: I did them for S11 as well). By helping the rest of the league earn TPE based on my work, I give up an advantage I had fairly earned. Yet I do it freely and happily, because I love writing quality media. I write about power rankings, future power rankings, trade reviews, QB analysis (My constant TANY/A posts are a league-wide meme), and, already in the works, a bet review (between iamslm22 and youngtb). There has never been a time in this league where I haven’t taken considerable time to write a shit ton of media simply because I wanted to share interesting and/or informative media with this community. Despite having, at the time of this post, 73 million dollars in my account, I continue to write media, create and update wiki pages, and am also a member of the grading team. I do these things because I love this league more than I should and consistently want to do what I can to make it better.
Secondly (part b), there is one other type of media I do, and it deserves to be mentioned separately. You see, helping the rest of the league earn TPE may cut my TPE advantage, but it doesn’t hurt my TPE. What if there were articles I wrote that did lower my chances of TPE? Well, they exist. Every year, the league has a competition for TPE in the fantasy draft. This is not unlimited TPE. More TPE for one person means less for another. Despite that, every year I go out of my way to prepare my own opponents, thereby LOWERING my chances of max TPE. I am referring, of course, to my yearly QB fantasy rankings, as seen here for S11.
I must ask, if I am willing to cheat for a TPE advantage, then why would I consistently do work that puts me at a TPE disadvantage? Does that not adequately refute your perception?
To summarize, there is no indication that any information I was exposed to in the war room made it into my article. There is nothing in my history to suggest I would cheat for TPE. Therefore, there is no logical basis for this punishment.
To @iamslm22, @Bzerkap, and @PDXBaller, I hope you take my admittedly long rebuttal to heart before making a decision.
To @bovovovo and the rest of HO, I have more for you to read.
As bovo was the one who posted the announcement, I called him out specifically in the announcement thread. He responded by suggesting that he may not have agreed with the decision. This is an old argument, first made famous by @7hawk77, who has since done the league the kindness of going inactive. It was basically “don’t shoot the messenger.” The flaw in this argument is that, as a member of HO, you represent the source of the authority and, presumably, wrote the very message you delivered. You are more than a messenger. You had the power to not post it, and having this come from someone I respected and who I thought respected me made it worse.
To all of HO: what the fuck were you doing? You had a week to investigate this, and not once did any of you contact me about this. I hate that this has to be considered an appeal, because appeals take place after the trial has concluded, but I had no trial. This is my initial defense, as I was given no opportunity to defend myself prior to being slandered across the entire league. The fact that we have an appeals process doesn’t mean you don’t have to do your fucking jobs in the first place. This is willful negligence of your responsibilities, and I genuinely hope your pay this season is forfeit as a result.
Now, this is far from the first time I’ve complained about HO in such bold terms, but there is one huge difference this time as opposed to the earlier times: I am no longer holding a league position that precludes me from cleaning up your bullshit from within.
As I am not currently a GM, and as HO is clearly in need of worthwhile members, I would like to formally apply for HO. Across sim leagues, I have been a simmer, updater, media grader, awards team member, wiki team member, head office member (in two leagues), and commissioner. I have a reputation as a hard worker, great brainstormer, and for taking a methodical approach to challenges. If chosen, I would add much-needed detail to the rulebook and help the league transition to a more transparent and consistent head office.
I have worked quite hard on keeping my anger in check, and I think I’ve made some great progress. However, I have been angry all day, and I will be venting that anger in this post. I will, however, attempt a logical rebuttal first.
On the 28th of November, I published the aforementioned article having already known who was picked. However, as will be seen, I did not use any of that available information at any point in the writing of that article. Let’s go pick by pick.
#1: I narrowed it down to Smyles and Riposte, but recommended Riposte, who was picked first overall. Pretty shady, huh? Well, I suppose. It’s probably even worse that I told my entire locker room to pick Riposte first. That wasn’t mentioned in the announcement, probably because they didn’t know. Or, maybe they did know, and maybe they also knew that I made that post on 24 November, 3 days before the pre-draft started. For reference, here is the post:
SPAM11/24/2018
Hey guys, just posting this here before the pre-draft starts, but it looks like Riposte, Maddox, Mughes for the first 3
Riposte is a guess, but Maddox is from slm himself
As you can see, I not only THOUGHT it was going to be Riposte, I felt confident enough about that prediction to bet my entire team’s TPE on it, and did so days before the pick would be made. I stated nothing in the article that I didn’t confidently state beforehand.
#2: I named the exact pick. Again, reference the above discord post. The GM of the Balitmore Hawks told me the pick, and I shared it with the locker room immediately. Granted, he could have been lying, but I consider him a friend and did not think he was. Again, nothing in the article that wasn’t already public, because I’d made it public days beforehand. (EDIT: Tagging @`To12143` since he posted in the announcement thread that this info was not public, so hopefully this information changes his opinion)
#3: Actually provided LESS information in the mock draft than I’d given to my locker room. Again, look at the discord post. Hornbacher wasn’t mentioned. However, he would have made sense, and since prior to the pre-draft Hornbacher was being considered by ARI, I mentioned him as well.
#4: Philadelphia had just lost 2 DL and a DB. I said to pick a DL or DB. Pretty straightforward.
#5: “Didn't name anybody, did say he wouldn't pick hornbacher, who was not picked here” Really, bovo? In a 60 person draft, the fact that someone wasn’t picked is significant to you? Honestly, this pick is a big one because, as has been stated, I knew who the pick was, and yet said nothing that would steer someone toward Bishop. I could have said “COL recently had a big WR retire” or some shit like that if my goal was to give away as many tips as I could with plausible deniability, but I didn’t, because I had no idea who the pick would be (other than people I said to avoid) prior to the pre-draft. And since I made a point to write the article WITHOUT using the info available in the pre-draft, I didn’t use it.
#6: I said don’t pick a guy who has been inactive for over 3 weeks. As was admitted, this was pretty common sense advice. Again, I knew the pick, and gave 0 hints toward what to actually pick, sticking with my clear trend of only giving away non-war room info.
#7: I said to go with DL. Name another need BAL had. Please. They needed 2 DL, and their second round pick was slm. So saying they would go DL here, knowing they were going WR at #2, was ridiculously obvious without knowing the pick. Again, I gave away only what I knew separate from pre-draft results.
#8: I said not to pick someone who wasn’t picked. The points on this one were so obvious as to be laughable, and were being mentioned in the twitch stream about how Bayley had made an RB and how they could have had Adam in the 2nd round if they wanted him, so why pick him in the first. For the record, when I mentioned later learning other stuff, THIS was what I was referring to. This was the only knowledge I gained between my initial speculation and time of posting that went into my article, and everyone in the league knew about it.
I challenge both HO and user to provide any evidence to the claim that I gave away information that I learned in the war room. Every bit of info provided in that article was known to me either well before the pre-draft, or in public forum threads separate from it. Even HO admitted
(12-03-2018, 09:24 PM)bovovovo Wrote:everything kckolbe said was something that an "in-the-know" and/or intelligent person could have predicted, so why am I being punished?
Here’s the reasoning given (emphasis mine).
(12-03-2018, 09:24 PM)bovovovo Wrote:Additionally, kckolbe's statement in his article that he is" kind of a fan of TPE..." seems to indicate that this article was posted with the intent of raising the league's average mock draft using information that kckolbe was privy to due to his status as a member of the Outlaw's war room.
It would seem that the sole basis for this punishment is that I am willing to cheat in order to gain 1 TPE. Bold claim, HO. But okay, I will answer the challenge of refuting that perception.
First off, I do not cheat. If anyone knows this, it is bovo, because he likely remembers me telling him that his attributes were too low in the index only a day or two before ARI played NOLA. By remaining silent, I would have increased my (pathetically low) chance of beating him, or at least made a rival QB look worse, making my own player look better by comparison. Ask any Outlaw. I love seeing my opponents fail. I am an unhealthy, petty, competitive little shit. However, I was not willing to even passively allow my unfair advantage to continue once I spotted it. Knowing that, does it really seem likely that I would actively do anything unethical? An appeal to character may seem inappropriate as part of a response to punishment, but bear in mind: I am being punished with 0 proof of wrongdoing.
Secondly (part a), how much do I care about having a TPE advantage? That, as much as the first point, is extremely relevant. Have you ever cared about getting a season prediction right? If so, you may have looked at my power rankings, my favorite of which is this one, where I say “enjoy the TPE, bitches!” (note: I did them for S11 as well). By helping the rest of the league earn TPE based on my work, I give up an advantage I had fairly earned. Yet I do it freely and happily, because I love writing quality media. I write about power rankings, future power rankings, trade reviews, QB analysis (My constant TANY/A posts are a league-wide meme), and, already in the works, a bet review (between iamslm22 and youngtb). There has never been a time in this league where I haven’t taken considerable time to write a shit ton of media simply because I wanted to share interesting and/or informative media with this community. Despite having, at the time of this post, 73 million dollars in my account, I continue to write media, create and update wiki pages, and am also a member of the grading team. I do these things because I love this league more than I should and consistently want to do what I can to make it better.
Secondly (part b), there is one other type of media I do, and it deserves to be mentioned separately. You see, helping the rest of the league earn TPE may cut my TPE advantage, but it doesn’t hurt my TPE. What if there were articles I wrote that did lower my chances of TPE? Well, they exist. Every year, the league has a competition for TPE in the fantasy draft. This is not unlimited TPE. More TPE for one person means less for another. Despite that, every year I go out of my way to prepare my own opponents, thereby LOWERING my chances of max TPE. I am referring, of course, to my yearly QB fantasy rankings, as seen here for S11.
I must ask, if I am willing to cheat for a TPE advantage, then why would I consistently do work that puts me at a TPE disadvantage? Does that not adequately refute your perception?
To summarize, there is no indication that any information I was exposed to in the war room made it into my article. There is nothing in my history to suggest I would cheat for TPE. Therefore, there is no logical basis for this punishment.
To @iamslm22, @Bzerkap, and @PDXBaller, I hope you take my admittedly long rebuttal to heart before making a decision.
To @bovovovo and the rest of HO, I have more for you to read.
As bovo was the one who posted the announcement, I called him out specifically in the announcement thread. He responded by suggesting that he may not have agreed with the decision. This is an old argument, first made famous by @7hawk77, who has since done the league the kindness of going inactive. It was basically “don’t shoot the messenger.” The flaw in this argument is that, as a member of HO, you represent the source of the authority and, presumably, wrote the very message you delivered. You are more than a messenger. You had the power to not post it, and having this come from someone I respected and who I thought respected me made it worse.
To all of HO: what the fuck were you doing? You had a week to investigate this, and not once did any of you contact me about this. I hate that this has to be considered an appeal, because appeals take place after the trial has concluded, but I had no trial. This is my initial defense, as I was given no opportunity to defend myself prior to being slandered across the entire league. The fact that we have an appeals process doesn’t mean you don’t have to do your fucking jobs in the first place. This is willful negligence of your responsibilities, and I genuinely hope your pay this season is forfeit as a result.
Now, this is far from the first time I’ve complained about HO in such bold terms, but there is one huge difference this time as opposed to the earlier times: I am no longer holding a league position that precludes me from cleaning up your bullshit from within.
As I am not currently a GM, and as HO is clearly in need of worthwhile members, I would like to formally apply for HO. Across sim leagues, I have been a simmer, updater, media grader, awards team member, wiki team member, head office member (in two leagues), and commissioner. I have a reputation as a hard worker, great brainstormer, and for taking a methodical approach to challenges. If chosen, I would add much-needed detail to the rulebook and help the league transition to a more transparent and consistent head office.