Damnit!

For the second week in arow, I have tried to choose good games to do summeries on and have failed. I blame Ballistics last week, and Prevail this week. Well hopefully Tenet or (insert ref name here) will do one. Sorry fellas.

SP

Covert Agent - Abusing power since 1997

How long will Covert Agent be allowed to use his powers to no end other than to further his own fragile ego? What will it take to get him removed from power? I offer here PROOF that Covert Agent abuses his powers whenever he likes, and yet continues to get away with it time after time.

It all started one day in a 4v4 practice game against Nightwatch. Cloud was doing his usual daily prac-and-talk-shit routine when one of Nightwatch's players died out early. Instead of asking for permission to end the practice, or finishing it out 3v4, Covert decided to use his power to step in, take the bot, and end the game prematurely.
Naturally Cloud was not willing to stand for this. I can only imagine the ranting Cloud unleashed upon Covert Agent, but we do know that atleast one word was directed at CA: "faggot".
At that moment, Cloud earned himself a permanent ban from Premier League. Despite being a "harmful influence to league", Cloud has many friends in Premier and even has been granted the responsibility of chaos moderator. Can any of you name an incident where Cloud was banned from chaos? Or from dueling zone? Or from powerball? I challenge you to find one occurance. So far, I have not.

As I tried to reason with Covert on this ban, it became apparent to me that the ban was not based on anything Cloud said to CA; rather, Cloud was banned because Covert Agent THINKS Cloud was a harmful influence to premier league, as demonstrated in the email I recieved from Covert below:

"You are missing the point. Cloud has been a harmful influence to
league every since he started. I see no reason to allow him to
continue to drive other players away from the game. He has had more
oppurtunities to follow the rules than I can count and if he was
going to do it, he'd have done it by now. I will not remove Cloud's
ban.
Covert Agent"

> Dear Covert,
> There is no reason to ban someone for a month for using racial slurs NOR for
> "mod abuse", in fact there is no reason to ban anyone at all for any of this
> when you have the perm silence option. So I will kindly ask you to please
> remove cloud's ban, as it has been about a month since you instated it.
> Regards,
> -Reaem
>

Very eloquent, however this email is lacking one important element: REALITY.
Let's take Covert Agent's first point, for example. CA claims Cloud "(will) drive other players away from the game." Answer me one question: How many people has Cloud REALLY driven away from league? Now answer me another question: how many people has Covert Agent BANNED (mostly without justification) from premier league? I can name one person CA has banned, but where are all the players Cloud drove away? Do they REALLY exist?
Covert's second point: "He has had more
oppurtunities to follow the rules than I can count and if he was
going to do it, he'd have done it by now." How many rules did he break by calling Covert Agent a faggot? I would hardly consider it to be moderator abuse, expecially under the circumstances. So, was Cloud ever going to follow the rules? In truth, on this day he never broke any.

IT GETS WORSE.

I decided to follow up on this event with an examination of my own. I did a bit of asking around; it would seem that Cloud is not the only victim of Covert's fragile ego combined with nazi-like power use. Finally, I performed a lengthy little test myself to see first-hand whether or not he really does it for the league, or to satisfy his own ego.

Ever since the day of Cloud's ban, I have called Covert a "faggot" every time he enters the same arena as me. I do not harrass him for lengthy periods of time (so as not to provoke anything for "mod abuse"); merely, I say a few words to him as I am passing by, then I move along with my daily business. I did this for about a month, anytime I saw him. All in an attempt to make sure he had strong hatred for me when the 'test' finally came.

And the results:
As I was sitting in spec after a practice before I logged off, I decided to throw it out in a response to Orbital:
"I DID NOT SAY NIGGER WTF!"
Immediate and permanent, unnotified silence, and without just cause or reason, merely because Covert does not like me.

P Reaem> pass
P Reaem> ur mod in pro right
P passplay> ya
Reaem> ?find cose
Not online, last seen 11 hours ago
Reaem> ?find lordvegas
Not online, last seen 2 days ago
P Reaem> can u do me a favor
P passplay> ?
P Reaem> I was silenced by covert agent, can u go read the silence and read me the reason
P passplay> ok
P passplay> how long ago ?
P Reaem> from the bot
P Reaem> thx
P Reaem> today
P passplay> ok sec
P Reaem> and also what kind/length if possible
Reaem> ?find ace
Not online, last seen 2 hours ago
Reaem> ?find cashew
Not online, last seen more than 10 days ago
Reaem> ?find cashew+
Not online, last seen 9 hours ago
P passplay> no comment/length
P Reaem> so it just lists me as an offender
P Reaem> k ty
P Reaem> :)
P passplay> np

I am not Cloud. I do not have a history of getting banned, silenced, or otherwise. In fact I have never been banned from premier, I have never been silenced, and I have never so much as had a lengthy altercation with a premier mod/smod/sysop. Yes, I have been known to "talk shit", but lately even I have made quite an effort to tone this down as a captain and ref of pro league.
Typically this "offense" would involve a first warning, final warning(ocasionally), temporary action (short ban/short silence), long-term action (month+ ban/silence), and final action (permanent ban/silence).
Did I get any of the above luxuries? Not with Covert Agent. Instead, I was bot-silenced for an undeterminate amount of time, without warning or notification. Actually, I did not know I was silenced at all until I tried a ?chat followed by ?lag with no response from the server whatsoever, and not for sure until I returned to see the bot's "You have been silenced" message.
In doing this he walked right into my 'trap' as it were and proved to me once and for all that he is nothing more than a power-hungry, pasty pimple-faced nerd.

What happened to the natural order of warn, short action, long term action, and final action?
His name is Covert Agent, and while he is in control league will continue to decay as it has been ever since his first season as pro sysop. (In which he didn't even announce playoff format or entry qualifications until the end of the season, might I add)

Enjoy your seasons with Covert Agent.
-Reaem

Rules, Refs, Bots, & Players Part 3

Not everyone can see it because most don't really see it that often, but there is a conflict in the way things run between the past, present, and future. Status Quo is a very settling place to be in real life and the same is true in Subspace.
This portion will look into what goes on behind the scenes as well as the future.

Section 3: Past vs Present vs Future

Who is Staff?
Well the majority of staff you see are refs. These people for the most part ref for one year or season before moving onto their greener pastures wether it is real life, not reffing, or upper staff. Refs are the pople that you have to deal with usually Sunday unless something major is going wrong. Think of them as the pretty face at the cash register or on the floor. Reffing is the entrance exam for becoming premier staff. By the way you can sign up to ref on this Ref Signup Link and we always need quality applicants for reffing.

Upper Staff consists of all kinds of people. There are League Sysops, Rules Coordinators, Appeals Arbiters, Scheduling Coordinators, Billing Staff, Web Staff, Events Staff, etc. and even a few unlisted fun positions. By the way the full listed staff postions are on the Staff List Page. Upper staff for the most part have some level of seniority. Some have been around since the very beginnings, most do some sort of revolving door allowing others to step up.

Undercurrents in staff
Since the refs are the most active base for the most part in premier. They tend to set the current flow while the upper staff tends to guide it as well as they can by putting trends into policy. The most recent rash of refs that have influxed are new to premier or returning from the olden days of old school ladder-style league. These refs as all refs do focus heavily on the current set of rules. We just happen to be at a time where the forum's and way of running things has increased the power for change to come along as SubSpace is developing. Now the most current themes in the staff revolve around the issues of enforcing bans and policy (which resulted from the chaos move and many players circumventing bans), appropriate rules enforcement (or "what they say is what we need to do"), and moving forward. Call it nazi, call it stupid, its what is happening.

Rules vs Tradition
One problem that you could see earlier is how refs answer certain questions on how to handle the situations. You have older refs versus newer refs it almost seems. Well here's the truth behind it. Most refs are 100% familiar with the rules when they start. After that they are unfamiliar with changes, but eventually learn. If they started last season there are NTS's, 30 minute overtimes, and subbing is just subbing. If you started this season its all gone.

Some other things that you can see with traditionalists is the fact that they may not burn an unegaged player if they lag out a tthe start of the match. This is entirely unsupported in the rules, but its how they've always done it. You can find the traditionalists really fast because they are the ones that get excited when the bots all die and we have to "old school" ref by hand. Its no big deal to them, but some of the refs that have always had bots get a lil scared.

All in all, it can be a major issue if it affects a match. Its definitely no "You say Subspace I say Contiuum" thing, its an issue such that when old school tendencies come up they are now dissuaded. Its hard to move forward when one foot is dragging behind. But this is a continual problem because the newest refs tend to ref the most. Basically because reffing gets boring or tedious to fit into schedules when you don't have the fire of it beinng new.

Bots where will they take reffing to?
Will we ever come to a day where the players can call in a ref bot and press !start and not need a ref? No, probably not. It may become an option if refs can't be found, but I do not see it happening as the standard thing to do. The reason why is the inevitable happens. Think of any game and the many numerous things a player can do. It would be next to impossible to create a bot that can handle any situation at any time. Maybe 95% of situations, but is it reasonable to create a bot to do it all?

Another major problem for bots is a problem for all of us. Lag. When we miss a packet it may be a bullet or a bomb. When a bot misses a packet, well it could be a death or a ship change or a player coming. This requires a human to catch the error and a human to fix it.

Refs will always be needed in that situation. To fix what went wrong so that games can go with as little interuption to the players as possible. Other things bots can't do that refs can are human things. Can a bot really explain or give a rule clarification? Can a bot change an action it took because it did it wrong? Can a bot answer ?help messages? Well the answer to all of this is yes, but it would take considerable programming and could never match a human's ability to handle it.

Bots are valuable addition because they take away tons of ref error, but yes they do make refs lazy. They also help by allowing players to have more control and ultimately giving captains even more control than they ever had. One feature you may see in the future that is programable is the ability to sub your players without going through a ref. This is controversial, but you may see it happen one day.

Reform is it needed?
Reform is always needed. Reform for the most part is needed in certain errors of refs, bots, staff, and players. The biggest areas that seem to be problems with numbers of ref online, staff that fails their job, communication (as is the case with everywhere), and player conduct.

Number of Refs Online
While its rare to not see a game covered. It is increasingly viable to see a game that gets called 10-25 minutes late because of lack of a ref. What is the reform needed? Either requirements on staff that ensure that a staff member must ref "x amount of games per y days" or more active refs.

The major problem with finding good refs is finding good pilots that will ref. They first off must be mature because they get power. They also must know the rules because they enforce them. They also must be trust worthy because they can make or break a match. This means that your average SS idiot is not ref material. Even your most knowledgable idiots will have to do some convincing because well they are an idiot. And yes your conduct and behavior in game will and can determine if staff even looks at your application.

Staff that Fails their Job
Well this doesn't happen often, but it does happen. What happens when a staff member disappears? Well depending on the position absolutely nothing or absolutely everything. Major positions that when the staff member falters its felt include the scheduling coordinators...hard to schedule a match without someone guiding it, events coordinators...hard to have events when they aren't there, ref coordinators...hard to find refs for. Without senior refs nothing gets posted to master rater. The list goes on?

How do we fix it? Well if a staff member fails they simply need to go. Maybe if Spring League hasn't been around for a few seasons we need to get a new spring league sysop. Overall we just need better people for these positions when the current staff falters or leaves, which brings us back full circle to the fact that we need more and better refs.

Communication
Communication is key. We need to have it to know what's going on. Well the only way to improve this is of couse to document and publish whatever we do. Which of course means its longer to do things. Basically this is simple. To improve communication we must communicate. In the back currents where regular players can't see this is rapdily improving.

Player Conduct
Well this is probably the biggest thing we need. Player conduct is currently in a determinal state as it always has been with Subspace. Its hard to attract new players when some random idiot drives them away by calling them any number of everyday Surrey/HV words. Its even harder when players refuse to play by the book and drive players out of the league. Basically the biggest reason for population declines beyond life, is the players themselves. This is a whole problem in itself and it will most likely never be fixed unless God comes down and smites all the dumb asses out there, which pretty much means Subspace will be gone.

The Best Night Ever

Well its only 11pm and I'm drunk as hell. Not much is new except this was the happiest night I can ever remember having. Why is that? Three Words. World Beer Festival

The World Beer Festival is exactlly what it says. A festival of beer from around the world. They had over 100 vendors distrubuting 2 ~ 6 different beers each and the lowest quality to be found was ABusch's Amber Bock which is my favorite drinking beer anyway.

Of the 100 vendors I managed to visit over 80 and missed out only a few I wanted to hit. I of course skipped the big names like Miller, ABusch, Coors, Pabst, Sarnac etc etc. For those who care here go my favorite beers I tried:

Abita Amber - Abita Brewing Company
Allagash Speciale - Allagash Brewing Company
Degroens Dunkles - Baltimore Brewing Company
Post Road Pumpkin Ale - Brooklyn Brewery
Carolina Nut Brown Ale - Carolina Brewing Company
Fischer Amber - Fischer Brewery
Gaelic Ale - Highland Brewing Company
Rebel - Mestansky Pivovar
Shiner Bock - Spoetzl Brewery
Lemon Grass Wheat - Outer Banks Brewing Station
Any Mead - Desi's Dew Meadery www.desidew.com

Overall all I did was with one friend because 4 others sold us out and didn't buy tickets and pulled the "I have to study/work" routine went and had the best time ever. We drank countless amounts of beer, listened and danced to bluegrass music with all kinds of crazy drunk people, ate all kinds of great foods like lamb gyro's, bratwurst, jerk chicken legs, etc etc, and checked out "hot" girls that of course were not that "hot".

We even had a good time waiting on a corener lieing in the grass for 30 minutes while our DD showed up yelling at people. Of course not the general shit you yell at people, but more like "WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!", "SUUUUUUUIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!", "WOOT WOOT".

I barely did anything tonight but drink, but the atmosphere was so much fun with all the "personality" people it was like being a bar with only cool people. No gay ass bouncers harassing you, no rude bartenders angry to be there or mad at a low tip, no hot ass girls that are too stuck up to talk to anyone but people that reek of $, no dumb ass jocks. It was all liberals. Beer Drinkers. The craziest of the crazy and most importantly the funnest of the fun. I didn't see out out of the 2000+ people there one fight, one yelling match, and even one dirty glare.

It was all about fun and fun was had. From the crazy rednecks and me dancing to blue grass to the UNC & Duke & NCSU all getting along in the same place, to the real beer aged beer drinkers amongst a younger based crowd everyone got along. It wasn't the usual dumb shit you see at a bar. It wasn't the shit you see tailgating at a game. It was all fun. I wish we could always have that much fun. Every single person out there.

Beer drinkers unite! And just because you shotgun Bud Light doesn't make you a beer drinker. I'm talking about the guys out there that will spend that extra $1 to get the better beer. Not the frat boys who drink off a keg of Nattie Lite. I'm talking about the boys out there that drink a good beer and drink it because it tastes good not because it gets 'em drunk. I'm talking about my friends at the Wolrd Beer Festival where no one knew your name and it didn't matter because you were treated the same.

Lets bring it into SS. Lets create a nice little community sometime where the shit talkers won't come. Lets make it a place that is so much fun that everyone has a good time and we dont' have to put up with dumb shit. Lets have the SS Con again or something. Lets do something in game at the least where everyone can have fun and idiots who complain aren't welcome and don't want to be there. Lets remember what it means to play a game.

And as my quote for the night goes "if it tastes that good from the outside I can only imagine how good it tastes on the inside."