MB4 R3 - UDC vs. War Mer'chine vs. Mongoose vs. F Narwhal

[boot]

A duck vs. a gregarious narwhal vs. a giant wobbling mer-mech? Really people? Is this what the deathmatch has come to?...Ol' Norm's gonna figure out how to hack this bitch. Oh yah. I said it.

...now, if only I could find the 'hack' button on this macbook...

Gotcha' covered, Normie. Sorry I'm late. Did we win?

[SEELE_01]

Well I'll be the one that's not afraid to say this is total bullshit (see my post above). I called that Norm would get Mongoose into the final round along w/ his other prohibitive favorite, Wermachine.

The fact that we decide just in this round to investigate voter fraud is a total croc. All of the previous rounds have gone to shit, and yet it is this one that demands a thorough investigation? Also, how can we simply eliminate some competitors' votes and not others? While we're at grandfathering in competitors, why don't we just eliminate Minotard for Tristegotops?

It's these typical shenanigans that occur every year that keep the MBDM from being one of the most respected online competitions in history.

Indeed, this don't sit right with me one bit. It's making me apathetic of the next round, although I'll try to stave my apathy off. I don't want one bad experience to ruin my enjoyment of this grandiose event.

[Mikes]

So I've re-acquainted myself with the Unspeakable Duck and the War Merchine, having not heard the second one before, and... isn't the machine supposed to be 80 feet high or something?

[angagaur]

The War Machines of the Merfolk were about 200 ft tall and could smash a building with their fists.

[Mikes]

That's what I thought, but it's listed as 18 feet on the 'powers'.

I understand the scaling down to give the others a chance, but I would live to see some Shadow of the Collosus type action going on here. Plus seeing an Unspeakable Duck sailing around a towering robot's head while Mongoose phases her way up its leg would have made an awesome picture.

[tbaker2500]

That's what I thought, but it's listed as 18 feet on the 'powers'.

I understand the scaling down to give the others a chance, but I would live to see some Shadow of the Collosus type action going on here. Plus seeing an Unspeakable Duck sailing around a towering robot's head while Mongoose phases her way up its leg would have made an awesome picture.

Oh heck yea. Perfect game analogy.

[StalinSays]

So I've re-acquainted myself with the Unspeakable Duck and the War Merchine, having not heard the second one before, and... isn't the machine supposed to be 80 feet high or something?

Certain liberties have to be taken, otherwise there is no conceivable way the duck and goose aren't cooked. My thinking is that the Merfolk's army has ranks, and a varied arsenal. Our Mer'chine is a foot soldier, compared to a grenadier, or a tank. Like Mongoose, who is a cat compared to the Bandersnatch's teleporting elephant (I forgot exact comparison from the story, you get my point).

----

The fact that we decide just in this round to investigate voter fraud is a total croc. All of the previous rounds have gone to shit, and yet it is this one that demands a thorough investigation? Also, how can we simply eliminate some competitors' votes and not others?

The rounds before were dirty, this one was filthy. Narwhal went from second to last, to first, to fourth, and back to first in like a day. I was compelled to look under the hood. I understand that Boris snuck up, Taurd snuck up, but none to the tune of 200 votes in an hour. Trust me, I'm unemployed, I have time to lord over these things. The way the last day of the skirmish went down made 'normal' voting pointless. So we're scrubbing,

There is no agenda in the substitution - were I tending to personal interest, I'd have let the result stand. My goal is always balance, parody between competitors, and sticking to three beings of the same dimension, same planet, would make things a lot easier. Smarmy, Narwhal, Snuffles, I'd have taken them all over Mongoose. But she was by far the least tainted, and in fourth place. I mean, look at that poll at the top of the page, you think this thing shouldn't be in round 3?

Nice n' clean solution to any qualms about the skirmish results: vote against Mongoose. If it wasn't supposed to get in, it won't win.

[tbaker2500]

Well said, Bo.

[SEELE_01]

Nice n' clean solution to any qualms about the skirmish results: vote against Mongoose. If it wasn't supposed to get in, it won't win.

Deal.

[Mikes]

Narwhal went from second to last, to first, to fourth, and back to first in like a day.

I'm glad you confirmed this Bo, I thought there was some issue between my work and home computer. Each time I'd log into one the results were completely different the other I'd looked on just two hours before.

[SEELE_01]

So wait, do we have any actual evidence there was hacking... or is it just that there were a lot of votes really fast? Because if someone had access to a multitude of computers in a small area it would make sense to have such a large vote in such little time.

[moonowl]

If someone had access to a multitude of computers in a small area it would make sense to have such a large vote in such little time.

That didn't happen last year with HellCat.

Nope.

I swears.

As far as i was told, taking the time to log in lots of computers and manually voting, one ever couple minutes is cheating fair and square. A 'bot or something that can bang out votes with no effort in seconds isn't fair.

[moonowl]

There is no agenda in the substitution - were I tending to personal interest, I'd have let the result stand.

RECOUNT THE HANGING CHADS!!!!!!!

(Serious pretend animal deathmatch is serious)

[StalinSays]

So wait, do we have any actual evidence there was hacking... or is it just that there were a lot of votes really fast? Because if someone had access to a multitude of computers in a small area it would make sense to have such a large vote in such little time.

I can look at the IP's and browser information for each voting instance. There is a way it looks 'normally.' Tuesday's huge vote dumps were coming from the exact same computer, or one set of networked computers on the same router. A New Jersey voter had some particularly egregious submissions. I could see Norm's vote spamming from Baltimore, running through the computer lab like he likes to, and it was about a 5th the size, and the pattern was different, and varied.

[SEELE_01]

So wait, do we have any actual evidence there was hacking... or is it just that there were a lot of votes really fast? Because if someone had access to a multitude of computers in a small area it would make sense to have such a large vote in such little time.

I can look at the IP's and browser information for each voting instance. There is a way it looks 'normally.' Tuesday's huge vote dumps were coming from the exact same computer, or one set of networked computers on the same router. A New Jersey voter had some particularly egregious submissions. I could see Norm's vote spamming from Baltimore, running through the computer lab like he likes to, and it was about a 5th the size, and the pattern was different, and varied.

A variance would suggest it was being done manually though wouldn't it?

[normsherman]

It's these typical shenanigans that occur every year that keep the MBDM from being one of the most respected online competitions in history.

Hehe. this coming from a guy who farts into the phone pretty much every deathmatch podcast we do. Anybody who was refreshing the vote page continuously tuesday night could see that there were shenanigans afoot. That being said, I think it hilarious and kind of awesome that someone was able to find and exploit a loop hole. If the friendly narwhal didn't SUCK so so incredibly bad, I'd actually probably lobby for him to keep his dirty win.
But this will be a better 3 way anyways. Too many intangibles with the duck and narwhal in the same ring. It'd be like saying 'who's win in a fight-- sign language or the color green?

[Mikes]

...what shade of green?

[strawman]

I hear the Chinese People's Army has an entire university devoted to exactly this type of hacking.

"Corporal Zhweng! What are you doing listening to the corrupt, imperialist Drabblecast ? You will be severely reeducated!"
"I am not listening to it, Commander Wu-Lin! See? I have developed a program to enter massive votes for Friendly Narwhal. And now I am analyzing paranoid response to the subverting of their imperialist Mega Beast war game."
"Aha! Zhweng, very clever. But what is this part about the Mongolia Death Worm? Is it possible that they have discovered Project Trojan?"
"It appears they still believe it is a mythical creature, Commander."

[jannypie]

(Serious pretend animal deathmatch is serious)

^what she said

[SEELE_01]

It's these typical shenanigans that occur every year that keep the MBDM from being one of the most respected online competitions in history.

Hehe. this coming from a guy who farts into the phone pretty much every deathmatch podcast we do. Anybody who was refreshing the vote page continuously tuesday night could see that there were shenanigans afoot. That being said, I think it hilarious and kind of awesome that someone was able to find and exploit a loop hole. If the friendly narwhal didn't SUCK so so incredibly bad, I'd actually probably lobby for him to keep his dirty win.
But this will be a better 3 way anyways. Too many intangibles with the duck and narwhal in the same ring. It'd be like saying 'who's win in a fight-- sign language or the color green?

Seriously, it's not like the fight could take place on a beach or anything.