Qualifications:
For those who don't know, but must know, my name is Kyle Mechler. I go by Spiffman, and many of you have seen my work here with GotFrag as well as with CSNation. I've also spent time involved with the draft league and volunteering with the CPL. If you don't think what I have to say is worth reading, stop now. I'm just qualifying myself to you so that I get rid of the 50+ flames that seem to be conjured up every time someone here posts their first feature.

Okay... lets get to the juice, shall we?


Stating the obvious:
Hopefully everyone reading this has some kind of idea about what events transpired last night. If you haven't, go read through the comments on the melee. If you don't want to, go ahead and read this anyway, I suppose, just don't come to me asking where I got information because I just told you.

Last night, Echo 7 played a match against Texas Area Untouchables. Both teams are what I would call "experienced." Not equally, mind you, but both have been around long enough and withstood some kind of test of time that seems to be an unwritten rule around this league. The first half was played out perfectly fine. TAU was Terrorist first half and managed to get four rounds against e7. The spread being considered somewhere between three to four rounds for the Terrorist team, we'll assume that TAU was fairly satisfied with their first half performance. The teams switched sides, and began the second half relatively seamlessly.

Second half underway, TAU took the pistol round just fine and followed up with a second win as e7 rushed the bridge ultimately to be met with three nearly simultaneous HE grenades. Needless to say, the score was 2-0 in favor of TAU in the second half, and they were in for either a third round fight since e7 had completely saved, or a long wait as e7 would camp it out to try to mess up TAU's money system. TAU, noting that e7 had saved all their money in the second round, threw their mp5's for m4a1's in the third round. e7, however, had a strategic moment, and camped the third round realizing that TAU was aware that they saved. TAU charged anyway and got the 3rd round win as well.

Okay, but you aren't here for a match write-up. So what happened next? TAU lost the fourth round as e7 had AWP's and very well-timed flashes and made an entry through double doors. This puts us at 3-1 heading into the fifth round. This is the round that we're examining most closely. In all the other rounds, the only thing resembling anger that I could find in the demo was HeavyArms' comment, "DO NOT LOOSE THE DOUBLE DOORS," and seconds later, "DO NOT". Obviously he was frustrated about the round loss. TAU evaluated the situation during the buy time of round five, and saved noting that several people were stuck with about $3200, while others had $4500. This means that even if they had lost this round (they did a total save, mind you) they would be back with the poorest player sporting at least $5000.

The fifth round began and the teams exchanged a kill, making it a four-versus-four situation. Seconds later, one more TAU died and another picked up an AK just as the server crashed.

Mere seconds passed. Seconds.


The less-obvious:
The server. Who's was it and who had access to it? This is a big question with an answer that we may never fully be able to answer. The server was a DFW-based GameDaemons server belonging to Texas Area Pimps, a popular CAL-M clan. This means that, while TAU indeed had rcon and was responsible for what happened in the server, someone else may have had access as well.

According to several sources on GamesNET, CAL was able to get a hold of GameDaemons and the official word was that the server was restarted manually with someone that had access. More mysterious, however, is that the IP that was logged as restarting the server was traced back and found to be coming from a dial-up connection. For those of you not familiar with the basics of hacking, this means it's tough to catch. Not all-together impossible, but no one really wants to go that far out of their way for something that happened in Counter-Strike.

The rules of a server crash dictate that if four rounds have passed, you play from the point of the crash and just resume the score. This means there would be a third pistol round. If four rounds haven't passed, you start the half over from 0-0.

But that is for a crash. GameDameons tells us it was a manual restart. Someone meant for this to happen.


Seeking out a motive:
TAU certainly could be concerned with making the playoffs, and why not? They are sitting in third place in their division with 7-6 at this point. After CAL awarded the win to e7, they are 7-7. The closest person that is a threat is Pinnacle, and they are playing Team 3D (that match postponed until Sunday). TAU then doesn't need this win, they just need a win next week to keep up with Pinnacle. Furthermore, the round that it restart on was a round that TAU had a somewhat generous save. They saved despite their poorest player having $3200. They would've been able to buy any and all equipment they would have wanted next round very easily.

e7 is in the playoffs. They're a shoe in at this point. Sitting at second in their division, it isn't likely that they will miss the post-season unless they disband in the next week, or get caught with something illegal in game.

If no team needs this win particularly worse than they've needed a win every other time they've lost, what other motives are there?

Mischief? Someone with rcon was just looking through their HLSW list and noticed a match going on and typed in "quit" and waited to see what would happen. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. Remember, this person was on dial-up to the best of CAL's knowledge, and we have to assume that they did the very best they could to get that information accurate.

Conspiracy? Maybe someone just doesn't like TAU. For that matter, it could've been an enemy of e7 wanting to wreak havoc on their game. Obviously it would have been a prank gone awry, but they couldn't see the future, and for the time being, they were trying to terrorize one of the teams. Possible? Again, yes. Likely? Maybe more likely than mere mischief, but still, very difficult to prove.


The outcome:
TAU, having been responsible for rcon, was penalized because of the restart. Remember, it was not a crash. Everyone confidently believes that someone restarted the server. Where these logs are that show this? I can't be certain. I wish I knew, but I'm not a CAL admin, and if I were, I probably wouldn't be high enough in power or rank to get my hands on them.

e7 certainly has been cooperative, as has been TAU. They both rejoined the server and played from the 3-1 score, assuming it was a server crash. TAU got their 9 total rounds for the half and, score-wise, they won the game (though there was a third pistol round, which means that round was unrealistically weighted in the outcome of the second half). e7 has even offered to re-play the half.

Ultimately, CAL examined the situation, and in trying to make a clear decision on the matter quickly, they awarded e7 all of the rounds for that half, assuming that TAU restarted the server. I'm not in any position to disagree. TAU did have rcon. They were the only people known to be controlling the server at that time. That does make sense. But it doesn't seem to add up.

In my mind, TAU is no worse off. It's just one match. It does matter, not just for the sake of their record, but pride and generally their angst having been declared guilty when perhaps they may be innocent. It is very difficult to tell; and maybe things will be re-played.


Something to leave you with:
What kind of writer would I be if I didn't leave you with something to consider. Consider this: It must have been one of the four following persons:

1.) TAU - Whether it was out of frustration, or a strategic decision, it doesn't matter. They restarted the server and are trying to cover themselves up despite being stuck without any source of defense (logs, for example).

2.) e7 - Having given up four rounds as Counter-Terrorist, they were frustrated and spent their dead time in the next half logging on their parents' laptop and dialing up to a local ISP. They logged on with rcon and...

3.) Clan Enemy - One of these teams may have themselves an enemy that found a way to get away with messing things up for the both of them tonight. It could be TAP1. It could be some other person with rcon that stumbled upon it on accident having played in a pug with someone from TAP1. Who knows?

4.) GameDaemons - In their routine upgrading, they restarted a server before checking who was on it, and found themselves in a quandary. Finding themselves being cross-examined by CAL, they didn't bring themselves up as a suspect, but instead told them it was a manual restart, and waited to see what events would unfold.

Seriously? I don't think ANY of these are likely, so I obviously don't have an answer for you. Think about it, though, and maybe you'll see something that no one else has. Wouldn't it be great if we could have servers controlled by an admin at all times and neither team had rcon? If the admin paid 100% attention and was totally competent and was in the match for the duration and took care of restarts when they were needed? Maybe it would be great. Maybe it wouldn't. Maybe this is just one more reason it would.



Thanks for reading. Feel free to flame. Again, please leave my mother out of it. :D -Spiffman