Things really aren't that simple. I'm not going to debate the ruling because we are happy with it and it's not changing.
I will say that we put significant thought in to this and I don't think people are looking enough in to the context beneath the initial rulings.
To those saying that LVL needs to get hit harder by the breaking the salary cap:
LVL didn't really have leadership early in the season. GM was passed around early on in the season due to RFFO's accident which after that Ben was brought on. He handled the salary cap but since it was his first time with GMing responsibilities, he messed up by 2 million (which isn't really that significant).
We now have a good precedent set up where if teams go over, we can penalize them 1.5 times the amount the following year. If teams end up screwing up multiple seasons concurrently, more penalties can follow.
I don't think that RFFO or Ben did this out of maliciousness. It was probably just due to inexperience. I also don't think it would be a good idea to penalize and decimate LVL further than our ruling. They are already struggling and if we went further then we would be destroying the spirit of competition by crippling one of the weakest teams.
As far as KCKolbe and RFFO and that bet. In my opinion, it's against the rules and is just masked tampering.
- Tampering is defined as a player or GM approaching a player under contract with another team or who's rights are owned by another team outside of the public forums, with the purpose of persuading them to join your team, request a trade, or hold out on contract negotiations.
A player (KCKolbe) approached another player (RFFO) under contract with the purpose of creating a hold out/trade. Regardless if this was with a bet out in the open, it doesn't matter. It still is one person impacting the other and forcing them to hold out or trade based on the outcome of the bet.
I will say, people might be upset that KCKolbe is off the hook. He still has every right to hit FA or do whatever he wants. If he felt the need to honor the deal, he could easily holdout or request a trade or do whatever he wants. That's on him on we wanted to give him that option.
However, the head office felt it very necessary to show that these types of bets are not encouraged and will not be tolerated in the future.
I will say that we put significant thought in to this and I don't think people are looking enough in to the context beneath the initial rulings.
To those saying that LVL needs to get hit harder by the breaking the salary cap:
LVL didn't really have leadership early in the season. GM was passed around early on in the season due to RFFO's accident which after that Ben was brought on. He handled the salary cap but since it was his first time with GMing responsibilities, he messed up by 2 million (which isn't really that significant).
We now have a good precedent set up where if teams go over, we can penalize them 1.5 times the amount the following year. If teams end up screwing up multiple seasons concurrently, more penalties can follow.
I don't think that RFFO or Ben did this out of maliciousness. It was probably just due to inexperience. I also don't think it would be a good idea to penalize and decimate LVL further than our ruling. They are already struggling and if we went further then we would be destroying the spirit of competition by crippling one of the weakest teams.
As far as KCKolbe and RFFO and that bet. In my opinion, it's against the rules and is just masked tampering.
- Tampering is defined as a player or GM approaching a player under contract with another team or who's rights are owned by another team outside of the public forums, with the purpose of persuading them to join your team, request a trade, or hold out on contract negotiations.
A player (KCKolbe) approached another player (RFFO) under contract with the purpose of creating a hold out/trade. Regardless if this was with a bet out in the open, it doesn't matter. It still is one person impacting the other and forcing them to hold out or trade based on the outcome of the bet.
I will say, people might be upset that KCKolbe is off the hook. He still has every right to hit FA or do whatever he wants. If he felt the need to honor the deal, he could easily holdout or request a trade or do whatever he wants. That's on him on we wanted to give him that option.
However, the head office felt it very necessary to show that these types of bets are not encouraged and will not be tolerated in the future.
