This will probably end up being the final forum-post I'll end up submitting within this specific thread, going forward -- as personally, I will respect Nikolas' wishes to not really so much try and brigade on his behalf and so forth -- regarding this whole ordeal and some of the more pertinent, salient elements that are most present throughout it all.
To get right to the short-&-sweet of it -- regarding Nikolas and all of the fuss about his *alleged*, perceived sandbagging that took place during some of the ill-fated days that lead to his eventual banning, specifically as it directly pertains to one of his fiercest, toughest rivals in the lichess zh-scene dating back to the early days of lichess' initial implementation of the variant -- in one "mariorton" -- I myself will for the sake of this supposed argument present to you all who might remember any of this footage I'm about to share (if, of course, Nikolas himself does not mind this too much), a rather-convincing counter, if you will, to the assertion that he at a moment's notice will suddenly give-in to the urge to "deliberately" tank his rating for malicious, ulterior motives designed only to serve himself... and somehow "get-over" on the system set in-place to prevent such ones from engaging in this sort of behavior.
Take a gander at this please, if you will:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLF0GwPWJFcAnd this also:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA-upgpDO1sNow, in the first hour-long vid I submitted here, many of you very astute observers might have probably noticed that, for one, Atrophied seemed to be enjoying a slight-yet-somewhat-definitive overall advantage with regards to their shared scoreline -- prior to the start of what he himself happened to choose phrasing his overall session with Mario as "the beginning of an emotional odyssey.".
Clearly, despite his genuine efforts put forth towards trying to obtain an overall favorable bullet-session result against the oft-dangerous Mario, things did not quite go as initially planned, all-in-all. As a result of this and maybe some other contributing factors that played a role in what was to follow over the course of their encounter on that particular day in online zh-chess history... well, near-full tilt happened. What else is new?...
Anyone here who knows anything at all about anything... regarding bullet chess -- in standard or non-standard form -- knows that, generally speaking, emotions can *and* usually do rise -- fairly quickly, I might add -- during the entirety of a tense, prolonged fast & furious battle between two closely-matched, fierce rivals. The initial hour-long footage shown here with the masses -- along with, to a lesser extent, the second vid shared here also -- quite simply is no exception to that.
Furthermore, if it couldn't be any more discernible to the trained... or untrained eye, the sort of unfavorable string of games Atrophied happened to produce from his side of the board throughout their lengthy series played... *strongly* indicated that there was absolutely *no* intent whatsoever to deliberately throw-away rated zh-game after rated zh-game and subsequent, considerable rating right along with that -- despite how undoubtedly strong the level of rage was that had built-up inside him, following the wave of momentum that shifted in favor of his opp and the resulting downswing on Atro's end that ended up occurring from all of that. In spite of how things transpired during these two separate bullet-session's, he continued *trying* to play energetically... for the win, still respecting both his opponent and the game itself to play with absolute sincerity and competitive drive.
And... this has been quite prevalent throughout a good portion of his total time spent playing zh here on this site (regarding some infrequent bouts of mild-to-strong tilt being concerned -- along with *many* of Atro's berserk-filled binges throughout the past, and how there was also almost always some erratic fluctuation of his rating during these specific days/times, which was entirely natural) -- along with whatever prior experience the young man obtained with playing on tilt, giving time-odds and so on, dating on back to the relative-heyday of places like F.I.C.S. and uschesslive.net, if I'm recalling the name of that now-defunct site correctly. No great mystery at all there with any of that...
This, ladies and gentleman, is all part of the "beast" that is speed chess, in variant-form or otherwise, and is not exactly specific to one set-group of individuals apart from the masses. Young, old (obviously, there seems to be a stereotype of sorts out there that younger *male* players -- in particular -- are in general more susceptible to fits of anger aka tilt and the like, during the midst of participating in competitive activities), male or female, high-rated or low, "it" doesn't discriminate. ;-P
During the course of that "emotional odyssey" of sorts for Atrophied, I myself back then -- upon taking all of that in for the very first time, in direct-contrast to a lot of his prior, relatively more-sedate, mature and calm content put out dating back to the inception of his YT channel -- admittedly happened to start formulating my own sort of slightly-negative opinions/feelings on the guy, his character, and so forth, seeing it as that after all, "it is just a game", and that he should also consider the fact that his some of his opponents too... are more-than-capable of outclassing and outperforming him on just about any given day.
Then, impressions, perceptions and initial ideas on the young man started to slightly change, albeit gradually, as time went on. I myself became more & more involved with playing highly-competitive speed chess... and subsequently became intimately acquainted with, well... "the good, the bad, the ugly... and the incomprehensible", of it all, along the way. Naturally, just by virtue of getting older, whilst beginning to at least *try* and understand people in general... and human nature itself, things began to sort of... connect, if you will, regarding one and their respective *human*-tendency to judge, pontificate... and so on... and so forth... versus taking the rather-narrow, sparsely-traveled road instead when it comes to dealing with our fellow man.
I do realize that I may very well be rambling on and on... about ultimately much of nothing here -- in the midst of my quest to sort of state my particular point(s) regarding all this subject-matter. Basically, I guess what I have been essentially trying say with all of this is that I, for one, can personally attest to what it's like to try and play competitively online, doing so during a time when it is probably most-advisable and wisest to pull ourselves way from the mouse, keyboard and monitor... and let it go -- just... let... it... go...
Despite how not-so-sporting, classless and immature it is to engage in rather-shameful, negative behavior such as when one is experiencing a bout of tilt or "full tilt" -- often times taking it out verbally on the ones we interact and/or play with in a more spiteful, venomous manner... and the like -- or worse, this on it's own is really not enough grounds or justification to deal-out some rather-swift and brutal forms of punishment towards an individual we may have deemed as being completely deserving of receiving -- in direct-response to the perceived offense/transgression we feel they've committed.
As Oblio himself deftly, concisely pointed out earlier today, maybe one in position of oversight and some measure of discretionary power... should in the future look to further-improve upon their methods for how exactly they go about handling the discipline of an offending site member, or once again an *alleged* offender -- by not rashly resorting to issuing them an indefinite, total ban for their account, maybe looking instead to either issue a courteous warning of sorts on the suspected issue, or if need-be, ban them from participating any further in the current event they're registered in -- along with maybe doing the very same thing for a few more future ones also, if the mod/admin really feels that is truly warranted.
But, getting back to what might be currently viewed by more than a few including most or all of the mod team themselves... as one of a select number of Nikolas' alleged offenses committed during his final days of actively playing on his account, it was my sincere hope that maybe I could help illustrate just how subjective and interpretative it actually is to engage one in matters of perceived, deliberate rating-manipulation -- based upon some of the footage I ended up fetching here from over a year ago or so -- directly from his YT channel.
Even though I have not yet gone through the particular, recent series of games in question that were played vs Mario, I am stepping out in some measure of good faith in both taking Nikolas' own words for it -- along with others here within the community who are presently vouching for his level of decency, respect and competitive integrity for the game itself, overall. Once again, that's about all that I wished to add to my initial post within this thread -- in regards to what can be more-or-less be conclusively determined as blatant sandbagging/rating-manipulation -- versus one who could very well have just had another rather-rough day at their respective online office, or instead became their own worst enemy of sorts, following what happens when they go on some form and level of tilt.
Hopefully, the recent footage shared here today will only help to further-bolster some of the contentions made within this specific post submitted here and now. :-)
