Crestfall I'll just respond point by point. I'll elect not to comment that the person that saved those logs didn't have a single word of refutation to my face. I'm happy to clarify a lot of the points here. Thank you for discussing this civilly. I did in fact read the whole thing, just confirming to you now.
I can understand why it looks like he's speaking out of faith and why it looks like he didn't "have the answer key". However, in the call I remember it very specifically because Balto's words were directed to me. I was with the managers in the call. When nomadderwhat was bought, I spoke up with regards to their skill based on things that user had done in the past, and Balto's response was very clear that I "didn't know who that is". This is not a single-time use of that phrasing. In other private chats, he used that phrasing at least one more time about how the rest of us just "don't know who that is". It's pretty clear first that, of the managers, Lax knows who that is because he nommed nomadderwhat in the first place. I made this exact admission myself when I talked with the TD: it's very possible that Balto could just be defending a sleeper pick that he found. However, it doesn't make sense to say those words at all. The rest of what he said at the time "They (he/she/they I forget) will show you" is perfectly normal and something anyone would say. Claiming that we "don't know who that is" is completely bizarre when we all knew who it was, excluding their identity as an alt. The way in which Balto responded any time anyone brought up nomadderwhat for any reason whatsoever,
even if we weren't talking about their performance, was always in the same vein of as if he 'knew better than we did' about how good or bad that player was. It was like he needed to bring up that fact regardless of the topic. The TD and I both agreed that his behavior is just too suspicious.
I've taken a course on business law. I know what reasonable doubt is. It's not a numeric value at all for what it's worth. Reasonable doubt is having the facts and believing there's no way they can believe in a different conclusion. Based on my experiences with Balto over the past entire month, I look at the way he says things and the way he behaves. I literally cannot draw the conclusion that he didn't know. He's too steadfast in his belief that he knew better than the rest of us. The way he reacted to discussion about nomadderwhat being ArVaDa- was also incredibly suspicious. I'm not sure if I can leak private room logs and dealings, so I won't copy it directly, but he threatened the entire room not to leak (I found out 100% certainty that nomadderwhat was an alt through a different avenue) and as soon as someone brought up whether he knew before the draft or not, he immediately tried to deflect the topic away. Sure, I don't have a "Balto: I knew it was ArVaDa- and did it to get an advantage LOL got you guys", but the things he said in the room and in call are very damning to me in combination.
In fact, I
did actually ask him in the room before the decision, and he chose to deflect the question instead of answering. Yes, I did highlight him and he was active in the chat at the time. He can claim he was never confronted, but other people in the room were there and questioning him too. I'm really not sure why he's claiming he was never talked to about it. It's not even that he ignored the question, so to say he might have just not seen it. He typed a very clear sentence to push the topic away and made it clear we were not to leak their identity. He was asked about it back a few weeks ago (as even 1 True Lycan said) and I asked him directly about it this past week. I won't claim whether the TD I spoke with had reasonable doubt because I didn't bring up that phrasing, but I personally do not. I thought about this over two (three now?) days and I just cannot come to a conclusion based on what he's done over the past month.
I think you misunderstand what I said. What I'm saying is I talked to other managers about whether or not they knew before the draft either. If everyone knew before the draft and it was just me out of the loop, then that's just me being ignorant. That's why I brought up Lax in the very next line I said. Lax is the one that nommed nomadderwhat, and I wanted to know whether he knew they were ArVaDa-. I spoke with other managers about the knowledge. I absolutely did not discuss the punishment or even the problem with any managers at all. I
only spoke with Dirpz and TDs regarding the decision. Other managers may have perhaps guessed based on my questioning, but I didn't leak this decision to anyone other than
Misaka Mikoto, who is the other manager of the Petalburg Porygons, as I wanted to give her a heads up before I posted. She didn't know for even 24 hours before I posted.
Again, I'm not talking about managers when I refer to independent people. I'm talking about me going to talk to people
outside of the tournament. That's why I spoke with a current TD, a former TD, and a former SPL host. They are all independent and outside of this tour. I didn't speak with anyone in this tournament about the decision other than exactly Dirpz, who is my co-host. I believe him to be as unbiased in this decision as I was. Only a couple of other people in this tour had any prior knowledge that I was looking into this situation, let alone making a decision at all in the first place. One was Misaka Mikoto, as I said I gave her a heads up. The others were people that directly complained to me when they found out about the nomadderwhat and ArVaDa- identity. I didn't consult with them about either making a decision at all, what my decision would be, or what the punishment decided upon would be. The only thing they knew was that I would look into the problem, not that I would do anything about it. I obviously cannot hide the investigation from the people that brought it up to me in the first place. From the time they brought it up until I posted, they had no more knowledge of whether I'd make a post or not.
And one last thing about Balto not nomming nomadderwhat. Why would he nom nomadderwhat early? He should want to nom them at the very end so he can get the buy safely and for as little as possible. I don't see how that's logic at all in defense of him.
As a whole, it looks like whoever gave you that pastebin didn't actually explain any context and, to no fault of your own, you had no way of having the extra information and interactions with Balto.
Regarding the comments of
KevinELF, I didn't have 100% knowledge that nomadderwhat was ArVaDa-. I had speculation sure and Balto's very strange behavior. However, I'm not going to disqualify nomadderwhat without knowing 100%. It is partially my fault that I didn't pay attention to the infraction appeal that nomadderwhat references in their post because I would have acted at that time if I realized it.
Secondly, KevinELF, you brought up Discord logs from one week ago in your 4th point. You don't even know what that's discussing. That was a completely different decision and I know 100% that Dirpz would have called me out if I made a decision he disagreed with. You can ask the other people relevant to that decision
Anttya Acast Bondie Dirpz to clarify what happened. All of the other managers in the tournament also know what happened but weren't directly related. Feel free to ask any of them as well. Anttya no doubt provided those logs to you and gave you absolutely no context in an attempt to hurt my reputation. The image has nothing to do with this decision. It's kind of saddening that Anttya would do that out of spite because I caught her doing something she shouldn't have and vetoed something before it even became official. I didn't make a formal administrative decision at the time because it was completely internal. Perhaps I should have to avoid this from coming up negatively. The case in that image is completely different, so it is very questionable that Anttya would try to pass it off as such. Note this: it says last Thursday. As I told Crestfall, no manager outside of those that asked me to do it knew I was even investigating, let alone making a decision. Anttya was not one of the managers that came to me and asked me to look into it. Thus, how could she have tried to argue the case? She couldn't because she didn't. That was from the past and actually before any manager actually even complained to me to begin with.
1 True Lycan, I don't know what to say other than I guess I paid more attention to his behavior? The moment he said those words to me I was already very suspicious but I had no proof. As a result, I was watching him pretty damn closely over the past month, which might be why I can recall this. I didn't get 100% absolute proved confirmation of nomadderwhat's identity until I made the administrative decision to disqualify them, so the delay between weeks 1 and 5 should be explained by that.