Firstly a little bit of history and insight, as I feel it lends itself to why my name appears with more regularity than anyone else in TOFU when sitting an account.
I'm probably one of the elder players on this site - one who was fortunate enough to afford early retirement several years ago - and have been a very active member for almost four years. Given these circumstances I have never had a problem with being available 24/7 and have invested an extraordinary amount of time in this site, particularly with the clan scene (Untouchables, LoW and ultimately TOFU). One of the great benefits of being available on such a regular basis is that I become a very dependable and reliable sitter - one who is able to cover at short notice and, generally, do the right thing. I'm fairly sure reptile (from LoW) and Big Whiskey (THOTA) can attest to this - the former because he knows me from my time in his clan, and the latter as he knows me from covering for players who left the site. All of my clan members have my cell phone number and are able to contact me, as they do, in the event of any emergency or inability to get online.
In TOFU we operate an 'Account Sitters' thread so there is a quick reckoner to see who can cover for someone who looks like missing a turn. Here it is below:
Player - Sitter(s)
Chariot of Fire - JP, Dako
Shatners Bassoon - Chariot of Fire, tyche
Daryth - Chariot of Fire
jpeter15 - Shatners Bassoon, Chariot of Fire, Trapyoung, jake
Kiwi123 - Chariot of Fire, Sonic
Velvecarrots - The Bro, Chariot of Fire
TheBro - Velvecarrots, Chariot of Fire
tyche - Shatners, CoF, JP, Dako, IM
timmy - Shatners Bassoon, CoF
jake - Dako, slowreactor
Dako - Jake, Danryan ???, CoF
Buckman - CoF, Jake
Knight - CoF, Dako, JP
Iron Maid - tyche73, CoF
thezepman - Chariot
Trapyoung - jpeter15, CoF, Pedro, Stringy, Jake
OutSider - CoF, IM
Pedronicus - CoF, Donkey, Greycloak, Trapyoung
Stringy - CoF, Pedro, Squirly (Dragoon!), Trapyoung
elfish_lad - CoF, Dako, Trapyoung, JP, cachejob, Sonic
cachejob - CoF, Dako, Jake
sonic - CoF, cachejob
Last edited by Chariot of Fire on Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:39 am, edited 33 times in total.
As you can see (although it does need updating) there is an overwhelming frequency with which my name appears. In fact I cover for every player except those who are mods (and even then I will cover for them if they are away, with notice, and have revoked their mod privileges). This is
because I'm available and reliable and has nothing to do with my ability to play a game better than anyone else or to try and gain some advantage. In fact....and here's the rub....I don't have BOB and I can't use that snap function, so more often than not it is
extremely difficult for me to cover someone's turn in a foggy game (in which I'm not playing) as I haven't a clue what the oppo are holding and there's usually nothing in chat as I'm only stepping in at very short notice due to unexpected absence. I feel it's important for you, the reader, to know this as josko seems to have spent the better part of 100 hours dredging through the back catalogue of TOFU games to cite instances of where I've sat for others. Needless to say my name will occur far more often than anyone else's simply due to the circumstances I've explained above.
Another system we operate in TOFU is an 'Absence' thread (which now runs to 44 pages) so we are very methodical about having somebody covered whenever an impending absence is posted. Fortunately for us we operate such a system, as it has proved invaluable not only for its (intended) purpose but also, thanks to these nonsense allegations, to scour back through the history so we can determine what happened.
So, having looked at the cases cited against me in King Achilles' ruling may I now offer the following rebuttal and clear my name:
Game 9157574 5th June 2011- Dako revoked mod privileges as he was away. The move I played for him was a simple deploy - not even a game-decisive attack. Am I supposed to wait 23 hours and hope I'll be online to cover, or wake up at 4am to cover? Here is Dako's post in our absence forum (p.33):
Post by Dako on Sat Jun 04, 2011 4:37 am
I will leave for the week-end, suddenly, and will be back on Sunday night only. So I will be unavailable for the 36h starting in 12h from this post (8am GMT).
I asked to remove me from the mods for the time, so everything should be normal and usual persons should be able to sit for me. I will notify when I step out of the door.
Game 9043142 19th May 2011 - Played a turn for Steve when there were just 4 minutes left on the clock as I happened to notice it whilst checking our clan games. Josko also says in his allegation I played the turn for a mod, yet Steve only became a mod in mid June. Also, do people really think it's easy to step into an esc game in which I'm not playing and assess the situation with just 4 mins on the clock? Steve meanwhile did come online at the same time and played turns in other games, but I wasn't aware he was logging in. This is from the gamechat (kinda shows you my tough attitude):
2011-05-19 21:16:43 - sonicsteve: CoF for Sonic. Just caught it in time!
2011-05-19 21:17:37 - sonicsteve [team]: wtf!!! Lucky I ran through the active games and caught this with 4 minutes left on the clock (and red holding a bonus).
2011-05-19 21:18:23 - sonicsteve [team]: How the f*ck can you just leave a game sitting like this. No chat, no action = no chance!
Game 8687933 25th March 2011 - I took a turn for Dako at 6.41am in the morning having been up all night. The clock was about to run out. Dako himself had been out partying. Thing is, I was in no fit state to play turns for anyone. Here is my post in the Absence thread dated 24th March:
by Chariot of Fire on Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:10 pm
Today is the first of four days of an absolute rugbyfest and city-wide party (10s today, 7s Fri-Sun).
I'm leaving soon and I expect to be coming home only very intermittently over the next few days and will be raging drunk on every occasion I'm sure.
Please don't hold out till the last minute to take turns waiting for my input. It may either not be forthcoming or may be the ramblings of an incoherent bum
Here is the gamechat....it even has the specifics of the move posted by me a day earlier, so even a cook could have followed the advice and it didn't require me to personally take the turn. I only did so coz there was 1'14" on the clock and it was 6.41am in the morning and I'd been up all night. I knew Dako had gone out partying as he'd notified me.
2011-03-25 10:37:09 - Chariot of Fire [team]: Dako. Suggest 1 GHQ Hartmann (hit Gorodische Fields and keep red away from getting on Luftwaffe), 1 on R62/115 Art (bombard Rynok North and G71st Div U2), 1 on S2 Sheykin (hit Mameyev Hill, adv 0). Fort 1 from S2 to City B Inf.
2011-03-25 10:37:41 - Chariot of Fire [team]: oh, and Grain Silo hits Kuporosnoya (adv 0).
2011-03-26 05:29:33 - Chariot of Fire [team]: Looks like I might have to cover for Dako. He's gone out clubbing
2011-03-26 06:41:28 - Dako: CoF for Captain Slack
2011-03-26 09:15:32 - Dako: been a party night, thanks CoF
Game 8441498 27th Feb 2011 - I covered for Pedro having been notified he wouldn't have PC access. This is from gamechat:
2011-02-26 22:39:22 - Pedronicus [team]: Si, I'm going over my sisters this weekend. not sure if i'll be able to access the internet (normally end up in a mess down the pub with my brother in law)
2011-02-27 00:26:55 - Chariot of Fire [team]: Pedro. 3 on EF, 1 on QN, 3 on JG
2011-02-27 00:28:05 - Chariot of Fire [team]: EF goes to CF (u hold that card), QN hits QO (get teal <12), JG hits Cupcake (adv all).
2011-02-27 00:31:11 - Chariot of Fire [team]: Hit CE (adv 0) if u failed to get QO or if u have good numbers on CF.
2011-02-27 00:31:19 - Chariot of Fire [team]: Fort FG to CF
2011-02-27 13:29:30 - Pedronicus: CoF for Pedro, Sunday only
So, even having been told by Pete that he would probably not be available I still posted in gamechat the best move for him to play, hoping that he himself would be able to take it. I then waited until 19 hours had elapsed before playing the turn as it was the last chance for me to do so.Game 8631053 15th March - I very reluctantly played this, but then Pete had notified me he'd be away so what else am I supposed to do? I was having terrible problems with my connection at the time and really didn't want to be playing CC. This is from the Absence forum dated 12th March:
by Chariot of Fire on Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:03 pm
Oh, I should have mentioned.....One problem I'm having is serious lag and constant timeouts from my PC and laptop at home - so much so that it's scary to start a turn in case I can't continue it. That is why this is coming to you from Pacific Coffee down the road, as I had to hightail down here to get into the site.
Spoke to my service provider and apparently there are complications due to the Japan quake, resulting in damaged cables and an overload in data traffic capability between Asia & N.America.
This went on for well over a week until the cable was fixed. Last thing I wanted to do was try playing an esc game on someone else's account so there was definitely no tactical advantage or abuse going on here.So I ask you....where's the abuse? I either jumped in when the clock was low - and this having already posted in gamechat what move I'd recommend - or I covered due to notification of absence by the person I sat for. This is fairly normal practice isn't it and is certainly within the rules and spirit of the game.
In closing I'm going to copy what I earlier sent in a PM to King Achilles:
I can understand why you did what you did - I'm not really upset about it as you've been kind enough to unlock the thread so I may post a defence. It was more a courtesy thing really as I expected you to have notified me before posting a ruling.
I'll be sending something to the C&A thread a little later. Please bear in mind I've been on this site for four years now and I've always endeavoured to be fair and honest - people who cheat the system really get on my nerves - and I've been a real tyrant to my clan mates in respect of them missing turns because I always want them to play their own turns. I've never said "Hey let me cover it for you because I can do better" or anything like that. I think I've been incredibly fair and honest. For this reason.....even though I appreciate the warning is only a slight punishment....I would rather clear my name. The only thing I'm guilty of is spending too much time on this site and being willing to help others whenever they have a problem, but it's never been done to gain any advantage and has always been in the proper spirit of sitting only when necessary or when asked.
I hope in similar spirit my defence is given fair consideration and that I'm cleared of any wrongdoing.
Thank you.
Childish nonsense this be....
