And I have a few thoughts about it and what has transpired after. Now, I asked an admin about anything I should keep in mind about this entry and was told in no uncertain terms that it can't be untruthful and it must definitely not defame anyone. Which is a shame really because though I hadn't planned on lying I was planning on calling a few people out by name, or user name rather. Well, I can't do that but I'll try and describe my take on the situation and why I think it's been handled fairly badly, up to this point.

First, my confession. I did it. When someone reported my team as offensive during a match they were losing after trying to blackmail me not to foul his best (and only) player left on the pitch, I snapped. It was 3 a.m. and my team's development was being held up by a very low, underhanded, and illegal tactic. So what did I do? I reported two of my opponent's teams and put him on my blacklist. One of these was not ok. Now I didn't just pick them randomly, I thought for sure those two teams could have been construed as offensive. I can't tell you much about them of course, because then you'd figure out who the coach is and I'd be defaming that person in a public fora. Can't have that. In any case, I figured hah, this person really won't have a leg to stand on now. Vengeance is mine! Well, that action got me a 1 week ban and it looks as though the match will not be reported and in fact, this other person while suffering a ban that I was told matched mine because of course we were both "equally" in the wrong, will as a result not have suffered a loss and his/her cheating has been, in my opinion, abetted.

Is it my fault? I suppose in that I flipped out and reported two of his teams in retaliation. Should that cancel out the game? Not really. What got lost in the shuffle here was WHY this person resorted to this tactic. The coach reported my team WHILE we were playing a match so that it wouldn't COUNT. This person took great umbrage at my fouling and if you could see the match report, like I can because I still have the file, you would see that s/he fouled me more and if you could look at the replay, you'd see that his/her fouls were more effective than mine. You'd also see that I stopped fouling when four of his players were sent off, because I perceived an opportunity to get more star player points and that ironically, this was decision was made despite attempted black mail not to foul which I had refused on principle. Final score, 6-0, my team's favor. It was a match in stunty, not in ranked. But a played match should count, regardless of division.

Now here's the best part. I had named my team Bitter Harvest. I was amazed that the name wasn't taken. I started naming my team of chaos halflings and I went from minotaur, to troll to the carvers, and started on the chaos halflings. And yes, I'm guilty, I started naming them in a juvenile manner. Bad puns on the condition of a certain piece of anatomy. Why did I do it? I don't know, it amused me at the time. I thought they were innoccuous enough and besides, they were halflings, chaos or no, surely they would perish and I could think of better names. Ahhhh but here's the great part of this story, the name of my team was changed and all the halflings got re-named. So when I tried to upload that game result, guess what? I get the "It appears you have not used the correct fumbbl roster..." message. Can't be uploaded...

Wow, I guess I should feel ultra-bad now. Really, the point that being a "vigilante" is not cool with the powers that be is really driven home by the gleeful way they piled on. I mean, blocking me, making me wait around for a day before even addressing me in the admin channel before instituting the 7 day ban (so that it was really 8) and then of course what I've just described with my team being changed around. I just have to ask, is my punishment complete? Is there anyhing else? Now I've been punished twice for the same thing and this other coach gets to keep his team? Whoa, I better calm down, because I might be tempted to call some people out, and I wouldn't want to defame them, particularly if that person or persons was an admin.

Really, the high handed manner my banning was carried out in really got to me. First the wait, then having William Shakespeare quoted at me? That wasn't necessary at all. Then the pretense of listening to my side and then just banning me anyway. Frankly, I would have preferred a pm stating the reason why I was banned and the length of duration rather than go through the kabuki of being interrogated on the admin channel. BTW, I noticed my complaint (you know, the invalid one because it was done for vengeance) actually went through and a change was made. I guess that means I did have a point when I reported those teams after all...

So yes, maybe I need to grow up. I kind of looked at this place as something I could participate in to relax, particularly in these last three months where I've been working as there really isn't a whole lot else to do. But I'm returning to Phoenix AZ starting tomorrow an it should take me a whole three days to get back to my residence. But I suspect there may be a whole host of people involved in this matter who might take that advice as well.

So, I hope my comments weren't particular enough to "call somebody" specifically out and I certainly think I represented the facts as I know them truthfully and presented my opinions honestly and directly if not succinctly. I certainly hope that when I get back to Arizona that I don't find I've been banned for this entry, I already missed out on Stunty Cup because of the ban, I would hate to keep my scheduled (and unscheduled) opponents waiting or disappoint a league commissioner or three by having to drop out.