Kyamprac Player Progression Head Removal

[Jay_Doctor]

First off, I'd like to apologize for my cynical comments in the late TPE removal thread last night. Emotions were heightened and I said some pretty inexcusable stuff for someone with such expectations as an HO intern. I appreciate and thank all who called me out so I knew that I crossed the line. I'll take this as a learning experience and move on with it.

I'd also like to thank everyone who took part in civil conversation during this thread and pointed out problems in the thread. I've read all of them twice over and thought to myself as to how we can move forward, as a league, united. 

The reason I'm sitting here writing this after telling myself not to engage in any of this is to hopefully help clear up some confusion on the process and some general misconceptions. Steg has published the data already, so you can check that and cross-reference for yourself.

Being an intern, I have seen all the discussions regarding this case in HO chat, from the time I joined, to the time it is right now. I've participated and watched, dropping in my 2 cents when necessary. It was a long and arduous process, with a lot of time and effort going into the discussions surrounding this topic. I feel as if I have the right to give my thoughts on the entire situation, and my thoughts only. 



Point #1 - Not so late Predictions

I think most users are in agreement that something needed to happen. A culture of leniency had developed within the PPT department where users were being given credit for tasks that were done after the deadline. Now, I've seen many good points in this thread that the deadline itself is dumb and as long as the predictions were done before the games started, no harm done, right? I'm in agreement with a lot of you here. Remember, this league is for fun. We ALL take time out of our day to help this league because we all were brought here by a common passion. People do this as their hobby, and I can't blame graders for grading tasks that were at 7:46 or 7:47, because they were just a couple minutes late. Now, like I said, the data is public, but in case you don't feel like combing through a spreadsheet looking for specific late predictions, I'll do that for you. Now, the majority of the time, the thread gets locked soon after 7:45 PM EST, and usually before or during the streams, but it's never usually left open that long, so people can't get in many super late predictions after the stream ends. So yes, the masses are spot on here, the majority of the TPE is indeed from a few minutes past that tricky deadline, 7:45 PM. Nonetheless, it's still technically illegal TPE. Why? Let me explain.

I'm going to hyperlink a lot of stuff so you don't have to find the threads themselves. Take a look at S27 W14 Predictions, (hyperlinked), specifically the last page. Users WhatAmUs and Ryan Negs submitted their predictions a few minutes past the deadline. I would be fine allowing them to be graded, it was just a few minutes. Now look at users Netlandic, Majesiu and Fno. They submitted their predictions the next day, hours after the game streams have ended. If they had cared, they could have submitted all correct predictions and received full credit. However, they did not, and they received 2, 2.5, and 2 TPE, respectively. This should never have been given credit, but unfortunately was, as you can see here, S27 claim thread, W14 Preds. Scroll to their name and verify it yourself. Notice the user who graded these, Kya herself. Now, let's go to next week, S27 W15 Predictions, where users Rradum, Reverend O'Reily, Kyle, NHamlet, flyeaglesfly and Katarn all submitted within 10 minutes of the deadline, the first few submitting within a minute or 2. All of them denied TPE, and you can cross reference with the post here, S27 claim thread, W15 preds. Notice the user who posted that. Not Kya, but a different grader, one that adhered to the deadlines and rules outlined. Now, how is this fair? Users that submit 12 hours past the deadline get TPE one week while users that submit 1 minute after don't get anything the next week? 

This is just one example of many that you can find by scrolling through the data sheet that steg has provided. Hopefully this clears up some of the misconceptions surrounding the idea that HO was deducting this illegal TPE just because it was past the questionable deadline of 7:45 PM. Head Office deems this type of behavior from Kya was unacceptable. It's unfair to the people who were denied TPE just the week after. You might just say, oh, it was simply just 2 TPE, how does that even matter? It starts with the little things and this type of grading is something that convinced some HO members that something had to be done regarding Kya's position as the head of PPT. The vast majority of the time that late predictions were graded, it was Kya. You can go back through the sheet and check. And to be fair to her, she also graded the majority of the predictions, but the ratios are still very disproportionate. Head Office has clearly stated their position that this type of conduct will not be tolerated. I can't speak for the rest of them and their decisions about the severity of the punishment, but I for one, with all the information and discussions in front of me, stand by the decision that Head Office made. 


Point #2 - The Witch-hunt

Moving on to the more intangible part here. Few people have raised concerns about the legitimacy of the entire investigation and whether or not it was rooted in bias. You may not believe a single word that I write in this section, and that's perfectly fine, but this is from hat I've seen in discussions. Bex and Steg, who's names I've heard connected to a bias, have conducted themselves quite professionally. Bex continues to amaze me each day the way she tackles all the league's problems and the manner of which she speaks to all of us. I can't praise those two enough from my short time here in the league. Steg on the other hand, is a rock of head office, and does a LOT of work. I've read through all the conversations regarding this punishment and investigation. Every investigation will have bias, we're all human and have predisposed thoughts. But Steg purposely tried to make this as impersonal as possible, presenting us raw data and facts, and providing his valuable insight and knowledge when necessary. Did he start the investigation? Did he pursue it relentlessly? No. Darkness has already touched on this topic before but the claims that this was at all, unruly influenced by Steg and his bias, are simply put, false. I think I speak for all of head office with that statement. No one has it out for Kya, and no one has a vendetta for Kya. To think otherwise is just silly. Integrity and impartiality are key, and Steg has upheld both virtues impeccably throughout his time in this investigation and the aftermath. 

I'd like to remind everyone the character of the person should not be a factor at all. Whether Kya was hated by many or loved by all, should not, and will not, be a factor during any investigative process. I know it's very hard for us to lay down our presumptions and look at this from a neutral viewpoint, but that's key in determining guilt and a punishment. Using Kya's personality and character as an argument falsifies the integrity of it. I've had nothing but pleasurable exchanges with Kya during my time in Dallas, and I've talked a lot with many Dallas members, Kya included, so if anything I would have strongly been pro-Kya here, but I tried to look at it from a neutral perspective, and still found my opinion to lie with the majority. 


Closing Thoughts

You may not agree with the severity of the punishment Kya faced, and that's perfectly fine, as that's the opinion you gathered based on the information you had. I for one, thought a change in management of the PPT department would be necessary, and be better for the overall health of the league in the future. A probationary period and a hefty fine felt like a slap on the wrist to me, based off the information I had. The majority of HO felt this same way too. I can't speak for their rationale and logic, but Darkness and Swanty have already given you some insight on how they feel. I really enjoyed engaging in civil discourse with you guys on this thread and appreciate the well thought out responses. Again, forgive me for my inflammatory statements yesterday, I wasn't thinking straight, and I spoke too quickly when tensions were quite high. Inexcusable. Hopefully something I wrote cleared up something you had in your mind, but these are just my 2 cents. We have many, many problems as a league that we face, and I'm looking forward to seeing how we can all attack them  together, as a collective, productively and constructively. This may not have been the outcome that many of you wanted to see, and I'm sorry to see that. Head Office has a lot to do and a lot to think about in the next few days.

Excuse my writing as I wrote this quite hastily, there's probably some grammatical or logical errors in here somewhere.

I realize this might be asking quite a lot, but this should be the standard of handing out large decisions such as this one. I'm willing to bet this whole thing would be quite different if 1. all the info was presented right away and presented in a logical fashion. 2. Hearing what the process actually looked like for specific members of HO.