October 31, 2024
Discord may no longer be aflame with open conflict, but the fallout from Hockey Zone’s “civil war” still lingers like smoke in the air. The days-long clash between the factions has left the server fractured, with alias-wielding defectors and a scattered landscape of banned members lying in its wake edit: only one person has been confirmed being kicked.
Both sides now sift through the wreckage, pointing fingers and questioning loyalties—wondering who infiltrated, who remained loyal, and which bots were covertly siphoning data across enemy lines.
The Bot Wars
The bot feud reached new heights during the war when Fur of Fur discovered his bot mysteriously rerouted to 5.0, allegedly through Zapier, a bot that was acting as a “pass-through” set up without his knowledge. Upon entering 5.0, Fur fired a warning shot:
As retaliation for this, Fur of Fur coded the scrim bot to give the achievement: “Traitor of the Realm” to anyone who had joined 5.0 and remained there. In fact, I also got hit with that message when I logged on to subspace for an RSHL match.
It seemed Fur was serious with the “I will return fire” part of his message to Big E. In fact, he also planned to give extra points in-game to people who beat traitors on the ice.
He also closed the channel for uplink due to the data stream fiasco: UPDATE: Fur says that this is a misunderstanding, since he did not actually close the link. For clarification, the permissions for the passthrough were removed by Steve (Whitmer) after people claimed no one knew who put them there – but the deep logs clearly show it was members of 5.0 – the bot was never down.
In the screenshots above, ‘closed’ is Fur restoring the channel to being registration only. (which only happened when people started DM’ing him the bot was in 5.0 – which at that point he was not invited too / even aware existed).
Despite clear demands, Fur was removed from 5.0 during the solar purge, and not invited to the ‘public vote for 5.0 / future of HZ’ – along with many others.
At this point, one should ask: was it right for Big E to use a backdoor way to grab a bot that did not belong to him and bring the data to 5.0? And was it right for Fur of Fur to retaliate the way he did?
For days, the server simmered with accusations and unease, which in Discord terms was almost like an eternity. Paranoia spread like wildfire as members watched the silence from Whitmer stretch on, each day feeding the suspicion that he might be stalling—in fact, a Discord user who shall remain unnamed mentioned to me: “the longer Whitmer keeps dragging his feet on this “proposal” (if he hasn’t already made the decision that its better to just try and smoke us out by waiting) the worse this is getting.”
Finally, on October 23rd, more than two days since the war started, Whitmer posted his long-awaited forum thread, detailing his plan for a new Hockey Zone Board of Directors to satisfy the masses. The proposed five-member council would handle Discord moderation and community transparency, effectively ending the rule of the so-called “shadow council.” And with that, the first sign of calm took hold.
Votes for the new BOD are now rolling in as we speak, and the community is hopeful that these five members will finally bring peace. But even as ballots are cast, one question lingers: will this be enough to heal Hockey Zone’s scars? Or has the civil war already left wounds too deep to mend?
Tension, however, remains. To some, the specter of the so-called “shadow council” is hard to shake, despite the new faces up for election. Allegations of favoritism, long-standing grudges, and mistrust still linger in whispered side conversations and messages. For others, the proposed BOD marks a real chance for change.
Some of the old guard are pessimistic about the change:
While a few members of the community remain hopeful:
How do you feel about the plan to have a new BOD govern decisions in Hockey Zone and the discord? Do you think it will be enough to bridge the gap, or will it simply open a new chapter of power struggles? Will these five bring transparency and trust back to the community?
Very soon I will be releasing my direct interviews with each BOD candidate.
Stay tuned for that next article!