Resignation Third Time's the Charm

As it turns out, third time is not the charm.


I resigned shortly before the Brawl Reconstruction was announced, and in about 2 weeks, all the big issues behind my resignation had been fixed. Brawl's no longer stagnant anymore - changes are finally going to be made, and I'm far more motivated to help out now.


I mentioned below that I was planning on resigning in January anyways due to other IRL obligations. In short, I'll be able to balance my time between Brawl and these IRL obligations, now that my time on Brawl will be worthwhile.


I'm going to be focusing most of my time helping with CTF and the upcoming gamemode, as well as doing general tasks.

Spoiler: Old Resignation

Well, my time has finally come... again. When I first applied for the staff team back in June of 2016, I didn't imagine it'd be a huge part of my life for the next 4 years.


It's been a fantastic opportunity, and I've met so many awesome people, achieved so many cool things, and learnt so many important lessons. I'll always be grateful to @Canoodle and @Lord_Roke for the taking the risk in accepting me all those years ago.


During my time here, I've been the server manager for 4 different gamemodes, banned 5,000 hackers, and have been behind countless changes that I really hope improved Brawl for all of you. It's sad that I didn't manage to revive Brawl, as difficult as that task is, but I'm happy to say that I did everything I can.


I know I've resigned a few times in the past and rejoined the staff team shortly after, but it won't be happening this time unfortunately. I'll be moving in with someone in a few months - if all goes well, it'll be a whole new chapter of my life, but one that won't have room for Brawl. Not to mention, I'm leaving on... slightly less good terms than previous times.


The above is why I won't be returning, and why I was going to be resigning in January anyways, but here is why I'm resigning now...

Spoiler: Rant

Unfortunately, there are some higher-ups who are holding Brawl back. These are people who used to be phenomenal staff members, but have since lost motivation and are no longer active. We have some absolutely fantastic JMods and Mods on the staff team, but without proper management, their potential is extremely limited.


Even SMods are limited to what they can do under this system. 2 of our SMods worked their asses off to get an awesome project done and ready to be released to you, and they've done everything they could to get it to you. But due to poor management, work on this project has completely come to a halt, even though it could have been released ages ago.


Furthermore, there's 1 higher-up in particular who doesn't even have a management role anymore, who doesn't even handle their own appeals, who is stubborn enough to handle situations he knows nothing about, without speaking to the people who could help him make an informed decision. And, for the record, many years ago when he applied for JMod, I -1'd his app. Told you so. :L

Rant over, because my experience on the staff team and in this community has been overwhelmingly positive. I've learnt a lot of skills that I now use on a day-to-day basis in my real job, and I've met some people who have been with me through some of the toughest times in my life.


So, the tags.


@Decelvice (or should I say iPoke111) - I still miss coming home from school and derping around on KitPvP with you. It was such a bad gamemode - a KitPvP server without any kits - and maybe I miss the simpler times rather than playing the game itself. But, during those simpler times, you were one of the highlights. We've long since drifted apart, but I still remember the fun we had.


@Sky_Lady_2000 - one of my first friends when I started playing CTF regularly back in 2013. Thanks for introducing me to a rather... intimidating community, for a 12 year old with social anxiety.


@Viva @MattM1PVP @Turmac (and an honourable mention to @xGhale) - alongside me, the last 4 HG staff members. Coming up with ideas, changes and entire HG reworks with you guys was some of the most fun I've had on the staff team. It's a shame HG never got the dev time it deserved, but I think you guys should be proud to be the last few remaining staff members trying to revive HG, a game played by about 12 million players. It was a pleasure working alongside you.


@Sn4x5 @RyGuy - the 3 musketeers! It's weird, we all came from completely different gamemodes but we got on so well. The grind for SMod was super interesting, to say the least. RyGuy and I got there in the end... and Sn4x5 got demoted for hacking... but it's the thought that counts.


@Droiid @TheMafias @Hitchens @Tjocko @randomcitizen1 @Verlyn @ChicknSlayr @charlottethegirl @TwisterPvP - God damn, do I miss playing Wild West with you guys. I played that game for hundreds of hours, got in the top 10 for gold (despite all the duping), and I was still always absolutely terrible at gun PvP. It's a shame Wild West ended up the way it did despite all our efforts, but maybe one day it'll be back... even if I have to single-handedly build it block by block on Hytale :L


@_featherpaw_ @GetShadowRealmed @DeadRhos @GalaThundR @Xelasi @Versions @wintergreen3 - you guys have always stood out to me as being some awesome people and great staff members. Most of you have long since resigned and dropped off the face of Brawl, but I'll remember you guys as being really hard-working staff members, and cool people to speak to. Especially you, Winter - you've been around for what feels like 20 years, and yet you're still working hard with media-related things. Good luck on SMod, you really deserve it.


@Raging_ - I never really knew you well, but you deserve a shoutout here for easily being the most chill person on CTF.


@Lceman502 - nerd.


@Carnotauros - every day is Frigay. I still remember the heated argument I had back in Brawl's Slack channel when you were first denied, because of an apparently immature response to being scammed and blackmailed. I'm so glad I did, you've been a fantastic staff member and a chill person to speak to since day 1.


@Canoodle - accepting me onto the staff team was a huge risk. It was only a few months since I was unbanned from the forums, and I literally had to go afk for 5 minutes during my staff interview... and yet you still gave me a chance. That chance changed my life. I will always be grateful for the opportunity you gave me.


@WiKi_KiKi @LlamasATA and other McPvP Plug.DJ staff - as a 14 year old, it was absolutely crazy being an influential staff member on a Plug.DJ community which peaked at 150 players. I had no idea what I was doing, and you had to put up with a lot of dumb stuff from me, and I really appreciate you for doing so. Founding that Plug.DJ and helping manage it is something I'll always remember.


@EmperorTrump45 - I know it's been a while since we fell apart, but before then, you were one of my closest friends for a good few years. Thinking back on you, I remember the good times chatting with you fondly. Thanks for being there for me.



@yairster - when you first applied for staff, I had never heard of you before. If I remember correctly, you were one of those people who joined the forums and applied for staff with their first post. I saw something in you - I don't know what it was, all I know is I was right. You've come such a long way, and you have a very bright future ahead of you. Stay in touch.


@Lord_Roke - Man, do we go way back... from forum banning me in 2015 to accepting me onto the staff team in 2016, then putting up with my **** for 4 years. Anyone who can do that deserves a medal. If there's 1 thing that's been consistent in the last 4 years, it's your unwavering level-headedness and impeccable grammar. (Though, I will admit, after all this time... I still think my forum warning for saying "tldr" was unfair )


@xxMineSheepxx - You're an absolutely fantastic staff manager. I know I've given you a lot of **** and I've complained about stuff constantly, but you've always handled it well and it's very refreshing to see someone in your position still motivated and still doing everything she can to revive Brawl.


Well, I think that just about covers everything. It's bittersweet, going over some of my most fondest memories I've had on McPvP and Brawl over the last 8 years, especially knowing that Brawl likely doesn't have much longer left. There's a few last things that I want to cover before I go:

Spoiler: A Word on Ghost Clients

If there's 1 thing everyone in the community can agree on with ghost clients, it's this - **** ghost client hackers.


I first heard the term "ghost client" back in 2016 when I first got Mod. They were fairly easy to detect back then, not really much harder to detect than killaura. The "traditional" method of recording someone and trying to figure out if they hacked worked very well back then, and we caught loads of people for using these cheats, including 2 members of staff.


Things quickly changed. Ghost clients started to get more advanced, and I spent hundreds of hours playing around with them to learn how they worked and how to detect them. Eventually, the battle was lost - ghost clients were too difficult to detect via the traditional method, and there was nothing I could do about it.


A lot of people will bring up "screenshare protocol!!!!" - and I agree. 100%. The whole "it's a security risk" argument is not something I agree with. While it is a security risk to let some random moderator run a .exe file on your computer, it's a risk that everyone was seemingly okay with taking. However, when you're in a position of authority, you can't just say whatever you think.


The official reason why screensharing was never a thing was because it was a security risk. That's the reason I had to repeat, and I did so for years. Publicly saying "no, we this isn't working" was not an option - the person in charge of ghost client detection coming out and saying that the method of ghost client detection was completely wrong would be unprofessional to say the least.


I was in it for the long run. For at least a year, I did what I could to make sure only blatant ghost client cheaters were banned. Anyone who wasn't blatant was simply impossible to detect properly through the traditional method, as evident by the fact that we always made controversial bans. Never bans where everyone agreed it was false, but controversial bans, where everyone disagreed. Nobody knew how to detect the more subtle ghost client hacks, staff and community alike.


Finally, finally, in June-July 2020, we ended up partnered with Badlion. That very same day, I wrote up the protocol that almost entirely gets rid of ghost client bans, while still protects the server from ghost client hackers. It was an opportunity I was waiting for after a very long time.


The whole "SoCool21 is unwilling to change!!!!" claim was simply untrue. I was willing to change for years - but I never had the final say. Once a new opportunity arose for ghost client bans to be handled in a different method, I jumped on this immediately and got radical change to the ghost client protocol implemented.

Spoiler: How I figured out who DreamyAmber was

This is a promise I made quite a long time ago. There was a player called DreamyAmber in the CTF community who a lot of people suspected was an alt. But after months of trying to get concrete evidence from players and staff, nothing was found.


I eventually banned DreamyAmber for being an alt of a permbanned player, and some of "her" friends weren't very happy about it. I never revealed the method because it's a method we could use in the future, but I promised that when I resigned, I'd let people know. Most people probably forgotten about that promise, but whatever, I want to honour it anyway.


It's simple - when you speak with the permbanned player on Discord, and DreamyAmber stops moving in-game while the permbanned player responds, it's enough to cause suspicion. When you get a permbanned player to watch a 4 minute video then respond with their thoughts on it, and DreamyAmber stops moving for about 4 minutes and then immediately starts moving again when the permbanned player responds, it's a dead giveaway.


I'm not sure if anyone even remembers that promise anymore, but hey, I like to keep to my word.

Spoiler: A last message to the community

I cannot stress this enough - your JMods and Mods are absolutely incredible. Of course, not every staff member is, and that's pretty much inevitable. But the vast majority of the JMod and Mod team are very hard-working and caring individuals who want the best for Brawl, just as you do.


A lot of the time, these staff members are limited in what they can do. Honestly, as an SMod and after 4 years of volunteering my time, I was somewhat limited in what I could do. I can only imagine how much worse it is for JMods and Mods.


When "the staff team" make a decision that you don't like, whether this is a certain gameplay change, a punishment you disagree with, or an idea that you feel was ignored, please realise that this isn't always the fault of whichever JMod or Mod is in front of you. 99% of the time, it is not their fault. Most of them go above and beyond for you, and I hate seeing some of the flame that they get for things that they haven't done. Go easy on them.

And... yeah, that's everything. This is only a resignation, not an outro - you'll still see me around on Discord, for better or worse. I might even log-in from time to time.


Thanks. Bye