SPARTAN OPS LEADERBOARD CHEATING

Games Other Halo
1

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*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

TL;DR ADAPTION: No. Read the thread if you care. If you don’t care, don’t post. A simple solution for a readable forum.

The following messages have been manually cross-posted from a recent thread (Confessions of an Infinity Challenge Winner). This was done so that the content of these messages may receive the exposure they deserve… as opposed to being on the second page of a thread which most haven’t read, and which is mostly about an unrelated topic (that of how pathetic the people who competed in the Spartan Ops leaderboards must be; yes, we get it, it is truthful, it is acknowledged, it is here irrelevant so please leave that discussion to that thread THANKYOUVERYMUCH).

The only relevant context of that thread, which applies here, is the original post here quoted:

> In the aftermath of the Infinity Challenge I got in touch with some of the world’s top scoring players to get their views on what had happened and how they played. It makes an interesting read!
>
> http://www.littleenglishhaloblog.com/2013/01/confessions-of-infinity-challenge-winner.html

Again, please do not make this thread about how you think the people who played in this contest are pathetic. That’s a valid perspective, but it is not what this thread was intended to discuss. This thread is meant to indicate problems with cheating on the Spartan Ops leaderboards, that they may be amended and the proper winners awarded.

Replies by me, with links to where they were originally posted, here follow.

2

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not call out individuals. This includes forum members, moderators, administrators, and non-forum members.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm2224389_Confessions-of-an-Infinity-Challenge-Winner.aspx#post2224389

This innocuous little blog post of disinformation just caused me a meltdown which I cannot describe fittingly with words that this hypocritical forum won’t censor, nevermind that we should all be well above 18 to rightfully play this game if content ratings mean anything to anyone. I am straining, really straining, to not start swearing anyway just to convey how much irritation the existence of this blog post has incurred on me.

Let me start from the beginning, which was about 25 minutes ago.

I get a message from I Draxus I (who is the legitimate #2 Tier 1 Spartan Ops player, in case you didn’t know) which reads as such:

“ask mango to see the link i sent him on fb…we need to flame this blog asap!”

Translation: Ask Astral Mango (the legitimate Tier 1 Winner of the Spartan Ops Infinity Challenge) to see the link I sent him on Facebook… we need to write angry comments on this blog ASAP!

Astral Mango was in the party with me, as he is wont to be, and after the current Spartan Ops mission we were playing ended, I relayed this information to him and he promptly goes and checks Facebook on the laptop next to him. Once I begin to hear him hyperventilating over the mic, I ask him to send me the blog link so I could check it myself.

Checking it myself involved leaning over to turn on my nearby computer, disconnecting and reconnecting my keyboard to the computer, switching my monitor from the Xbox input to the PC input, dealing with a mouse that had suddenly decided to malfunction (involving further physical reconnects and snapping the button on and off), and waiting for my computer to perform the normal processes necessary for me to boot Firefox and load a webpage.

All while I hear Mango complaining about everything written by the joint account cheater credited on your insipid blog, which I hadn’t gotten to read yet, and Mango making up his own false hyperbole over [CLASSIFIED] having written an “acceptance speech” and giving the impression that this blog had perpetuated a lie of some consequence in a place where anyone cared. Fortunately, it seems not many people here care, but since this thread is still on the front page I can’t do any harm by bumping it.

And then Mango gets bored in the game chat waiting for me to overcome my present technical difficulties, and starts reciting random names he’s sent invites out to, and starts pleading ORWELL COME BACK TO THE GAME LET’S DO BIG TEAM LET’S START IT COME ON LET’S START IT OH YOU HAVE TO SWITCH YOUR MONITOR HUH I JUST HAVE A TV AND ANOTHER TV AND MY LAPTOP ALL NEXT TO ME WHY DON’T YOU JUST FORGET IT AND START THE GAME ALREADY C’MON LET’S PLAY HALO.

The sort of superball energy that wins week-long insomniac contests in the guise of a videogame. Legitimately.

How do I know Astral Mango is the legitimate winner of the Spartan Ops contest? I was there, that’s why. And moreover, here’s some pictures to discredit the current false second-place cheater as well. LOOK, INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE:

[CLASSIFIED]

Those are unfakable photographs, as they had to be, which is why they were taken on a glorious CRT television as to exhibit all the authentic defects of the display. That is what xSOGx Spartan51 said, and that is the incontrovertible evidence that he as well as his brother cheated. Of course, it had more to do with them passing the controller on the same account than circumventing a loophole regarding “ONE PRIZE PER HOUSEHOLD”, but that goes without saying don’t it?

So what about the current “winner”, [CLASSIFIED], as honored on your blog? Well, what about him? Do I personally know he cheated, as I do with the second-place cheater? Unfortunately, I do not. All I have is the hearsay of Mango whom insists that he’s heard testimony of “everyone who has played in his [Zero’s] party” that several members of his family pass the controller, and they’ve been careless enough to talk on the mic while doing so. But I don’t know that. What I do know is that I doubt a single person could replay one level for an entire week straight without ever signing out, without ever sleeping, without dying somehow in the process. Astral Mango, in comparison, had two hours of sleep per day on average.

And he was always on the mic, and it was always his voice, and I know this because I was there much of the time and because I know him.

So about your blog? Your illiterate, poorly-scribbled blog that doesn’t even acknowledge the possibility that maybe-just-maybe the “winner” could’ve been a joint account cheater? Not the slightest interest enough to do some investigation or asking those who know (hello!) what they know? (Here you go!)

The interview is piffle, the English is inexcusable, and there’s no legitimate reason for it to exist in the first place, just the same as there is no legitimate reason for the illegitimate players to be acknowledged as anything but.

There’s more, but I’m worried about the character limit so I’ll submit this much.

3

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not call out individuals. This includes forum members, moderators, administrators, and non-forum members.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm2224431_Confessions-of-an-Infinity-Challenge-Winner.aspx#post2224431

For a further revealing look at the disintegrity on parade, and just how pathetic this whole competition is, read this e-mail I sent -Yoink!- Gaming. Twice.

The first time it was filed away by an answering machine calling itself Sean, who incorrectly marked it as “Solved” when nothing had been done about the issue. The second time I was informed that my ticket had been escalated “to a lead admin who will be in contact with you as soon as possible.” It has been over a week, and this has not happened yet.

In full, unaltered:

I’m well aware that many people have sent exaggerated or erroneous
accusations of misconduct to -Yoink!- Gaming during the Infinity
Challenge, especially when the score-inflation glitch occurred. I’m
certain that -Yoink!- has done everything in their power to prohibit and
punish all detectable means of cheating. Unfortunately, there is one
extremely practical and prevalent method of collusion which cannot be
detected without manual investigation.

People have other people play Spartan Ops for them on their accounts,
on their consoles. Whenever they are asleep, whenever they are away,
whenever. I can’t find an explicit rule against this behavior in the
Rules and Regulations, but it seems entirely unfair that individual
players would be competing against pairs of siblings and friends
trading turns.

Myself, I hold no stake in the tournament. I realized early on that I
didn’t have enough time or energy to devote to earning myself a decent
prize, as the criteria of the contest is based more on hours of sleep
lost than actual skill exhibited. That’s fine. (My gamertag, by the
way, is DJ Orwell, and I’m sending this from the same e-mail
registered to my Xbox Live account and to the Infinity Challenge.)

However, I am personally involved. My friend [CLASSIFIED], whom has
consistently ranked in the Top 3 during the finals and was #1 during
the first five days of the preliminaries, has been playing exclusively
by himself for consecutive sleepless days exerting every element of
human energy one can dedicate to holding a controller. I know he is
playing by himself because I have played with him on several occasions
and he is always vocal on his mic, his voice confirming his identity.
I am also acquainted with several other people who regularly play in
his party, and they haven’t informed me of any erratic behavior or
change in identity on [CLASSIFIED]'s part.

Two of the people who have most often cooperated with [CLASSIFIED]
during the finals are brothers living in the same household. Their
gamertags are “[CLASSIFIED]. The former is
competing in Tier 1 and is currently ranked at #2, immediately above
[CLASSIFIED], and the latter is striving for the top prize in Tier 2.
They play separately, on each of their accounts, until the main
account holder (”[CLASSIFIED]") decides to stop playing, often
coinciding with “[CLASSIFIED]” logging off to play as the main
account. They trade turns, and whenever the brother known as
“[CLASSIFIED]” takes control, “[CLASSIFIED]” turns off his mic as
not to reveal his brother’s identity. We know this because they have
occasionally forgotten to mute their mic. We also know this because
“[CLASSIFIED]” never seems to be asleep over halfway through the
week, which is somewhat more unnatural and unhealthy than [CLASSIFIED] own insomniac endeavors.

I’m sure this accusation would be difficult to verify on -Yoink!-
Gaming’s end, since one must be present in the party to hear them on
the mic and there is likely little to no server-side information to
distinguish separate people passing the controller. Nonetheless, it is
readily apparent to both [CLASSIFIED] and I, as well as other players
who have been in the party, and we hadn’t taken concern about it until
now since the score-inflation glitch had previously placed [CLASSIFIED] with a strong lead he believed he could maintain against
cheating or otherwise. This is no longer the case, and [CLASSIFIED] is
no longer playing with either of those two because he doesn’t want to
support their unfair standing.

I implore that -Yoink!- Gaming investigate those two gamertags to either
affirm or discredit their separate and exclusive human identity, if
possible. If not possible, a contingency plan should be developed to
ensure that whomever wins the Grand Prize did so entirely by their own
efforts, as is in the spirit of the contest. There is only one winner,
only one #1.

[CLASSIFIED] asked me to compose this message since he cannot take any
breaks if he hopes to compete, and his confidence in winning has been
hampered by the recent leaderboard update which corrected the scores,
as well as his formerly misleading lead. The prospect of appearing in
a future Halo game, as well as the satisfaction of winning
legitimately after literally life-altering extensive effort (try going
three days without sleeping, and then another!), is all that matters
to him. If he loses, it should be due to strictly the skill and
persistence of one individual without a local replacement. It should
not be due to an appallingly exploitable, fundamentally flawed
competition structure that doesn’t take into account and punish this
form of cheating.

The current leader, “[CLASSIFIED]”, is almost certainly guilty of this
as well, and should be studied with scrutiny by default of being in
the lead. I haven’t checked his offline hours yet, but unless he is
either capable of playing in his sleep or cheating by replacement
player… the sheer exhaustion of a week without rest should have him
in a condition too dead to accept the Grand Prize. What sort of health
does this contest encourage? And, for that matter, what form of
integrity?

Please be certain that whomever receives the Grand Prize, or any top
prize, is the most skilled and most worthy as dictated by the rules
your organization has established. Those who cannot compete fairly
must be disqualified, as they are found.

[CLASSIFIED], or any other legitimate player, cannot hope to win if
they are playing against joint accounts. He will continue to play,
night and day and night and day, and I will now send this message so I
can join him and provide the encouragement he needs to attain the
victory he has earned.

With integrity,
DJ Orwell

4

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not flame or attack other members.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm2224475_Confessions-of-an-Infinity-Challenge-Winner.aspx#post2224475

> Relax sir, if anything this blog saved Mango and Draxus from the humiliation of being branded as the guys who’s lives revolve around Halo 4.

This blog hasn’t done a damn thing more than entice me to make these posts. That is all it will amount to: the ultimate victory for those who have earned it, and disqualification to those who have not.

His life did revolve around Halo. For a week. Long enough to be featured in a future Halo title, as advertised. The reward is worth it to him, and neither I nor him nor anyone who has won anything out of this gives a damn what you or any other random disinterested scrub thinks about it.

And I did --not-- waste my time offering my support and encouragement, as his friend, just so he could be besmirched on some “Little English Halo Blog” which isn’t even written by any decent standards of English. I mean, really, I had started counting all the basic grammatical and syntactical errors on that page but I just gave up. Wouldn’t be worth quoting even to ridicule.

I think I might copy these posts out of this thread so they’re not confined to the second page of a thread not many will read. 343 needs to know that their contest is broken so that they might fix it. Or not. There really is no way to detect joint account abusing, is there? No server-side information to account for the controller being passed.

They had to be there, and 343 wasn’t. Nor was -Yoink!- Gaming. Nor was anyone responsible for this travesty.

I’m sick of it. I’m sick of even acknowledging the possibility that this debacle will cheat Astral Mango out of victory. There are plans, don’t you know? The prize involves travel, and travel involves expense, and expense involves planning, and all of that planning to Go Somewhere and Do Something Exciting (hotel stay! CGI modeling sessions! not posting on this forum to mock “people who’s [sic] lives revolve around Halo 4”!) will have been UTTERLY WASTED should 343, in the end, screw up royally and offer the prize to someone whose family and friends played for him. One player, one winner, one Grand Prize: this is how it must be.

Provided 343 is as capable of rescinding errors as I believe they are, as they did with most of Bungie’s (hah!), then we’ll be the ones laughing at you in the end. You, and all the rest who didn’t try, who didn’t care, who went and scribbled blog posts just to feel involved in some way even though they weren’t there.

Yes, this message is written with a tone of condescending righteous entitlement, and it is wholly deserved. I can’t prove some of what I know, but I know it nonetheless.

5

How do we know that Mango didn’t cheat as well? While it definitely seems like they should be reviewed, so should many who came close.

No offense, but it seems like just a bit of “he said she said” to me.

6

It was a terrible contest and any merit of pride, self worth, and skill are thrown out for the winners.

Because of that, the best thing to do is to not talk about the winners at all. They’ll slowly be forgotten.

7

LMFAO

Of course there was account sharing. Most of all the leaderboards were probably controller sharing.

If it doesn’t specifically say anything in the rules, then your friend is just a fool with too much time on his hands not to think of this himself

8

I just think people need to let it go, it’s a game. Sitting there playing games all day and night is just sad to begin with.

9

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not call out individuals. This includes forum members, moderators, administrators, and non-forum members.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

> How do we know that Mango didn’t cheat as well? While it definitely seems like they should be reviewed, so should many who came close.
>
> No offense, but it seems like just a bit of “he said she said” to me.

Everyone should be investigated, if such an investigation is possible. Including Mango. Extensively. I’m hoping that this is what has been happening between -Yoink!- Gaming and 343 over the past entire week-plus-two-days-and-counting since the contest ended.

I doubt that this is what has been happening because we haven’t heard a thing, or been asked a thing.

As for how this can be decided, well… Witnesses. People who were there. People who played with them. People who can be verified as such by public Waypoint per-game information. Some of them will lie, some of them will tell the truth, and some of them may even go as far as I have. Altogether, a clearer picture will be drawn, and judgments can be based off of that in lieu of any better evidence due to the fundamentally flawed structure of this contest.

I can’t prove to you that Astral Mango didn’t have another person play for him, nor cheat in any other way. It is merely something I know, and have absolute conviction towards, as I was there to support him whenever I could be online and as he is the best person I’ve met on Xbox Live. My position is biased, yes, but well-informed and is the whole truth from where I’m standing.

And I would stand and swear by the Bible (which I do revere) that I never encountered any evidence of Astral Mango cheating while I was there. He was there before I went to sleep and after I woke up. He was there when I left the house and when I came back. He was there when I played with him, or when the party was full and he’d talk with me in private chat. His voice. That’s how I knew he was there, and that it was him, and the exhaustion in his voice could not be faked.

A whole week, where the best friend whom I’ve never shook hands with, has lived inside of my Xbox. Has been there all the time, throughout the contest, discounting two hours of sleep per night on average.

I know, it doesn’t mean anything to you, and it is all “he said she said”. This is what I’m saying. Now let’s wait and see if [CLASSIFIED] has anything to say for himself. Or if anyone has anything to say for him; anything he’d want them to say.

The picture evidence has spoken for [CLASSIFIED], fortunately, so this needn’t become a procedural.

10

This contest was very poorly designed and executed, not to mention easily exploited. I do, however, admire your conviction to your friend and hope your concerns/efforts will be recognized by decision makers.

11

> Because of that, the best thing to do is to not talk about the winners at all. They’ll slowly be forgotten.

This is horribly impersonal, and personally offends me, and does veer on the whole “yes we get that people who played the same level for a week without sleeping are tragic wastes of life”-pathetic topic that I asked you respectfully to not bring up here, as it is understood and not the purpose at present.

Regardless, the people who ranked up there are people. They’re cool people, even, those who played legitimately, and I got to know some of them who played in the party. Several of them are on my Friends List, and I won’t be forgetting them anytime either soon or slowly.

They are people. They worked at a reward. They deserve the reward they have earned*.

    • provided they have earned it, of course.

> I just think people need to let it go, it’s a game. Sitting there playing games all day and night is just sad to begin with.

It’s not just a game. It is actually:

Spartan Ops Grand Prize (1): trip to Microsoft Studios and CGI integration of winner into a future Halo® title. Prize includes round-trip, coach class air transportation for winner from a major commercial airport near winner’s home within the U.S. to Redmond, WA; one (1) double occupancy standard hotel room for three (3) nights/ four (4) days; and round-trip ground transportation between the destination airport and hotel. ARV: $ 10,875.

I’d call that a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and one very much worth having.

12

> This contest was very poorly designed and executed, not to mention easily exploited. I do, however, admire your conviction to your friend and hope your concerns/efforts will be recognized by decision makers.

Thank you. And I agree; this contest is horribly ill-conceived and 343 will have to do just as much tap-dancing to Damage Control the issue as they had with the accidental release of the DLC for free. It’s alright, though. They’re doing a kickbutt (why is this censored and not “damn” lol) job enough on Halo 4, imo. Best game there is when you’re not playing the same level 1558 times in a row.

Should’ve called it the HALO 4 INSOMNIA CHALLENGE.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MOUNTAIN DEW ENERGY!

13

Account sharing or controller sharing is actually a fairly effective strategy. Since it is not explicitly stated doing so is not allowed. This allows you to win and still do other things in your day.

Its unfortunate Mango spent so much time on this himself. But this was a contest designed to prove who was the saddest of us all, he should be glad he dident win it.

14

I am 15th in Ops Tier 1, and can comfortably say that most people above or near me most likely:
-Slept less than 5hr a day
-Had their account on for the whole week
-Had people/friends/family on hand to switch off while they slept
-Used physical enhancements(pills, energy drinks, etc)
-Colluted with other top players to ensure rank positions

It does say they are checking the boards for cheaters (good stuff), and that it can take a few weeks. I just hope they have some sort of easy way to figure out who had their box on for the whole tournament, or even more than 3 days in a row. Heres a quick reason why.

“After staying up for more than 16 hours, people’s cognitive abilities are so impaired that they do worse on driving tests than people who are well-rested but over the legal blood alcohol limit for driving. After staying up for 72 hours, hallucinations begin, and scientists think permanent brain damage may be sustained from staying up this long.”

Also, it’s quite hard to get 200+ games a day, let alone 250+, just sayin’.

15

> Account sharing or controller sharing is actually a fairly effective strategy. Since it is not explicitly stated doing so is not allowed. This allows you to win and still do other things in your day.
>
> Its unfortunate Mango spent so much time on this himself. But this was a contest designed to prove who was the saddest of us all, he should be glad he dident win it.

Effective, yes. Fair? Not so much

16

> Since it is not explicitly stated doing so is not allowed.

“The Grand Prize winner of Tier 1 in each Game Mode will be the individual who obtained the highest score during the Finals, subject to verification.”

17

> I just think people need to let it go, it’s a game. Sitting there playing games all day and night is just sad to begin with.

Ohh. ahahaaha… ._.

18

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not flame or attack other members.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

DJ Orwell, you are pathetic. You claim everyone who beat your “best friend”, who you have never met and lives in your Xbox, is a cheater because they logged a few extra hours than your “best friend” did playing this game every day for 8 days straight.

How do I know your “best friend” didn’t cheat also? I can make the exact false acusations that you are making because I was not controller swapping and only getting a few hours of sleep a night but was not able to catch those in the top 5 on games played.

Yes, for a week all I did was play Sparton Ops and get 3 hours of sleep a night if I was lucky. “I was not controller swapping so anyone that did better than me was obviously cheating.” That is a BS statement made by a sore loser. I did the best I could and will accept 6th place because I decided I needed a little sleep each night and wanted to take a shower at least every other day and drop a deuce on a toilet and not in front of my TV screen. I didn’t win nor did your friends. GET OVER IT!!!

Congratulations to Zero X Saya for winning. He deserves it. This is not the YMCA, we do not all end up with trophies for participating. There is only one winner and Zero is the man, he won.

19

As much as I hate you in other places of the internet, where of which will not be mentioned.

343i is actually semi-aware of the cheating issue and, if you recall, released this statement in the 1/16 bulletin:

As you likely know, the Infinity Challenge online finals will be coming to a close in a few days, and competitors are fiercely battling it out for dozens of prizes across all three tiers. The ultimate prize is a UNSC-themed Ford F150 SVT Raptor, and part 2 of our “Making of the UNSC Raptor” series will be released tomorrow here on Halo Waypoint. Look for it then! Special note to all Infinity Challenge participants that any competitor found or suspected to be cheating, stat padding or involved in any collusion will be removed from the leaderboards and tournament without any notice.

That’s all I will say on the matter.

20

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not call out individuals. This includes forum members, moderators, administrators, and non-forum members.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

> DJ Orwell, you are pathetic.

Picture my expression: Invigorated, grinning, anticipatory, sitting cross-legged on a futon with the keyboard balanced across my legs, face brightened (in both senses) by the monitor in a dark living room, communicating my physical presence to one who has none.

> You claim everyone who beat your “best friend”

Yes, all both of them. “Everyone” is a dishonest word when used to refer to two people. One of whom hardly even counts.

> who you have never met and lives in your Xbox,

And on my screen in Halo, and in my ear, and in my head, and wherever I go. And I the same with him. There’s nothing pathetic whatsoever about knowing someone through the Internet; it’s one of the most wonderful -Yoinking!- feelings that can only be had in this generation, in this era. We live entirely across the continent, lengthwise, coast to coast, Manifest Destiny recursive, and we can communicate instantly and be just as real to each other as any other human being.

I’m sorry you’ve never had that experience.

> is a cheater because they logged a few extra hours than your “best friend” did playing this game every day for 8 days straight.

Actually, no, that is not why all both of those players are cheaters. One of them is verifiably a cheater, and has been proven so just - like - this… and the other would be dead if he weren’t having other people play for him. It’s that simple. It has nothing to do with how many hours they logged; it has everything to do with that they cheated.

I love how you put “best friend” in quotes each time as though there’s something detestable or insincere about it; nevermind that you know neither me, him, nor anyone well online as is evident. Yes, he is a Best Friend. I have other Best Friends as well. Most of them I have shook hands with, and do know physically in “the real world” (such an archaic sentiment!). Astral Mango is among them, whether I be talking to him through meters or miles; through air or wires.

Incidentally, Astral Mango became good friends with “I Draxus I” as well during this contest, which is why they decided to tie. I still think that decision is limited [EDIT: THIS WORDFILTER IS HILARIOUS], and it will be rescinded anyway by an automatic tiebreaker (leaving Mango the victor by virtue of faster times, as each of us know), but it meant enough to both of them to stick it out together until the end. It’s kind of charming, once you get past the stock reaction of loathing people who engage in pathetic practices for any reason whatsoever.

[I once joked, “You guys should sleep together. Oh wait.”]

> I can make the exact false acusations that you are making

You say “false”, and yet do not say anything to substantiate this.

> because I was not controller swapping and only getting a few hours of sleep a night but was not able to catch those in the top 5 on games played.

That’s fantastic. You’re a legitimate player. Good for you. You didn’t play enough games to win. If there were two less cheaters listed, you’d be two places higher. Which wouldn’t mean a thing, because, again, you didn’t win. Enjoy your Vanguard.

> “I was not controller swapping so anyone that did better than me was obviously cheating.”

I love how you ignore the evidence provided wholesale and insist upon this simpleton logic as attributable to me.

You’re boring. Pathetic, maybe. It depends mostly on how you’ve managed to redeem the time you’ve utterly wasted for little more than a $350 Vanguard (less than a week’s worth of honest work, with regular sleep) and the opportunity to hate others on random message boards. Depends, because I don’t pretend to know you beyond that.

You have no basis whatsoever to believe [CLASSIFIED] played legitimately, other than a tragic defense mechanism to assure yourself that there is some justice surrounding your own miserable failure.