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For the past few years, the case against LEGOMAN has been made multiple times. Whether it was the September scandal of last year, the unfair advantage of the major CPForever event, the monumental revisionism and bias he committed on the Wiki, or some other scandal. No matter what we tried to do, LEGOMAN was left unscathed. We chose to forgive many times, including myself. After all, he made a post reflecting on his mistakes and promising this would not happen again.

I promise, I have been and will continue doing better.
— Legoman, ‘A Reflection and A Promise‘.

I don’t think we as a community failed. LEGOMAN made a genuine plea that he would do better, we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and for a while, it really appeared LEGOMAN had changed. I don’t think we were naive to trust him again at first. This post is not here to criticize what appeared to be character growth in the months between his post and the months afterward. Rather, we need to have a talk about his recent actions—actions that frankly cannot be simply forgiven anymore after the multiple chances we have given him. I implore everyone to read this in full.

I.

Earlier this week the Beach Brawl tournament was held with PIC, SWAT, and FG taking part. In the end, PIC reigned supreme but not without controversy. I had been informed by CPAJ whilst the tournament was ongoing that PIC could be disqualified due to a staff member (who I will be keeping anonymous out of respect for them due to ongoing IRL stress) of the Water Vikings taking part for them. Whilst they held a rank in PIC as well, they legally could not attend for PIC due to tournament rules.

Dual enlistment is not allowed, and individuals may only attend for one army. They must stick with that army for the duration of the tournament.
— CPA Administration, ‘Beach Brawl III: Announcement & Information‘.

Given the nature of what had just happened, I immediately inquired about what happened, and what we found was absolutely morally bankrupt. Below are five screenshots showing how he tried to manipulate our staff member to sabotage PIC and thus tried to underhandedly win Beach Brawl. Note that we did photoshop out his profile picture and name only for the sake of keeping him anonymous. Exports can be provided to necessary authorities if necessary.

LEGO took advantage of a staff member of WV to violate tournament terms for PIC due to a supposed “friendship” between the two. But friends would not use each other for pawns. It’s legitimately disgusting. Lego made sure to try and cover his tracks through voice chat (something I can personally confirm he does to avoid being recorded and used against them) too. It makes it all the worse when you find out this staff member is very young (12 but legally permitted on Discord due to their account being shared with an older sibling).

As of writing, PIC and SWAT are allied with one another and have been for 8 months now. They worked closely during numerous wars. So to see Lego try to throw their ally under the bus is not okay. If you somehow argued this somehow didn’t happen despite the burden of proof, the first screenshot nonetheless suggests Lego wanted their own ally screwed over.

It is ultimately PIC’s decision on how to approach the future of their alliance, but they were informed after the tournament what happened and why they weren’t disqualified. But frankly what happened this weekend was not tolerable. Manipulating a young minor for your own tournament gain? I don’t get the logic behind that… It’s uncomfortable to even think about that but unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.

II.

There’s also something else we cannot ignore. That being the state of SWAT talk about the obvious for some change to happen. For the past few months, SWAT has been in a rough condition. That’s not to say they’ve been utterly abysmal. After all, they did max 22 in Legends Cup, 30 in Beach Brawl, and 20 a few times in their recent war. But like an iceberg, you only see a small percentage of it on the surface.

Like an iceberg, you only see a little that can skew your perception.

Firstly, I’d like to talk about the elephant in the room: SWAT’s consistency. SWAT for the month of August has been very inconsistent. Whilst it is true that they’ve peaked quite high, it has been balanced out by its more weaker sizes. A look at SWAT’s top ten weekly averages for the month of August paints a good image.

I have said before that living and dying by the Top Ten is not a good philosophy; it really isn’t the best metric. So why do I bring this up? I bring this up because whilst the Top Ten can’t be something to live by, it still gives you a good idea of where your army is trending. SWAT got 9th place on the Top Ten of July and has only marginally improved. To my knowledge, I don’t even think SWAT had any events this week despite scheduling some.

As I mentioned in my comment, the community is far more important—and it still is. That’s why I can’t pick on armies maxing low on occasions. But when you normalize this type of behavior that has been going on since July 2nd, it can be a bit concerning. It doesn’t help that I regularly hear about event cancellations from SWAT. SWAT had 3 events scheduled this week but I see nothing for them. That is when I have to care about the Top Ten trends.

I for one don’t think SWAT’s community is non-existent. I have no right to critique something I have no idea about. But from where I stand, this rebuild has been very stressful to watch and pretty negligent. Is it solely LEGO’s fault? I’m sure it isn’t. He might actually be behind the scenes, the only one caring. But when you’re effectively the solo leader (after Sweater left halfway) and you recently got force-treatied for no-showing a war you declared, I do become concerned. As Krill, a SWAT 2nd-in-command, has pointed out, SWAT was “not quite prepared for the war”.

The failed war, falling sizes, HICOM jumping ship, mass-cancellations, and more are all signs of a dying army. It’s not a very ideal situation and as long as this negligence continues, it will become a lot more difficult to salvage. SWAT doesn’t the resources like ACP did to get out of an almost impossible-looking rebuild.

Understand where I am coming from with this section. I mean this as a constructive outlook on SWAT’s current state. I’m sure this is a sentiment many SWAT veterans and even current SWAT (including yourself in private, LEGO) agree with. I may admittedly not be fond of SWAT, but no one legitimately wants an army to suffer—especially an army with a legacy like SWAT.

III.

Something I learned the hard way when leading UMA in 2020 was even if you may have a great community around you, you cannot be ignorant of genuine and pressing issues around you—whether it is size or controversy-related. As Mustapha said to us, you play to win the game.

Army leaders lead to succeed. That is what we do. But right now I don’t know what SWAT’s goal is under LEGO. As I mentioned in the second point there seems like an unclear future and isn’t helped by the clearly underhanded move you tried to pull this Beach Brawl.

We cannot underestimate what LEGO has done for SWAT. SWAT, for as bad as it has been, has still remained somewhat relevant. LEGO was also responsible for numerous SWAT rises. He may very well be SWAT’s best CPPS leader and an all-time SWAT leader. This post isn’t here to underscore that.

What has to be talked about, however, is his recent behavior and SWAT’s very concerning state. If you are too busy with IRL LEGO to look after SWAT regularly, then you are free to step aside. If your staff is too busy to run the army, you are free to have SWAT go into a temporary lockdown like WV did after depressing maxes last fall. It may be bad for your pride, but long-term success is more important than pride.

This is what I want to leave you with. You have made a serious mistake once again and actions will have consequences. I’d like to believe you can change LEGO and be given a second chance (and maybe you can) but we’ve been at this crossroads many, many times before. How many second chances can this community give you?

Because a message needs to be sent for ANY change to happen (especially after you manipulated one of our staff), WV will be reclassifying SWAT as an enemy army and thus will not be engaging in any activities (i.e. practice battles and others) with them. That does not mean we are at war—I feel like I need to clarify that. But we will not be enabling LEGO’s actions.

I call on other armies to also take a stance—whether it be publicly or a private and not drastic decision—against SWAT for the time being. It doesn’t need to be a permanent foreign relations decision (like us). It also doesn’t mean you must see SWAT as an enemy (we do as this is our and PIC’s struggle). What it does mean though is not giving SWAT any proper attention similar (but not exactly) to the community’s stance against DCP’s multilogging in 2016.

We must take a stance, absolutely, but for the stance of SWAT realizing its mistakes and changing for the better. We cannot continue to normalize behavior like this. Nothing will ever change should we continue to allow “second chances” in hopes of something changing when it feels like it’s all talk.

Dino
WV Acting First Minister

Filed under: Declarations, water vikings | 2 Comments »