GreeceBefore I begin I just want to say three things. First, I have nothing personal against Natoramius. He seems like a really good guy, and for the most part it was a pleasure having him on the mod team. However, there are certain standards a mod should uphold, and it pains me to say that Natoramius has repeatedly failed to do so. The second thing is, before we begin, how good someone is at speedrunning has nothing to do with how good of a mod they are. Natoramius is one of, if not the best overall Overwatch runner, and I completely respect that. However, that doesn’t guarantee good communication which is a vital component of being a good mod. Thirdly, for anyone curious if this has anything to do with the verbal fiasco that took place in our discord the other day, it doesn’t directly but that didn’t help his case. There are a lot of behind the situation scenes (as I will outline in this post) and that event was a mere display of his poor representation of the team.
Without sugar coding it, Natoramius will no longer be part of the mod team.
In the past, mods have been removed due to inactivity and I have never written a post on them. That is because it’s a more natural situation. In this case however, I feel I must justify this decision with multiple layers of proof, since it is such a drastic action to remove arguably the most active mod. Thus I will present you with the multiple scenarios that led to this removal. Some of them are straight up violation of the rules, lies, or simply acting in an offensive manner.
Situation 1: The lie of changing Overwatch’s theme.
So this scenario is a straight up lie that was not necessary, mainly because, Natoramius did something good, but for whatever reason decided to lie about it causing a problem among the mods. So a few weeks ago, Natoramius asked me if I had added a 4th place icon on the leaderboard, which I had not.
Proof 1: 
From his wording and reaction it appeared as he had not either. Thus I assumed the other mod, Axends might have added it. However, after contacting Axends, he denied having done it. Since I was self-aware that I had not made such a change, one of the two mods was clearing lying. Thus, I contacted the srcom moderators and asked them to provide me with the log for the change. They did. To my surprise, Natoramius himself had made the edit.
Proof 2: 
After realizing he had lied, and without revealing that I had the log, I decided to contact him once again, in case I had mistaken what he had said. So I asked him if he had changed it or if he knew someone else who had. His response was once again claiming that he hadn’t, and even played innocent, questioning if the verifiers could have.
Proof 3: 
I then proceeded to confront him, told him he shouldn’t have lied, etc. At the end of the day, there wasn’t a pre-established rule for not making changes without consulting other mods so I couldn’t say anything about that. However, what concerned him is that he LIED. And above that, without any reason. That really stood out as something problematic, and at least for me, basically nullified his credibility. Nevertheless, I went ahead and made a mod chat (yes this is actually why a private mod chat exists) and also created a few basic rules that mods should follow, such as not editing the theme of the game without mentioning it.
Proof 4: 
While the story would end here, I do want to mention one more thing. Natoramius went on to violate this rule by changing the srcom logo of the lbs without telling anyone. He did admit to doing it, but the rule existed by that point so it was a straight up disregard of the rule.
Proof 5: 
So for this first part, he straight up lied without any reason and then violated a rule.
Situation 2: Self Verification
From the moment our leaderboard obtained its 3rd mod, self-verification for mods was banned. In order to maintain honesty, and provide an honorable example of speedrunning, mods on our leaderboard DON’T verify their own runs (keep this in mind as it will show up again towards the end). I could post a large number of situations where Natoramius verified his own runs, but for the purposes of keeping this post to the point I think two are enough.
Proof 6: 
Proof 7: 
Even if it was JUST these 2 situations, which it wasn’t, that is still TWO violations of the same rule. At this point I would like to once again state that as a mod you are supposed to set an example, and not only did Natoramius not do that, but he straight up went against the rules. You can’t ask others to follow rules you don’t follow yourself. Not much more to say here. Once again, this by itself is reason for someone to lose the position of mod. Yet, it doesn’t end here.
Situation 3: Verifying Invalid Runs
Once again this doesn’t need much of a description. The main job of any mod/verifier it to check to make sure runs are legit and valid. As a side-note, nobody is 100% perfect and a few times some situation has made it past all of us. This is NOT what this is about. In the case of Natoramius, it is clear that he DID NOT EVEN REVIEW certain runs, accepting them blindly.
Proof 8: 
As you can see, this is a 22 minute run, yet it was verified 3 minutes after it was submitted. That means that Natoramius didn’t watch the entire vod. When confronted, this was his response:
Proof 9: 
Laziness is not a valid excuse. There is no reason to verify a run the moment you see it if you can’t. If you don’t have time another verifier/mod will. However that is not an isolated case.
Proof 10: 
And beyond that, there are multiple scenarios where Natoramius has actually verified runs where the real time submitted is longer than the actual video (as you can see below).
Proof 11: 
Proof 12: 
Once again, straight up, it’s not about watching a run and maybe missing a small splice; it’s about not bothering to review the runs, and basically not doing your job as a mod.
Final Situation: The Last Straw
So at this point, there are a large amount of reasons Natoramius straight up deserves to lose his role as a mod. I actually had started writing a post similar to this, 2 weeks ago, but I scrapped it. When Natoramius joined the team originally, he seemed enthusiastic, committed, willing to help, and kind-hearted. All of those traits are incredibly important to being a successful mod, and he had never given me a reason to doubt any of them before. Even with the multiple rule violations, I felt bad punishing a person who appeared to be trying. In this whole situation, this is where my failure comes in. I held Natoramius higher than I should have. Because, as it was proved down the line, he didn’t change. As you saw above, the same “mistakes” happened again and again, and his errors were only matched by his recent poor attitude.
While I said this was not the main reason for his ban (it wasn’t, everything above was) when I saw the events occur over the past few days, I realized that Natoramius really wasn’t a good representation for the community. While he personally claims he did not insult anyone, and that he only made two harmless “jokes” I will accept that and not even bring those two jokes up. Let’s look at everything else he said one thing at a time.
Proof 13: 
Once again, if this was an isolated situation, it would mean nothing. But it is not Natoramius’s role to define the worth of someone else. His role is to be a good mod and set a positive example, which he clearly didn’t do.
Proof 14: 
“I’m having a good time,” by completely disregarding everyone else. Once again, repeated behavior of disrespect, just because of his mod status he clearly acts like there are no consequences.
Proof 15: 
Speaks for himself. Unacceptable for a mod to respond like that after the entire situation.
Proof 16: 
Proof 17: 
Proof 18: 
Is offensive towards someone’s intelligence, denies it, then proceeds to make up an excuse, which is also offensive by questioning my intelligence (by the way I’m not English either…). These images combined speak for themselves.
Conclusion
As a mod, you are the community’s best. You are selected to not only verify runs, but also entrusted with complete control over the leaderboard. Being a mod is a privilege. And sadly, Natoramius has failed in every way to make good use of it. Natoramius has not only lied, but has also violated the rules multiple times, and has misrepresented the community more than once. His poor attitude reflects badly upon the entire team, and he has made zero effort to have proper communication with any member of the mod team other than his own friend. And above all that, after all the times I have talked to him and warned him, he has the audacity to threaten me by saying he will verify his own run if I don’t verify it (thus braking the rules once again).
Proof 19: 
(For the record, the run hasn’t been verified for 3 days, 2 of those which were discussion on the rules of that specific category and srcom doesn’t consider something backlog for at least a week). With that, I have nothing else left to say. I am incredibly sorry that it had to happen like this, but if you abuse something, it can be taken away from you. Being a mod does NOT put you above others in terms of what is tolerated. So, my sincerest apologies, but I am taking the action that I believe is best for the boards.
As for this thread, I know there will probably be a lot of backlash/arguing. I will leave it open for discussion as long as the discussion remains civilized. Also I’ll do my best to respond to any questions.
I never thought I'd have to make a post about this as it's pretty self evident: all runs, including the submitted video, should be in real time in order to be verified.
We now have a community discord. You can use the link below or the one in the sidebar to join.
Hello everybody, I know it’s been a while since any major official statement from the mod team so I wanted to write up this post as a small update as well as a means of addressing a few issues.
First of all, most discussion now takes place on our speedrun discord instead of these forums. You can find the link in the left sidebar. I would heavily recommend joining it to be constantly up to date, as only major/important discussions get posted in the forums.
Over the past few months, the team was expanded by bringing in multiple people as run verifiers to avoid a backlog of unverified runs. While this has been a great success, we are still looking for anyone else who would be interested in joining. If you feel that you can adequately fill the spot, please send me a direct message in discord.
Another important topic that needs discussing is 50 eliminations. Recently we added a 2.0 version of some categories since a series of patches caused both tutorial and 50 eliminations to undergo major changes. Unlike the Tutorial speedrun, however, the popularity of 50 eliminations has been in heavy decline. As a mod team we discussed two possible solutions and would like to hear your feedback. In the first scenario, 50 eliminations stays as is, and is moved to the category extension board (more about that board below) allowing room to open up for new categories. In the second, 50 elims 2.0 is reworked and removes allowing settings to change. However when the category was first created the majority had asked to allow changing settings, so this second option would need large backing before passing. Regardless, something will be done. If you want to share your thoughts, or maybe have another proposal, feel free to do so.
Finally, the category extension board. Historically, when a new category has been requested I have always asked for a run of it before adding it in. The one time I did not was Lucio Rollouts due to the overwhelming support the category received, and look where it ended up. Moving on with the CE board, Hammond% will be added but Lucio Rollouts will be reconsidered if no run is submitted soon. Furthermore, we are looking into a way to incorporate legacy runs into the extension board as a means to clean up the main board (more information will come once the 50 elims discussion has finished).
Anyway, that pretty much sums up everything. If you have any questions feel free to ask, and we would appreciate your thoughts on the 50 elims topic.
To prevent this board from being flooded with empty categories the only pre-requisite for requesting a category is to have done a run of it (offer a video example of what it would look like).
Happy to announce that a Category Extension Board has finally been approved. That means that most categories people want can now be implemented even if they are slightly arbitrary!
Basically, Iif you have any new category suggestions/requests please post them over on the category extensions forum.
Due to the growth of the game as a speedrun, applications are open. We do not currently require an extra moderator but it would be helpful to expand the team. Thus, depending on applications, we may accept nobody or more than one person. Please fill out this form if you are looking to apply: https://goo.gl/forms/bWWAujsTy5eEfMrU2
I think the community should decide what will happen with the category board. I have created a strawpoll, please vote here http://www.strawpoll.me/12770111
The results will be tallied in 48 hours, uprising speedrun submissions will not be verified until then. For the record the category will stay up even after the event is over, just as a showcase for the runs.
Thank you all for your understanding.
Due to popular demand we now have a community discord which you can join here: https://discord.gg/XHNYMvB
The idea of a Boss Rush RTA (similar to data org) was brought up on the discord a few days back and I feel like it should also be discussed here for anyone who isn't part of the discord. Just curious on people's opinions on weather it should be lvl 99 or lvl 50 (imo difficulty should be crit if it's lvl 99 and maybe something like proud if it is 50) but what does everyone else think?
Going to formally ask this hear. For his pb Dax used an NG+ file but because he had no items carried over it was counted as an NG run. Are we allowed to do that? If so its pretty neat that we can use a customized aqua in NG runs.
Could all the release dates be properly updated please (I have already updated the disgaea PC one).
From now on please include millisecond timing in all run submissions (I have updated the current WRs). Additionally, if you submit an image make sure it is in a format that is view-able on the website and doesn't appear as a mere link (usually a simple direct link will do). Thank you.
So I kinda want to run the termina map, which btw is incorrectly named on the lbs here (should be "Termina" not majora's mask). But anyway I was kind of confused on the rules. Can the run be done even if the adventure map is complete or is a clean save with an uncompleted map needed?
I currently am thinking of running Any% for fun. Do I actually need to buy a capture card to be able to submit a run (assuming I don't get a top 3 time or something really good)?
As confirmed by the official KH JP twitter a few hours ago, when the remixes are released on ps4 they will be running at 60fps. I have noticed that different versions of games count as their own "different games". Would the remixes on ps4 fall under our current ps3 versions of the game? I know it is early to ask but this is under the assumption that the only difference will be the fps and probably the loading times. Would this be significant enough to treat the games separately from the ps3 versions?
So a few games have formatting issues in terms of category names. Also the release date for every single game is wrong and seems to be the first day of they year. An example is this. http://imgur.com/a/2kvFr If you look at BBS, Terra Any% appears as Any%, Ven appears as All Stories Any% and so forth. Just please when you get the time, tend to this. (Also I wouldn't mind helping)
