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• Monday, September 27, 2010 |
It is apparent that drama makes the SL social and business scenes go around. Through the years, I witnessed more dramatic episodes here in SL, than the tween drama, “The Secret life of an American teenager”. I like to avoid the petty arguments and the “he said”, “she said”, while focusing on the positive things going on in our virtual world. But I just keep hearing about SFL, so I am curious as to what’s going on.
Not all of the drama in SL is bad. For instance, Theaters and Machinima Films have some amazing actors, scenes and special effects. But, at the end of the day, the cast and crew can detached their wigs and makeup and walk away unaffected. It truly is a dramatic experience in Second Life with episodes going on all day, every day, but in my opinion, theater is the best place for the drama because It brings on a great virtual experience , not only awe inspiring and creative, but a fun part of Second Life. Unlike the more brutal banter that happens off stage.
From a media perspective, I also believe, if there are issues in the community or what some people would consider “drama”, than all parties involved should have a chance to voice their opinions or sides of their story. You never know what you may uncover. It can open a nice big can of worms for some people if you ask the right questions and get the most honest and upfront answers.
On Friday September 24, 2010, I tuned in to Renegade Radio, while observing the practice going on at The SFL HQ. I heard the discussion/Interview conducted by the DJ Host Bannock Ogg, the GM of the SFL's Valhalla Packers, accompanied by SFL’s owner and CEO Romeo Torvalar as a guest.
Not all of the drama in SL is bad. For instance, Theaters and Machinima Films have some amazing actors, scenes and special effects. But, at the end of the day, the cast and crew can detached their wigs and makeup and walk away unaffected. It truly is a dramatic experience in Second Life with episodes going on all day, every day, but in my opinion, theater is the best place for the drama because It brings on a great virtual experience , not only awe inspiring and creative, but a fun part of Second Life. Unlike the more brutal banter that happens off stage.
From a media perspective, I also believe, if there are issues in the community or what some people would consider “drama”, than all parties involved should have a chance to voice their opinions or sides of their story. You never know what you may uncover. It can open a nice big can of worms for some people if you ask the right questions and get the most honest and upfront answers.
On Friday September 24, 2010, I tuned in to Renegade Radio, while observing the practice going on at The SFL HQ. I heard the discussion/Interview conducted by the DJ Host Bannock Ogg, the GM of the SFL's Valhalla Packers, accompanied by SFL’s owner and CEO Romeo Torvalar as a guest.
Unfortunately, I missed the radio show prior where former members, like BatRastard Panthar and other ex members discussed SFL and Romeo’s business tactics. The radio show I witnessed, lasted 3 hours and some interesting things were being said. It left me questioning what the “drama makers” where saying about him and the SFL Organization.
From my observation, I think a lot of what’s going on has to do with Ego trippin arrogance. It’s not uncommon in any Sports were testostorne is in high quantities. Ladies in sports can be pretty brutal too.
It seems like some people involved may have too much confidence or lack of professional business ethic, and we need a referee up in here!
I have been taking note of all the behind the scenes talk going on about SFL (Second Life Football League), it’s owner Romeo, , fans of this new phenomenon, a couple of ex players and even getting comments via IM or here on our website in regards to it. The hype and exposure may be big but the reputation of SFL might be suffering. The decision making on what has been going on, will be left up to the public. If you have any comments or opinions, feel free to use the reader opinion box at the end of this article.
Related Source: Romeo’s Side is also posted. See “SPORTS & LEISURE: SFL UNDER FIRE? ~Stacey Cardalines Reporting...” Posted 9/27/2010
SLE Interviews BatRastard Panthar on the SFL Drama
SLE: Who is BatRastard Panthar and what do you do here in Second Life?
BatRastard Panthar: I am a person who really enjoys SL and what it has to offer. Of course like any other platform in the world it has its issues, but we all work with what we have and try to enjoy it to the best of our abilities.
I am a grid wide game designer and owner of one of the largest grid wide gaming companies on SL with over 3 million plays to date combined on our games providing a FREE source of income to places willing to host our popular games.
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SLE: I understand you were a former SFL team owner, and one of the people known to have an issue with Romeo Torvalar (Owner and CEO of the SFL). How did you get involved with SFL in the first place?
BatRastard Panthar: Yes I am a former team owner in the SFL and I got involved when a customer at my establishment in SL came to me and had mentioned that there was a football league called the SFL and they had teams available.
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SLE: What caused the falling out?
BatRastard Panthar: Well of course you will hear 2 completely different stories...but according to the "league" I was ejected from the league for breaking some rules.
When he did his interview on the air on Fri. 23rd, he kept mentioning over and over again that I had broken many rules...but could not mention a single rule that I had actually broken. NONE at all. He said that I had gone to another team owner and was bashing and "creating drama". First of all I have the conversation with said owner. It was 4 sentences, and was in no way bashing the league. I had simply stated that the whole draft proceedings and free agency proceedings were in my opinion being handled wrong and were a fiasco. Tell me where there is ANY rule broken there. There is NO bashing, just a personal opinion, and there is NO violation of ANY TOS or SFL rules at all in what was said. My personal opinion was that Romeo did not like being questioned about his procedures, and lack of delivering a product that was promised by a certain date, which to this date, no actual product has actually been delivered to team owners!
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SLE: What rules did you supposedly break and what action was taken against you?
BatRastard Panthar: Well to be honest, the league has yet to say any actual SFL rule that I violated, and surely has NOT provided any proof to back these claims! And the action that was taken on me was NO WARNING, NO SUSPENSIONS, NO FINES....JUST EJECTION FROM THE LEAGUE!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SLE: Where you given an explanation of what you did to be ejected from the league?
BatRastard Panthar: I was given a very long letter basically bashing me throughout, with some claims such as, and I quote, “One of the league's players stated unequivocally that you released Basecamp material to him, and we believe this player." (basecamp was supposed to be a website for owners and team managers to get info on the leagues players and dates and such)
You see, there is no actual proof provided of such infraction at all. They just took hearsay from a player (most likely one I didn’t want to make an offer to) as truth. The league didn't offer a shred of evidence to back their claims.
I could say "this player did this and did that.....blah blah blah"...but without any proof at all, what grounds to they have to simply eject me with no warnings at all? I was never even contacted by ANYONE in the league about this claim!
Also the note said this, and I quote...."The league was informed tonight of a unanimous decision for your removal as well as the demands of several owners that you be removed immediately. The vote stands as follows that out of the rotating seats on the Governing Council of five teams, the votes were unanimous for your removal from the league"
Funny thing is I have spoken to 2 separate people that were on that "counsel"....one says he never even heard about it, and the other said "without any proof Romeo, you can't just eject him". So that’s 2 out of the 5 members, saying that they did NOT vote for this.....so how would that be "unanimous"?
Here is what was stated in the note by the SFL staff claiming such as "FACT"...with no proof at all!
"The Governing Council has found the following two facts:
1) That you did violate the terms of the web site disclaimer in regards to the dissemination of its information
2) That you have spread misinformation and rumors to other owners, causing disharmony (i.e. drama making)"
The league has NO proof of ANY 'misinformation" or "rumors" at all and no proof of ANY "website disclaimer infractions" of any sort!
"Causing disharmony" & "drama making"??? These are what are claimed as RULE violations? Well with no proof at all to back these claims, this is an outright joke, as well as being one of the most unprofessional statements I have ever heard!
And this is how the letter was concluded...
"As of now, we are revoking your membership within the SFL, and the decision of the Governance Board is final and without appeal. Please do not attempt to contact any member of league management about this decision; they will not answer you. "
Proving that they never even gave me a chance to defend myself!
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SLE: Did you suffer any monetary loses?
BatRastard Panthar: considering I spent quite a bit of money to buy the rest of the property on the sim to ensure that a game could actually be played on my sim as well as buying and helping build and design a stadium (REQUIRED BY THE LEAGUE), and also buying many products, and info boards (REQUIRED BY THE LEAGUE) as well as bumping my tier from a 1/2 sim tier to a full sim tier due to said land purchases, yes I did suffer monetary loss. As well as paying for helmets that the league never produced to me in the form of what was promised.
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SLE: Would you consider SFL a scam like others are claiming? Why?
BatRastard Panthar: Unlike the SFL's "rah rah rah" cheer fest on Fridays interview, basically trying their hardest to discredit anything that was ever said by anyone speaking about the SFL in the radio interview on Tuesday night, I handled my interview like a professional. And did no bashing. And I will not stoop to the levels that Romeo did.
I will not claim the SFL is a scam...just a very, very poorly managed attempt at a new idea on SL, in turn hurting many people along the way that blindly put their trust in someone that has never had a business on SL, let alone a successful one, and wasting many people’s time and financial resources in the process.
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SLE: During the live radio interview, the host mentioned you had been IMing him throughout the show, what were you trying to tell them?
BatRastard Panthar: I along with many other people INCLUDING current owners, former players, and former team owners, were trying to IM the "host" with responses to some of the claims Romeo was throwing around. And none of those questions were answered. I saw many of the lists of questions that were posted to Bannock Ogg in IM's........none of which were responded to; in turn creating a very one-sided interview that was all pro-SFL.
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SLE: In the end, they announced that you agreed to go to LL arbitration with Romeo about the behind the scenes issues brought up. What do you expect will be the outcome?
BatRastard Panthar: Well to this day I have yet to receive any information from the lindens that this request was ever made but gladly accepted due to the fact that I know there is no actual proof of Romeos claims! You see, Romeo has also made these same exact claims about many people on SL such as the now defunct XFL....he claimed that legal precedings were in the process, and that all their IMs were being pulled by the lindens and all the members were being investigated.
Also, Romeo’s former "SL girlfriend", and I hope I get the name right, pardon me if I misspelled it "Creamy Raine" who branched off and started her own league called the S.I.W.F.L. with claims that she also was going to be in legal precedings put forth by Romeo himself claiming that she "stole scripts from him" and "spammed members of the SFL".
He also had made claims that he has legal precedings in the process with "Uncleslappy Wylie" over his dismissal from the league, claiming the lindens are investigating him as well.
So to answer your question...this man in my opinion is nothing but a bunch of hot air, making fear tactic threats, promises and claims to help boost his "credibility" of which, from what I have seen and in many people’s eyes, has yet to be proven at all in the first place! Nobody, not a single one of the people that he has made all these claims on has received any "legal preceding" papers of any sort. That should prove my point rather clearly!
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SLE: Is there anything else you wish to express before I finish this interview?
BatRastard Panthar: I am simply doing this interview to open the eyes of some people to the truth. A lot of us on SL have a lot of time and money invested in many different undertakings. If people are not allowed to speak up about members that have basically abused their 'power" or offer promises of products on SL without delivering in turn costing many people that time and money...well who IS gonna look out for us?
This next comment is going directly to the owners of SFL teams.
You SHOULD be paying attention to what happens to other owners in the league unlike what a specific owner said live on the air and I quote, "I don't care about the panthers"....well you SHOULD! The SFL is supposed to be a COMPLETE product made up of teams, owners, players, cheerleaders, designers and more, putting lots of hard work and heart to make the "whole package", and especially if team owners are being ejected with no real merit or proof....well that will eventually affect all of you involved because the SFL will never be a success if the teams and management are constantly changing due to the owners personal preferences and decisions!
I suggest you all stand up together and speak up for yourselves and ASK those tough questions Romeo obviously does NOT like to be asked!
I thank you for your time and in closing this interview I would like to say, I do personally hope the SFL does succeed (unlike Romeo's speculatory claims) so I can open up my damn bookie business!!!!!
(Relax...... just a little humor!)
Batrastard Panthar
OCT 04 • Well Romeo has said many very VERY untrue things on a couple radio interviews recently which I will be responding to LIVE on the air Wednesday Oct 6th at 6:30 and will be inviting people to the sim (invite only due to threats of griefing and such if more interviews were to be aired) starting at 6pm to ask questions in person unlike he who only had guests HE wanted to interview and current members of the SFL to let people know the REAL truth about what has been happening instead of the "Romeo truth". If you are interested in being there for this live event then please feel free to contact me inworld! This is the link to here the interview... http://aqua.neostreams.info:12888
Question • xxxxxx@slcheerleadingsquad.com
SEP 29 • Question for BatRastard ...
Are the SFL telling people to leave your group or groups that you are linked to if they want to remain in SFL? They have done that to our members and are lying to people saying we are spamming, we haven't had anything to do with them or any of their people since they kicked us out --- like you, with no forewarning or an oppertunity to defend ourselves. We have never spammed them ever. The reason for our dismissal was due to the action of one of our owners, which in my opinion was a complete over-reaction to the situation. Instead of communicating with the other owner (me) or even both of us together ... all of our people were kicked out all at once, with no warning. SLE, you've got my email if you want an interview...
Mat
SEP 29 • Yeah this league has missed every promise it has made to the majority of owners, and has an insufficient amount of players for teams to be anywhere near starting. The only teams about to start playing are those with favortism, because members of the teams are dating admins and managers of the SFL.
Teams not favored, or banging an SFL admin are fed up with this and starting to drop out of the league. More teams will follow soon.
Stacey
SEP 28 • Once the SFL is up and running, I plan to offer odds on games.... for entertainment purposes only, of course.
Bravo!
SEP 27 • I applaud this man for exposing the SFL and Romeo for what it actually is! Thank you to SLE for posting a REAL story instead of just writing pro-SFL junk!
P.S. There are more people that have been burned by this league ...
OCT 04 • Well Romeo has said many very VERY untrue things on a couple radio interviews recently which I will be responding to LIVE on the air Wednesday Oct 6th at 6:30 and will be inviting people to the sim (invite only due to threats of griefing and such if more interviews were to be aired) starting at 6pm to ask questions in person unlike he who only had guests HE wanted to interview and current members of the SFL to let people know the REAL truth about what has been happening instead of the "Romeo truth". If you are interested in being there for this live event then please feel free to contact me inworld! This is the link to here the interview... http://aqua.neostreams.info:12888
Question • xxxxxx@slcheerleadingsquad.com
SEP 29 • Question for BatRastard ...
Are the SFL telling people to leave your group or groups that you are linked to if they want to remain in SFL? They have done that to our members and are lying to people saying we are spamming, we haven't had anything to do with them or any of their people since they kicked us out --- like you, with no forewarning or an oppertunity to defend ourselves. We have never spammed them ever. The reason for our dismissal was due to the action of one of our owners, which in my opinion was a complete over-reaction to the situation. Instead of communicating with the other owner (me) or even both of us together ... all of our people were kicked out all at once, with no warning. SLE, you've got my email if you want an interview...
Mat
SEP 29 • Yeah this league has missed every promise it has made to the majority of owners, and has an insufficient amount of players for teams to be anywhere near starting. The only teams about to start playing are those with favortism, because members of the teams are dating admins and managers of the SFL.
Teams not favored, or banging an SFL admin are fed up with this and starting to drop out of the league. More teams will follow soon.
Stacey
SEP 28 • Once the SFL is up and running, I plan to offer odds on games.... for entertainment purposes only, of course.
Bravo!
SEP 27 • I applaud this man for exposing the SFL and Romeo for what it actually is! Thank you to SLE for posting a REAL story instead of just writing pro-SFL junk!
P.S. There are more people that have been burned by this league ...
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