Okay as I have basically been asked to defend my actions
Some backstory to make you understand.
Between 3 days to 1 week after LOTS where players under sanctions had been told we would hold their funds.
The Board refused to do this.
They said we wont hold it and their money will just go back into the prize pool for tournies.
Effectively a "up yours" to any Russian tournament player.
As you can imagine this was not very well likely after players won a few hundred dollars and spend time and effort in tournament.
A work around was proposed where they could opt to give their funds to a player of their choosing from the tournament NOT under sanctions.
The Board then decided to ask for legal council but never heard back so refused to compromise at all. Because heaven forbid if they paid Turbo2 Pepsi's winnings he "could" find a way to send them to Pepsi.
As the Board unanimously decided not to reward the Russian players their winnings from LOTS and any future tournament.
Pepsi asked for some form of compensation and one of those forms is if he could get a personal avatar.
Now considering I personally strongly disagree with the Board and view their actions as attempting to kill the Tournament scene.
I saw no issue with Pepsi's request.
Historically only Mods could give out Avatars.
I was granted permissions to upload avatars, grant them to players etc as Swkoll is no longer around who use to do it and instead of my having to spam Mods for it. Brutus and Gieb both agreed it was suitable.
Note there are 3 types of Avatars (in my mind).
Tournament avatars - those created and issued to people who won certain tournaments and events.
Staff avatars - those created and issued to members of the community who help out. For example the moderator avatar or the Team leaders avatars.
Personal avatars - these granted based on what I would call certain conditions. Such as mods who have their own personal, staff who want something unique, or granted to players because "they have been fucked over" I would call it.
In this case. Pepsi's personal avatars falls under the "I have been fucked over" category.
I told Pepsi if he created an avatar himself and it was suitable then I would have no issue granting him this as compensation for the Board fucking him over.
Note the "suitable" comment, by this I mean PG12 basically.
He created it himself.
It is suitable.
It is compensation for the Boards actions.
As said by Sheikah the board has fuck all to do with avatars.
Tournament ones are dealt with by the TD (myself in this case) or the Mod team to issue them.
It was granted Giebmasse's approval as head of the Mod team that Pepsi could have this avatar.
In each case of Personal Avatars, I will still double check with Gieb based on the reasoning for it.
I am not handing them out like Free Pens.
To be honest I am half surprised that the Board did not argue this considering how much they refused to compromise on other matters.
That is the reasoning for Pepsi's avatar.
It is not because he is special or treated differently.
It is because the Board fucked him over.
If the other Russians from LOTS who cannot receive their prize wish for a personal avatar of sorts, I see no issue with it.
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Moving on to part 2:
FAF Veteran Avatar:
I was not aware of the reasons it was made, I did not issue this avatar.
It is listed as FAF Veteran as the ID nothing else.
It was believed this was for players who had played for a long ass time or at least that was my interpretation.
If it was listed as "Rowey Thanks Avatar" then obviously it would only be issued to Rowey.
This I would put down to whoever adding it giving a bad naming convention.
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I believe this has successfully defended my actions.