Think of the Children!

It was an ordinary WCG USA flamefest going on, with the usual cast of characters. Media vs Louder Round 2 was on like donkey kong:

Idra said:

"Stop acting like you deserve it because you're a horrible player and you aren't fooling anyone."

Louder said:

"Command of the facts clearly isn't your strong suit. Stick to gaming, you're significantly better at it."

Idra said:

"You're bad at forming coherent arguments, better stick to cheating your way into broodwar tournaments."

But when Louder said:

"Shouldn't you be scrubbing the Korean's toilets right now?"

Idra came back with this volley:

"and id much rather be cleaning korean toilets than ... raising a bunch of little brats who are gonna turn out as fucked up as their piece of shit father."

And suddenly nobody is laughing:

"damnit just by reading this last post by idra , i feel bad for louder."
"ok this is going too far, you guys need to stop posting on this thread."
"you definitely don't have kids, because you would never say that."
"you never talk about kids, because any parent would go berserk"
"dont' run your fucking mouth about peoples kids"
"there are lines you don't cross"

And even paragraph long rants from no-name Zeller:

"Seriously? bringing someones children into an argument about a computer game. Get real dude, dont fucking talk about someones kids. I dont care how bad this dude wronged you or a friend on Starcraft , you do NOT talk about someones kids. Thats low fuckin character right there, you know you would never say that in person because thatd be your ass."

Apparently Idra "went there." While TLGG sees nothing wrong with talking about someone's kids, TL and WCG USA seem to have a huge moral problem with it. 24/7 trashtalk, abusing, hacking, flaming, that's all fine and dandy, but talking about someone's kids!? Oh no you didn't.

But what if there was an unwritten rule that you kids were off limits? Imagine all the paradoxes this would create:

1. If Louder's kids flamed Idra, could he flame them back?
2. If Louder's kids met Idra's kids, would everyone just be quiet?
3. Can Louder's kid flame Idra to Idra's father?
4. If Louder's kids are playing Monopoly, and one takes a bathroom break, would the other kid petition to have his brother disqualified?

Moral of the story, if you don't want to get insulted through your kids on the internet, don't have kids. Or don't advertise that you have kids to the online gaming community. Or even better, when you have kids, stop participating in internet flamewars with teenagers.

Idra WCG 2008: ilnp redux?

Idra is not unfamiliar with special treatment. Since traveling to Korea to train on eStro, TL’s favorite pale redheaded egoist has been allowed to play from Korea for the TSL, and now apparently will be allowed to compete online in WCG USA without having to fly back to the United States. The obvious concern is that he could have a Korean semipro or pro to play for him.

As Media members and groupies are quick to point out, Idra doesn’t need a Korean sub. His improvement since arriving in Seoul is obvious: after being bounced out of his first Courage tournament in the first round, Idra made the quarterfinals in his second try, losing 1-2 to the eventual winner, zergstyle[gm]. But the fact that Idra fully deserves a slot does not mean he should receive a huge edge over the other players: not having to travel. In fact, since Idra already has a huge advantage over the other players in practice quality and volume, you could argue that he should be the last guy who gets this free pass. He’s the only participant in WCG USA whose job is "get better at StarCraft" and it's understandable when weaker players like Sadist complain, especially when the same online exemption isn't provided to others.

TLGG wishes it was around in 2003 during the original ilnp WDT scandal, but it’s never too late to take a look back. For those that aren’t familiar, WDT was a ladder where players paid an entry fee ($20) to participate in a tournament with large prizes. Ilnp (aka Dudey), a TL.net forum member, won the tournament, defeating many well-known top foreigners in the process. However, his tournament matches were played with triple the APM and a significantly higher skill than the community has seen from this player. It’s become widely accepted that ilnp struck a deal with a Korean pro to play for him and split the money. Remember, this was a time before hotkey fingerprinting was established and people believed it was possible to transform your play overnight.

Here are a few quick and dirty links about the whole incident:

Ilnp’s side of the story
Testie’s accusation
Nazgul’s response
Rekrul revealing it was Oversky

WDT Scandal Part II was promise by Smuft and Elky that the winner of WDT travel to Korea and receive a spot on a proteam. Obviously, this generated large sums of money in signups, as every 2003 version of Combat-Ex and LastShadow ponied up $20 to prove their mad skills. But not only did Smuft and Elky take back this promise, but they weren't going to tell the winner until after he arrived in Korea. Oh, how much TLGG wishes it were present during that conversation.
If you want to read more about ilnp and WDT, the TL Search Function will show you the way. Will Idra walk the ilnp road or play it straight? Only time will tell.