Task 5:
Of all the moments in my ISFL career, one double moment stands out dramatically above all the others. The Zamir Saga is something that shall not be forgotten for a long, long time. For those who never knew him, some backstory; Zamir was an abrasive personality that generally stayed away from the danger zone of going too far and getting punished, but past the line of ticking people off. Think Big Edd, but more about being combative than trying and failing to be funny. He earned pretty well and didn't really rock the boat too much as an outlaw, probably because he really respected Cue. During this time, Zamir was hit with what in my opinion was the dumbest and worst punishment in league history, where he made what was clearly nothing more than a joke at another team's expense, and got hit with tampering charges, which at this point has led to 2 or 3 other dumb tampering punishments.
Then Zamir decided to leave the Outlaws and test Free Agency. Nobody wanted to pick him up. He earned well, but not that well, and his personality got even worse once he left Arizona. So, unable to get on a team, he retired, and then he recreated. Twice. First, he multi'd. He went and created a new account, named Excelsior, and decided to be on his best behavior possible. This was enough to get him respected in the league, get him the Most Dedicated New Member award, and a spot as an intern in the Head Office of the league.
Then Zamir took over again. He created another player, called Little Edd, tried to have his player render be Aaron Hernandez, and then did a snap retirement before the draft went live, and leaked the draft from his alt in the Head Office to his retirement post and to his twitter. At this point, Zamir's main account was banned, and for the only time in my 6 or so seasons in the league, the Draft TPE had to be reallocated to the DSFL draft. Excelsior, however, was still active, was still playing, and apparently didn't have any suspicion cast on it for the possibility of being the leaker. Or if it did, it wasn't enough to get them to check his IP and realize it was the same as Zamir's.
Things stayed the same for about 2 more seasons, until the offseason between this season and last. Excelsior posted a thread in media which has quickly become infamous: Retrospace11, a retrospective. In it, he revealed that he was a Zamir multi, and one that wasn't anywhere near as much effort to hide as some of the other big multi scandals in the past, and that he leaked the draft to himself. The thread erupted extremely quickly, filled with all the usual suspects and some very interesting, and predictable, reactions. Multiple people wondered how the hell a Zamir Multi got into HO, Infinite (yes, that Infinite) immediately held out of his contract until Excelsior got let go or banned, copypastas reigned and actually got a couple of people, people brought up Excelsior's previous missteps including a really incendiary comment in a previous punishment thread, and someone even defended rape jokes! After a marathon 22 page thread that had me and probably a bunch more people a mixture of entertained and enraged for 2 days straight, the thread was closed. Excelsior got banned extremely quickly after that, but there were more effects than that to go over.
First off, HO has nowhere near the amount of trust they once had. Weird decisions are one thing, but a multi hiding under HO's very nose is quite another. Second, and more directly sim related, the two big NSFC Rebuild projects each got hit hard. Baltimore lost their highest earner and the backbone of their DLine, and the new rules that HO put in place due to the Zamir situation also forced the hand of one of Philadelphia's new draft picks, who was on a more successful new account rebranding journey than Zamir had been that now all of a sudden became illegal. They were all but forced to retire in the aftermath.
Zamir, owner of (in my opinion at least) the most negative and damaging punishment in the league for being way too harsh, was also the recipient of the most obvious and deserved permaban, at least on his second account. This overshadowed everything else that happened that season, and that included hundreds of misapplied TPE getting taken away and the firing of the player progression head, someone getting fined 164 TPE due to using permissions that were supposed to be taken away from them to see games before everyone else, and Frost losing 140 million dollars in a bet. The Zamir saga, completely deservedly, topped them all.
Of all the moments in my ISFL career, one double moment stands out dramatically above all the others. The Zamir Saga is something that shall not be forgotten for a long, long time. For those who never knew him, some backstory; Zamir was an abrasive personality that generally stayed away from the danger zone of going too far and getting punished, but past the line of ticking people off. Think Big Edd, but more about being combative than trying and failing to be funny. He earned pretty well and didn't really rock the boat too much as an outlaw, probably because he really respected Cue. During this time, Zamir was hit with what in my opinion was the dumbest and worst punishment in league history, where he made what was clearly nothing more than a joke at another team's expense, and got hit with tampering charges, which at this point has led to 2 or 3 other dumb tampering punishments.
Then Zamir decided to leave the Outlaws and test Free Agency. Nobody wanted to pick him up. He earned well, but not that well, and his personality got even worse once he left Arizona. So, unable to get on a team, he retired, and then he recreated. Twice. First, he multi'd. He went and created a new account, named Excelsior, and decided to be on his best behavior possible. This was enough to get him respected in the league, get him the Most Dedicated New Member award, and a spot as an intern in the Head Office of the league.
Then Zamir took over again. He created another player, called Little Edd, tried to have his player render be Aaron Hernandez, and then did a snap retirement before the draft went live, and leaked the draft from his alt in the Head Office to his retirement post and to his twitter. At this point, Zamir's main account was banned, and for the only time in my 6 or so seasons in the league, the Draft TPE had to be reallocated to the DSFL draft. Excelsior, however, was still active, was still playing, and apparently didn't have any suspicion cast on it for the possibility of being the leaker. Or if it did, it wasn't enough to get them to check his IP and realize it was the same as Zamir's.
Things stayed the same for about 2 more seasons, until the offseason between this season and last. Excelsior posted a thread in media which has quickly become infamous: Retrospace11, a retrospective. In it, he revealed that he was a Zamir multi, and one that wasn't anywhere near as much effort to hide as some of the other big multi scandals in the past, and that he leaked the draft to himself. The thread erupted extremely quickly, filled with all the usual suspects and some very interesting, and predictable, reactions. Multiple people wondered how the hell a Zamir Multi got into HO, Infinite (yes, that Infinite) immediately held out of his contract until Excelsior got let go or banned, copypastas reigned and actually got a couple of people, people brought up Excelsior's previous missteps including a really incendiary comment in a previous punishment thread, and someone even defended rape jokes! After a marathon 22 page thread that had me and probably a bunch more people a mixture of entertained and enraged for 2 days straight, the thread was closed. Excelsior got banned extremely quickly after that, but there were more effects than that to go over.
First off, HO has nowhere near the amount of trust they once had. Weird decisions are one thing, but a multi hiding under HO's very nose is quite another. Second, and more directly sim related, the two big NSFC Rebuild projects each got hit hard. Baltimore lost their highest earner and the backbone of their DLine, and the new rules that HO put in place due to the Zamir situation also forced the hand of one of Philadelphia's new draft picks, who was on a more successful new account rebranding journey than Zamir had been that now all of a sudden became illegal. They were all but forced to retire in the aftermath.
Zamir, owner of (in my opinion at least) the most negative and damaging punishment in the league for being way too harsh, was also the recipient of the most obvious and deserved permaban, at least on his second account. This overshadowed everything else that happened that season, and that included hundreds of misapplied TPE getting taken away and the firing of the player progression head, someone getting fined 164 TPE due to using permissions that were supposed to be taken away from them to see games before everyone else, and Frost losing 140 million dollars in a bet. The Zamir saga, completely deservedly, topped them all.
