The Anti-Hax Formula: Curtain Call

I got leaked info about the IS thread last night after making a fool of myself in the main chat. Rather expected, but good work guys :)
 

reachzero

the pastor of disaster
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Words almost can't describe how insanely fun this was. I loled when I noticed my name in foible's signature. Also, my apologies to Haunterfan for apparently talking him into actually supporting the formula. :( "Hax is part of the game, no sense in complaining"
 

zorbees

Chwa for no reason!
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
I had a thought in the back of my head that this was some sort of ruse, but it never really developed due to all of my anger. Good job guys.
 

DougJustDoug

Knows the great enthusiasms
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For those of you that are wondering -- the clause will be taken down shortly, and the OU ladder rankings will be restored to their state immediately prior to the implementation yesterday. There should be no permanent damage from this joke, other than a little wasted time by some battlers today. But I think it's a small price to pay, all in the name of a good joke. ;-)
 
Geez I'm the biggest sucker in the world, I got soooooooooo worked up about this. There were so many times where I actually had to stop browsing the forums before I posted something that may have caused my policy review permissions to be revoked.

Well played, I salute all of you.
 

Mario With Lasers

Self-proclaimed NERFED king
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On the other Pokémon forum I'm a mod, people were decided to leave and never go to Smogon's Shoddy Server because of this clause, lol. Even I "lost hope" on this community before hearing that we'd have a suspect test for it.

That said, I loved this prank. It was really cruel, but now I can't stop laughing at how beautifully done it was. Good job, really.
 
lol, I didn't notice at all. I won the ones I was suppose, lost the ones I was suppose to. Didn't make a difference. Well-played.
 
Thank GOD this wasn't real. I was seriously considering things such as:
-Quitting ShoddyBattle
-Getting everyone I know to join Smogon and send the leaders of this project PMs asking for at least another ladder
-Making an online petition
-Going to the library, making like 10 Shoddy accounts, and spam anti-Anti-Hax Clause messages
-Attempting to ladder with Magikarp, Delibird, Hoppip, Skiploom, Jumpluff, and Lopunny, all holding a Focus Sash and only knowing Splash. (I am dead serious, scarily enough)
 

locopoke

Banned deucer.
Haha wow, good timing too. I just made 2 comeback wins after getting haxed a whole game, yet somehow they gave me a loss. I was getting pissed off at the fact that I'd have to deal with this for a while. Good thing it's all a joke.
 
What was the chance of battle being overturned? It was said to be like a coin flip, but it didn't seem to be close to 50/50, so I'm just wondering what the actual numbers are.
 
Great prank guys.

But I hope you turned the darn thing off now, cause I just lost to a low rank because of it and screwed my record over big time.

But all in all smogon rules april fools....what no teir changes thisd year? lol.
 

KoA

Sorry, I thought anteaters were real
is an Artist
It was great seeing this joke til the end.

Also hah to those with messed up ratings now. B)
 

Jibaku

Who let marco in here????
is a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
BEST....APRIL FOOLS....EVER! (Who cares about caps?)

All I have to say really. I may not have done anything significant in the play, but the whole time arguments fly on and the gullible people running about. It was an amazing sight. Doug has secured his win for Smogon Awards 2009 IMO.
 
Geez I'm the biggest sucker in the world, I got soooooooooo worked up about this. There were so many times where I actually had to stop browsing the forums before I posted something that may have caused my policy review permissions to be revoked.
Haha yeah same here. When I came back to the site and saw that I about flipped my lid. Especially with the whole debate on the weather glitch and game mechanics going down in PR.
 

DougJustDoug

Knows the great enthusiasms
is a Site Content Manageris a Top Artistis a Programmeris a Forum Moderatoris a Top CAP Contributoris a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus
Here's an excerpt from an internal post to the cast, where I describe the real logic in the Anti-Hax Clause:

The Anti-Hax Clause has been implemented on the Smogon server. It is implemented with a "countdown timer". The timer counts the hours between now and 12 noon EST on April 1st. For example, as I type this, there are about 17 hours between now and noon April 1st. That means that the clause will give every close battle a 1 in 17 chance of going to a coin-flip to determine the winner. One hour from now, the chance will go to 1 in 16. An hour later it will be 1 in 15. You see the trend? So, as of noon tomorrow, every close battle will be decided by a 50/50 coin toss, just like we planned. The timer allows this clause to overturn very few battles at first, and progressively overturn more and more battles. Until noon on April 1st, when it will be a total mess!
FYI - a close battle was defined as battles ending 1-0 or 2-0. If it's 1-0 -- a single coin-flip was made. If it was 2-0, then two coin flips were made.

So, you can see, the incredible irony of the joke was that the clause was intended to de-emphasize luck -- when in fact, it actually made winning almost TOTAL LUCK!
 

haunter

Banned deucer.
Words almost can't describe how insanely fun this was. I loled when I noticed my name in foible's signature. Also, my apologies to Haunterfan for apparently talking him into actually supporting the formula. :( "Hax is part of the game, no sense in complaining"
No problem Reachzero,though I feel a bit stupid at the moment... again, an awesome job guys.
 

bugmaniacbob

Was fun while it lasted
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I never believed this was real for a second.

Well, maybe one or two minutes.

In any case, this was uncannily well done and beautifully orchestrated, and clearly much more planning than many of today's comic performers. It was funnier than them, too. Congrats.
 
Yes, I'm officially regarding as sane! On the internet, not in real life (if you knew me you'd understand).

Though to be honest, I had serious suspicions when it became apparent that the ladder was going to be implemented on April 1st. Before that there was no reason to make a connection to April Fools at all. But I agree with Doug in a way, this has been an interesting thought experiment that has come up with some remarkable results and allowed me to improve my argumentative skills.

And to everyone that betted on me "cracking" first, I'LL FUCKING KICK YOUR FUCKING HEADS IN!! That's incredibly insulting to my intelligence. I would never flame anyone intentionally YOU FUCKTARDS!! GO SUCK OFF YOUR DAD, THEN FUCK YOUR MOM, AND FINALLY YOUR SHELVES!!!!!

Just kidding. Thanks for the compliments!
 
Wow, what an elaborate scheme. You nailed everything like you wanted in the script thread :

"For the casual, uninterested Smogoner, the thread should look like some "boring theorymon debate in PR"." - Just... yes, I fell into this role. I like to read the threads in PR to see what is going on, but this thread just wore on me and I gave up on it and fell into an uninterested user. My thought process was that I won't have a say in it anyway, and I just don't have time to keep up with all the details so I'll just ignore it and become that uninterested Smogoner.

"At this point, we should dust off a few "Wise Old Veterans". They will lament about the historical impact of hax on the metagame. They will reassure the community that this formula is simply the latest step in a long line of measures Smogon has taken over the years to ensure that skill is the primary deciding factor in competitive play. Phrases like "Even though I don't play Pokemon any more..." and "I remember back in GSC..." -- will probably be used liberally." - These were a nice touch

This morning I finally took a hint after I posted in the anti-hax thread and reread the details of "if you win 3-0 the chance of getting the game overturned is the equivalent of lightning striking your computer and electrocuting you" (whatever the quote was, it was along those lines). I finally took a hint because it had happened to me this morning and didn't quite feel lucky enough to have lightning strike (and I quit battling after that fact). I also put together the pieces of the timely "delay" and "problems" implementing the ladder to push the date back this afternoon.

Well played, great stuff
 

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