Hydra Week 6: Aric versus Kruger

[JewellRavenlock]

I was unfortunately not around last night, but I was informed this morning that Aric was not allowed to fight at his Baron rank last night.

Why was this the case? Although the standings weren't posted, his barony was valid starting on Thursday when the standings should have gone up, correct? If not, how is that fair?

Because the standings weren't posted on time, Aric was then penalized by not having his rank available to him? That rank could have made the difference between a win/loss.

[Harris]

3. Challengers, while they may be considered the new titleholder upon victory, will not gain the benefits of that new title until such time as the Standings reflect their victory. (I.E. Warlords, should they win a Barony, will maintain their 4 fancies until the new standings)

Title changes aren't valid until the standings actually go up.

[JewellRavenlock]

Right. But those same rules say:

The DoS Standings will be considered Official on Thursday, 6PM EST. If they are posted before then, any challenges made before 6PM EST on Thursday will be considered null and void, allowing other challenges to be issued properly.

So if there's a computer glitch or human error or whatever and the standings aren't posted before 6PM EST on Thursday, when are they considered valid?

[Harris]

That clause was specifically created to cover early standings, in order to even the playing field for potential challenges.

Late standings are considered valid whenever they go up. The standings went up today, they're official as of today.

[JewellRavenlock]

Got it. Thank you :)

I think it's a shame that there is no clearly posted rule for late standings because it can be abused.

ETA: Just to be clear, I'm not implying in ANY way that it was in this case or anyone ever has. I think it's just unfair to multiple people: people kept their rank for possibly longer than they should and others didn't get to use theirs for longer than they should.

[Sylus Kurgen]

Got it. Thank you

I think it's a shame that there is no clearly posted rule for late standings because it can be abused.

ETA: Just to be clear, I'm not implying in ANY way that it was in this case or anyone ever has. I think it's just unfair to multiple people: people kept their rank for possibly longer than they should and others didn't get to use theirs for longer than they should.

How exactly can standings being posted late, be abused? And by whom?

[Eden Parker]

Sylus, there could be the appearance of manipulation or abuse when a staff member posts the standings late, and the late standings negatively impacts an opponent of that staff member for a scheduled team duel.

For example, if the situation were reversed here, and the person who was negatively impacted was Kruger, that could have the appearance of foul play, since Kal, a team member of Kruger's opponent, regularly posts the standings (I think?). The point being, it could look like the standings were intentionally held back to force someone to duel at a lower rank than the one they earned.

I'm not saying such a thing would ever happen intentionally. I don't think Jewell is either. Just explaining how such a scenario might seem fishy.

[Andrea Anderson]

For example, if the situation were reversed here, and the person who was negatively impacted was Kruger, that could have the appearance of foul play, since Kal, a team member of Kruger's opponent, regularly posts the standings (I think?).

Sylus uploads the standings for DOS. Kalamere does DOF. Rena does DOM.

Edit: It's also a rare norm in regulation for standings to maybe be late. Hydra's only a small part of the year as well. It'd probably be easier to make Hydra non-regulation so that the standings don't even matter compared to rehauling the way standings are treated.

I'd also like to say there's the honor system. It's like if you were to call a duel for your teammate, would you like to openly be questioned about your ability to call non-bias? How many duels in Hydra were called by teammates? Should that be not allowed as well? A duelist is fighting on both teams the same week they are head to head but in different sports ( which isn't banned in the rules of Hydea, but is in IFL? ). Simply having an alt on another team could also then raise eyebrows of suspicions of possible fraud / move sharing. It then opens up more and more doubt.

[Eden Parker]

Yeah, to be clear, I'm not saying this sort of abuse, or the appearance of this abuse, is particularly likely. I agree that a lot of this game runs on the honor system, and injecting mistrust into it is not a good idea. But that's also why, where possible, it's probably a good idea to avoid even the appearance of anything hinky. That's why I did not call Hydra duels for my teammates. I know others avoided that as well. I like to think people in this community would trust me to call an unbiased duel, but I'd rather just not give any one reason to wonder to begin with.

Anyhow, I'm not advocating a rule change here or anything. Sylus asked a question, and I was just helping him see the answer.