Hcom3 [2003693] —
Original article
One month on from the shocking collapse of The Untouchables, read the full story of how the faction lost $50billion worth of items, cash and points - as well as their pride.
On the 22nd of March a post by Kata informed the public that the faction UNT had been scammed by a former member of their leadership council to the tune of $50billion TCT. The player in question was identified as Trotsky, but Kata's exposé merely scratched the surface of what went down within the corridors of power of the so-called Untouchables.
The TL:DR version is that Trotsky got into an argument with Kingstown and he took some money and items to address this. But obviously, there is more to that, so to find out what really happened I interviewed four people connected to this issue; Sarah01, Trotsky, and two others who wish to remain anonymous.
The incident began with Kingstown asking Trotsky to test out a new API script that would monitor Xanax use during war. Trotsky received confirmation that the script was legal by a staff member, so he installed it into tamper-monkey and tried to test it with his API key. When he did so, only half of the faction members showed up, so Trotsky investigated by delving into the code to figure it out.
Trotsky concluded that the error occurred due to him not being the faction's leader or co-leader at the time. So, to test the script, Trotsky asked Kingstown if he could switch to the leader position for a few minutes to make sure it actually worked. Now to some, this may seem like an unreasonable request, but the UNT leadership works on a rotating basis, with duties shared between five people; Kingstown, Trotsky, Hydra, Somebody, and Ezekiel-25-17.
All of these positions were equal and meant to change as and when required. If someone wanted to step back from the leader or co-leader position they would switch out with one of the five, and if someone wanted a turn in charge the same arrangement would be made in reverse. Trotsky's request was therefore par for the course, especially since Kingstown himself had actually asked Trotsky to test this particular API.
However, Kingstown was reluctant to switch out from the leader position, and after Trotsky told Kingstown that he needed his API key if he wouldn't vacate his seat, the following conversation took place:
Kingstown: Uhm no lol. I do not give that out [the API] to anyone
Trotsky: I cant do anything with it dude
Trotsky: its just output...
Trotsky: and you can reset it in 30 seconds.
Trotsky: once I've seen if it changes the outputs
Kingstown: I'm not sure why you're trying to give my personal info to others.
Trotsky tried to reassure Kingstown that he wouldn't give his API key away but Kingstown was having none of it. From this point on, Kingstown shut his fellow UNT leader out, refusing to talk to him while claiming that he already had the API script running. For the time being, that was the end of that.
Except it wasn't even the beginning. During the time between their chat and a chain planned for the 19th of March, Trotsky repeatedly tried to get Kingstown to talk to him to explain what he did wrong and find a resolution. Kingstown did not message back, so at 12:30 TCT on the 18th of March - one day before the chain - Trotsky pilfered fifty billion dollars worth of items and cash from the faction, including essential chaining items like Xanax and FHCs, before exiting his role as a member of The Untouchables.
Following this incident, a new faction leadership discord was set up to which Trotsky was not invited. Trotsky then sent a mail out to all members explaining what he had done and why.
As you can see from the statement above, Trotsky did not take the money from the faction for personal gain and infamy a-la Jaiden, he took it to force Kingstown's hand and make him start talking to him again. This was all Trotsky wanted. If Kingstown would speak to him, Trotsky would return everything. And yet still, despite the faction's chaining efforts being crippled, the pair remained sat in a state of bitter silence.
An active trader by the name of Hermoine stepped in and donated ten billion dollars of her own money into the faction to allow it to continue operating and attempt their forthcoming 10k chain. Hermoine told the faction that this was a loan, and was assured by Kingstown that she would be refunded once Trotsky had returned the faction's assets.
Then, the ice thawed slightly. Trotsky was told that Kingstown would speak to him if he first returned all of the assets that he took. Little did Trotsky know, however, that once he did so he would be kicked. Of course, he had his suspicions, but Trotsky had no idea just how determined Kingstown was to avoid speaking to himl. Within the new leadership discord, Kingstown made an announcement. He said that there were two options on the table:
1.) Lull Trotsky into depositing all items and kick him without giving him the conversation he wanted.
2.) Let Trotsky go and rely on the money Hermoine gave them.
Trotsky suspected foul play was afoot - or he was informed - and demanded that Somebody, another member of the leadership, be made leader while this was resolved. Kingstown refused to hand over power to Somebody unless he kicked Trotsky. Somebody refused, so Ezekiel-25-17 was installed as leader.
Pictured: It was like Game of Thrones, except with less nudity.
Trotsky then reapplied to the faction to try and talk to Kingstown. After he was accepted, Trotsky deposited some of the money he took as a show of good faith, and then he made clear his demands regarding the rest. Trotsky wanted three things; a conversation with Kingstown on what made him uncomfortable, to stay in the faction after he returned everything, and acknowledgement as part of the leadership team - even though he already had this prior to the incident.
Kingstown's objectives were in conflict with those of Trotsky; he wanted to not have to talk to Trotsky and to retrieve the stolen items, and if he couldn't achieve the former, he would simply use Hermoine's money to avoid having to talk to Trotsky at all. This treacherous treatment of an innocent party caused many people's patience with Kingstown to run out, and several members of The Untouchables left over how stupid the whole incident had become. People were frustrated, and rightfully so.
Many wanted nothing more than for Kingstown to talk to Trotsky and get it all over with. When he refused, The Untouchables lost two great members; Sarah01, and BC-pagee. Sarah was in the faction for over 1050 days and BC-Pagee a little longer, but after their departure, even more followed in their footsteps. Trotsky was then kicked from the faction for the second and last time, and that was the final nail in the coffin. Trotsky would not return to UNT, the faction would not receive its items back, and Kingstown got his wish in never having to speak to Trotsky again.
Thankfully, it wasn't all bad news. Trotsky made a forum post before he was kicked announcing that if you had money in the faction vault when it was stolen you could ask him to give it back. And according to his own posts, he has given away some of his ill-gotten gains and even added a percentage to the amounts returned as a form of compensation for all the inconvenience. In the coming weeks, Trotsky would continue to bad mouth his former colleagues in a number of comments and threads, but in the immediate aftermath of his kicking, UNT had more pressing matters to attend to.
UNT had a chain coming up, and a big one at that - a 10k chain is no small feat. But with some of their strongest members and best chainers now gone, the faction stood no chance. Their chain broke at around 4,300. Fast forward a week later and UNT tried to orchestrate a second attempt, but Somebody noticed that Hermoine was making poor, low respect hits. He brought it to Kingstown's attention, and he decided to broach the subject with his faction's generous benefactor.
Kingstown relayed the results of this chat to Somebody, informing him that Hermoine was considering quitting the game. Kingstown followed this revelation up with the following quote:
"You know? If she quits, UNT will be very rich."
Kingstown wanted Hermoine to leave as it meant he could avoid having to solve the Trotsky problem, but he knew that he would be jeopardizing his faction's chances of wiping out the Hermoine debt if he brought up her recent chaining activity, so he decided to put that to one side for the time being. Somebody followed up with Hermoine and was told that she wasn't going to quit, just go inactive. At this point, Somebody elected to leave the faction. He realised he was stuck in between all of this and it was simply too much. Somebody started to write his resignation letter, but before it was sent, he received a message from Hermoine.
Somebody discovered that Hermoine had already asked Kingstown for the money back, only to be told that it couldn't be given out at such short notice. Hermoine agreed for the time being but indicated to Kingstown that she would be needing the money soon. Kingstown then asked Hermoine if she was going to give everything away to the faction when she quit the game. Hermoine responded in the affirmative but told Kingstown she had no intention of leaving soon, and on this occasion, she was merely going inactive.
Hermoine realised that something was afoot, so she asked for her money once more. Kingstown reassured her that he wasn't going anywhere and that her money was safe, but this was of no comfort whatsoever. Hermoine then asked Somebody for her money, and he immediately gave it back to her, with Hermoine's relief clear to see from the message she sent her faction leader.
"I'm really thankful to you, you got my ass saved off from getting scammed :p Its like, I was begging king to give me my own money and you agreed in minutes <3"
Kingstown intended to scam Hermoine of her $10 billion that she had so generously donated, and when a faction member is worried about being scammed by their leader something is not right. Somebody amended his resignation letter to include Hermoine's comments, and it soon became obvious to the faction at large that Kingstown was not to be trusted. He had somehow managed to eclipse Trotsky's theft of an entire vault of items and cash with this single act of deception, and when this information came to light, Kingstown had his own say on the matter.
At the time of writing, Kingstown has been inactive for the past 20 days. Whether he will return or not is another matter entirely, but hopefully, this article will serve to set the facts straight should he ever do so.
As the origin of this entire charade, I asked Trotsky for his final thoughts on the matter, and he provided me with the following quotes:
"From the first instance that Kingstown believed respect and gratifying others with a response when being called upon did not apply to him, he sealed his and the fate of UNT to this unfortunate capitulation. I hold my hands up, my actions are accountable, as is with anyone else."
"I have and always will give those people who are respectful every opportunity I can afford them if I believe their actions to be selfless. Kingstown acted in a self-important manner, what he failed to realize, is that people who are respected in this game are far more powerful and able to enact change, than those who simply have larger stats and higher levels."
"In a game which is based around crime, human nature is still ever present, decorum and respect grace Torn interactions daily and I hope we can return to a sense of peace and respect. No one is Untouchable."
Somebody, now a member of Itsi Bitsi Bikini, added his thoughts to those of Trotsky, expressing that he felt no remorse for returning Hermoine's donations against his former leader's wishes.
"I did what I believe was right by Hermoine, who helped us out in our time of need and was being taken along for a ride. I have received a couple of messages from current UNT members who were quite furious that I gave away their money to Hermoine and compared it to what Trotsky did a month ago."
"To these members, I would like to say, your money was not stolen. It was spent. By UNT. I'm quite certain the existing leadership will accommodate your requests and pay you out from the next loan they acquire."
As you can see, there are many different opinions on this argument, yet I imagine the one thing they would all agree on is that nobody is satisfied with the way this situation has ended. Within the space of less than two months, The Untouchables have lost three-fifths of their leadership team, several high-profile players, a number of chaining opportunities and billions of dollars of items and cash, as well as a great deal of respect from the Torn public at large.
And there isn't a script in the world that could fix all that.
The TL:DR version is that Trotsky got into an argument with Kingstown and he took some money and items to address this. But obviously, there is more to that, so to find out what really happened I interviewed four people connected to this issue; Sarah01, Trotsky, and two others who wish to remain anonymous.
The incident began with Kingstown asking Trotsky to test out a new API script that would monitor Xanax use during war. Trotsky received confirmation that the script was legal by a staff member, so he installed it into tamper-monkey and tried to test it with his API key. When he did so, only half of the faction members showed up, so Trotsky investigated by delving into the code to figure it out.
Trotsky concluded that the error occurred due to him not being the faction's leader or co-leader at the time. So, to test the script, Trotsky asked Kingstown if he could switch to the leader position for a few minutes to make sure it actually worked. Now to some, this may seem like an unreasonable request, but the UNT leadership works on a rotating basis, with duties shared between five people; Kingstown, Trotsky, Hydra, Somebody, and Ezekiel-25-17.
All of these positions were equal and meant to change as and when required. If someone wanted to step back from the leader or co-leader position they would switch out with one of the five, and if someone wanted a turn in charge the same arrangement would be made in reverse. Trotsky's request was therefore par for the course, especially since Kingstown himself had actually asked Trotsky to test this particular API.
However, Kingstown was reluctant to switch out from the leader position, and after Trotsky told Kingstown that he needed his API key if he wouldn't vacate his seat, the following conversation took place:
Kingstown: Uhm no lol. I do not give that out [the API] to anyone
Trotsky: I cant do anything with it dude
Trotsky: its just output...
Trotsky: and you can reset it in 30 seconds.
Trotsky: once I've seen if it changes the outputs
Kingstown: I'm not sure why you're trying to give my personal info to others.
Trotsky tried to reassure Kingstown that he wouldn't give his API key away but Kingstown was having none of it. From this point on, Kingstown shut his fellow UNT leader out, refusing to talk to him while claiming that he already had the API script running. For the time being, that was the end of that.
Except it wasn't even the beginning. During the time between their chat and a chain planned for the 19th of March, Trotsky repeatedly tried to get Kingstown to talk to him to explain what he did wrong and find a resolution. Kingstown did not message back, so at 12:30 TCT on the 18th of March - one day before the chain - Trotsky pilfered fifty billion dollars worth of items and cash from the faction, including essential chaining items like Xanax and FHCs, before exiting his role as a member of The Untouchables.
Following this incident, a new faction leadership discord was set up to which Trotsky was not invited. Trotsky then sent a mail out to all members explaining what he had done and why.
As you can see from the statement above, Trotsky did not take the money from the faction for personal gain and infamy a-la Jaiden, he took it to force Kingstown's hand and make him start talking to him again. This was all Trotsky wanted. If Kingstown would speak to him, Trotsky would return everything. And yet still, despite the faction's chaining efforts being crippled, the pair remained sat in a state of bitter silence.
An active trader by the name of Hermoine stepped in and donated ten billion dollars of her own money into the faction to allow it to continue operating and attempt their forthcoming 10k chain. Hermoine told the faction that this was a loan, and was assured by Kingstown that she would be refunded once Trotsky had returned the faction's assets.
Then, the ice thawed slightly. Trotsky was told that Kingstown would speak to him if he first returned all of the assets that he took. Little did Trotsky know, however, that once he did so he would be kicked. Of course, he had his suspicions, but Trotsky had no idea just how determined Kingstown was to avoid speaking to himl. Within the new leadership discord, Kingstown made an announcement. He said that there were two options on the table:
1.) Lull Trotsky into depositing all items and kick him without giving him the conversation he wanted.
2.) Let Trotsky go and rely on the money Hermoine gave them.
Trotsky suspected foul play was afoot - or he was informed - and demanded that Somebody, another member of the leadership, be made leader while this was resolved. Kingstown refused to hand over power to Somebody unless he kicked Trotsky. Somebody refused, so Ezekiel-25-17 was installed as leader.
Pictured: It was like Game of Thrones, except with less nudity.
Trotsky then reapplied to the faction to try and talk to Kingstown. After he was accepted, Trotsky deposited some of the money he took as a show of good faith, and then he made clear his demands regarding the rest. Trotsky wanted three things; a conversation with Kingstown on what made him uncomfortable, to stay in the faction after he returned everything, and acknowledgement as part of the leadership team - even though he already had this prior to the incident.
Kingstown's objectives were in conflict with those of Trotsky; he wanted to not have to talk to Trotsky and to retrieve the stolen items, and if he couldn't achieve the former, he would simply use Hermoine's money to avoid having to talk to Trotsky at all. This treacherous treatment of an innocent party caused many people's patience with Kingstown to run out, and several members of The Untouchables left over how stupid the whole incident had become. People were frustrated, and rightfully so.
Many wanted nothing more than for Kingstown to talk to Trotsky and get it all over with. When he refused, The Untouchables lost two great members; Sarah01, and BC-pagee. Sarah was in the faction for over 1050 days and BC-Pagee a little longer, but after their departure, even more followed in their footsteps. Trotsky was then kicked from the faction for the second and last time, and that was the final nail in the coffin. Trotsky would not return to UNT, the faction would not receive its items back, and Kingstown got his wish in never having to speak to Trotsky again.
Thankfully, it wasn't all bad news. Trotsky made a forum post before he was kicked announcing that if you had money in the faction vault when it was stolen you could ask him to give it back. And according to his own posts, he has given away some of his ill-gotten gains and even added a percentage to the amounts returned as a form of compensation for all the inconvenience. In the coming weeks, Trotsky would continue to bad mouth his former colleagues in a number of comments and threads, but in the immediate aftermath of his kicking, UNT had more pressing matters to attend to.
UNT had a chain coming up, and a big one at that - a 10k chain is no small feat. But with some of their strongest members and best chainers now gone, the faction stood no chance. Their chain broke at around 4,300. Fast forward a week later and UNT tried to orchestrate a second attempt, but Somebody noticed that Hermoine was making poor, low respect hits. He brought it to Kingstown's attention, and he decided to broach the subject with his faction's generous benefactor.
Kingstown relayed the results of this chat to Somebody, informing him that Hermoine was considering quitting the game. Kingstown followed this revelation up with the following quote:
"You know? If she quits, UNT will be very rich."
Kingstown wanted Hermoine to leave as it meant he could avoid having to solve the Trotsky problem, but he knew that he would be jeopardizing his faction's chances of wiping out the Hermoine debt if he brought up her recent chaining activity, so he decided to put that to one side for the time being. Somebody followed up with Hermoine and was told that she wasn't going to quit, just go inactive. At this point, Somebody elected to leave the faction. He realised he was stuck in between all of this and it was simply too much. Somebody started to write his resignation letter, but before it was sent, he received a message from Hermoine.
Somebody discovered that Hermoine had already asked Kingstown for the money back, only to be told that it couldn't be given out at such short notice. Hermoine agreed for the time being but indicated to Kingstown that she would be needing the money soon. Kingstown then asked Hermoine if she was going to give everything away to the faction when she quit the game. Hermoine responded in the affirmative but told Kingstown she had no intention of leaving soon, and on this occasion, she was merely going inactive.
Hermoine realised that something was afoot, so she asked for her money once more. Kingstown reassured her that he wasn't going anywhere and that her money was safe, but this was of no comfort whatsoever. Hermoine then asked Somebody for her money, and he immediately gave it back to her, with Hermoine's relief clear to see from the message she sent her faction leader.
"I'm really thankful to you, you got my ass saved off from getting scammed :p Its like, I was begging king to give me my own money and you agreed in minutes <3"
Kingstown intended to scam Hermoine of her $10 billion that she had so generously donated, and when a faction member is worried about being scammed by their leader something is not right. Somebody amended his resignation letter to include Hermoine's comments, and it soon became obvious to the faction at large that Kingstown was not to be trusted. He had somehow managed to eclipse Trotsky's theft of an entire vault of items and cash with this single act of deception, and when this information came to light, Kingstown had his own say on the matter.
At the time of writing, Kingstown has been inactive for the past 20 days. Whether he will return or not is another matter entirely, but hopefully, this article will serve to set the facts straight should he ever do so.
As the origin of this entire charade, I asked Trotsky for his final thoughts on the matter, and he provided me with the following quotes:
"From the first instance that Kingstown believed respect and gratifying others with a response when being called upon did not apply to him, he sealed his and the fate of UNT to this unfortunate capitulation. I hold my hands up, my actions are accountable, as is with anyone else."
"I have and always will give those people who are respectful every opportunity I can afford them if I believe their actions to be selfless. Kingstown acted in a self-important manner, what he failed to realize, is that people who are respected in this game are far more powerful and able to enact change, than those who simply have larger stats and higher levels."
"In a game which is based around crime, human nature is still ever present, decorum and respect grace Torn interactions daily and I hope we can return to a sense of peace and respect. No one is Untouchable."
Somebody, now a member of Itsi Bitsi Bikini, added his thoughts to those of Trotsky, expressing that he felt no remorse for returning Hermoine's donations against his former leader's wishes.
"I did what I believe was right by Hermoine, who helped us out in our time of need and was being taken along for a ride. I have received a couple of messages from current UNT members who were quite furious that I gave away their money to Hermoine and compared it to what Trotsky did a month ago."
"To these members, I would like to say, your money was not stolen. It was spent. By UNT. I'm quite certain the existing leadership will accommodate your requests and pay you out from the next loan they acquire."
As you can see, there are many different opinions on this argument, yet I imagine the one thing they would all agree on is that nobody is satisfied with the way this situation has ended. Within the space of less than two months, The Untouchables have lost three-fifths of their leadership team, several high-profile players, a number of chaining opportunities and billions of dollars of items and cash, as well as a great deal of respect from the Torn public at large.
And there isn't a script in the world that could fix all that.
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