Forum topic: Umbrella Racing-gate - What now?

Umbrella Racing-gate - What now?

Those not aware, Umbrella Racing in Div 1 has a sister team in Div 2 called PJ F1. Both run by the same manager.

Umbrella looked like it could win Div 1 but has just missed out. PJ has already won Div 2.

The problem? Owning two teams is against the rules. There is also the situation where one guy would have two teams in Div 1 in season 12. This is how it came to our attention.

This has already meddled with two championships all year. Div 2 should have a real champion who has been robbed.

Now, there is also a relegation battle and by not entering the final race, both teams are therefore affecting the season finale by opening up point slots that would otherwise have almost certainly kept some teams up and down in cases.

It seems clear both teams will be discarded. But what of the results? Do they stand, are they recalculated with two cheat teams removed? Or are they kept?

The issue gets messier when it comes to promotion. There will be two extra unexpected promotions from Div 2. They might love the chance, they might not. Is it fair? Maybe.

Then again what of the Div 1 teams that might have lost a championship? Or demoted because of the meddling?

Do you give two surprised Div 2 teams an automatic promotion? Are they ready? Or do you promote one extra Div 2 guy and reduce one relegation spot in Div 1 to reflect the league's affected in equal proportion?

I raise the issue as I am one of those affected. My friends in both other divisions could lose much deserved titles.

There's bigger things in the world, but hey, in our little bubble this is headline news

What will happen is that nothing happens

Albert did most likely not cheat on intention, otherwise he would not have stated that he will not promote with his 2nd team.
Frank stated that he will contact Albert for further actions (e.g. closing PJ, or Umbrella)

Intention or not the damage is done and correcting the damage will cause more damage - therefore most likely one or two teams will be inactive but will stay in the division. Therefore next season in div1 will be ONE inactive team (in case PJ really leaves competition as announced) or 2 inactive teams - we will see

The best 2nd place div 2 team will be promoted, ready or not, and will have the chance to race in div 1 - good, bad, ... btw: how did you get to div 1 Dan and besides that you are in the battle for staying up in div 1 you did well, maybe under your expectation winning div 1 but for a team that never won a championship - not bad

Like Phil said, it's interfered with the season far too much to simply remove them from the results. It's not just the fact they finish ahead of someone, it's also the fact that they can hold up cars in the race that cause other teams to lose more points than they otherwise would have. What will happen is that the results up to this point will stay the same. There is not a fair way to fix things so you have to go with what happened.

What should happen now is that both teams are closed and removed from competition with Albert plus all staff and drivers, including future contracted persons, removed from both. Albert's manager ranking should be reset so he can't jump straight into another big team if one comes available. He is then free to start from scratch. There has to be a penalty for doing this otherwise there is nothing stopping any Tom, Dick or Harry from starting up a second team, gaining info until they are caught and then just being forced to close the second team but keeping all the benefits gained from having two teams in the other team. I know this is a relatively small game so losing a user is not great for Frank but losing one user because he got caught cheating and got punished, is better than losing 2 or 3 users because the person was not suitably punished, which affects their team. Albert hasn't logged into Umbrella since finding out the reaction to his admission and hasn't logged into PJ since the admission. I sense he won't be back anyway but he only has himself to blame.

As for what to do for the rest, with Umbrella removed from competition, I would give the spot to the team that finished 9th in Div 1. It still leaves 4 spots for promotion so the winners of 2.1, 2.3, and 2.4 will go up but the only thing you can do with the other spot is have the best 2nd placed team promote. It's not fair but none of this has been. It's the rule currently in place in case 1 of the top 8 teams from div 1 leave competition so we should just follow those rules.

However, what I think will happen is we will have an inactive Umbrella in div 1 instead of the 9th place team. The rest of the teams will promote as mentioned. It's times like this that Frank could really do with more people behind the scenes to pick up on dual teams and to help decide what to do when people do cheat. That last part can be done without the need of access to the admin side of things.

I say Umbrella should continue as before - Frank has fined the team so there has been punishment delt.

What needs to Happen is the rules need to be more clear when starting up at the moment it is hidden away but you get a check box to say you have read and understand them - however you have to hunt around to find them in the first place! how many of us can honestly say we did this when we first started? I ticked the box and then during the season found the rules - I did not read them first!

There needs to be a process when starting that you click to say you understand that you are only permitted one team and that multi accounting will result in a ban.

Lets leave Umbrella alone now as it is clearly a mistake and although it has messed up a lot of things it does make pitwall a dynamic human invoked game - this is what makes it great - you wouldn't get this on a single player game!

Case is closed, see Franks statement in the chat. Lets hope it doesnt happen again.

Agreed with Philip RE: public stoning. I am guilty of adding to this, I apologise for the open execution.

In future I will report privately. Sorry guys.