Keeping the rot out
Individuals that put their own interests well before others are not uncommon in Eve. But how this is realised can be quite varied. Additionally, there is a line that exists between “acceptable self-interest” and “Goon fucking”. Normally that line is around “15%”. The “15%” is an in-joke that would require an article in its own right. Therefore it may be best that you simply chuckle at it knowingly and move along.
There is no higher crime in The Imperium than “Goon fucking”. To do this will lead to being placed on the infamous “Black List”. Once on this list, you will not be welcomed into any member organisation of The Imperium. The influence of this list can actually extend far further than The Imperium alone and may limit options elsewhere in Eve. In reality, it is actually quite difficult to get on the Black List as it is normally reserved for the most reprehensible individuals.
Stories of justice are usually kept within the confines of The Imperium’s forums. But sometimes a story comes along that should actually be shared with the greater community. It is best that we start with the post that led to the blacklisting as that is where the story starts.
Ivan Vor made a post offering certain loan services. The details of this service were packaged in a similar vein to “payday loans”. Payday loans are legal in the real world but also come with a certain stigma. One that is quite deserved as well. With the rates on offer and the way that the service was pitched, it was one of those posts that got people interested. With this being the first post that they had made after being in The Imperium for just three days, this raised interest even further.
Once the digging started, more and more seemed to crop up, but more on that in a bit.
In very little time Ivan Vor decided to get into a forum argument with a certain finance director over their service post. Ivan’s main point being that they were providing a valuable service. Any robustness of his argument was soon put to rest when renowned “good poster” Pokano (pronounced Pokemon) shot holes in the supposed valuable service. The finance director modified the terms of the service being offered by Ivan to be more reasonable. As you would expect Ivan quickly made moves to defend their position invited the finance director to “have intimate biblical knowledge” of themselves.
With the post drama having seemingly unfolded to its natural conclusion, you would think that this would be the end of this sordid tale. But this was not to be the case, as Ivan was reluctant to accept Imperium justice and kept pushing. The interesting thing about such an event is that it can provoke the collective memory to be accessed. Ivan Vor’s name was now common knowledge and notoriety had been achieved. This is when others started to step forward with their own tales and research.
Justice is served
It appears that Ivan Vor was far from the helpful individual that they claimed to be. In fact, it became increasingly apparent that they seemed to have a tough time maintaining all the stories that they had told. Evidence was compiled, and voluminous enough that there was only one course of action to be taken. In stepped the glorious leader of The Imperium to serve swift and divine justice, the hero of this tale. The Mittani had the last word in the thread created by Ivan Vor and this word was :commissar:. It was with this word that Ivan was sent into purgatory.
The warning signs relating to Ivan were all too evident. Attempts to join just about any group possible in order to be “helpful”. Promises of altruistic deeds that were never delivered. An inclination to demand attention to gratify a desperate need. An inability to ever admit error, ignorance or wrongdoing. All of these traits are common in those that should be considered persona non grata.
Another defining attribute is that of multiple personas. An ego that is so big is normally unable to resist the temptation of creating additional accounts under different names in order to support their position and aims. Finally, the insatiable desire for attention, dare I even say worship.
In very little time, many interesting things were revealed and the rest of this story will cover this. Note that justice has already been served as far as The Imperium is concerned. The only reason in telling the rest of this tale is to inform others as to how to avoid such types in the future.
Some were still keen to make further acts of justice. Up to the plate stepped Wibla, leader of TNT, with a few friends. A token at best but it did make the message quite clear. Ivan was entered onto the Imperium Black List and will not be darkening our doors again.
Pulling on the threads
Ivan had already been quite vocal in their brief time in The Imperium and had let a few things slip. To offer precise details in this article would simply make it unwieldy. But it is perfectly possible for you to investigate most of this tale for yourself to verify the meat of what is presented, and I urge you to do so if you are so inclined.
We have Ivan Vor, then we have the alts: Aldmier of Garoun Investment Bank, HibbityBitty of Republic Military School, Rekko Blancwood of State War Academy and Tath Garrett formerly of Ascendance[ASCEE]. So far, these alts do not seem anything unusual, but the following names also appeared in connection to Ivan. Michael Sionis a Jita alt, Dredward Teach, Reddit user riso2015, Oleif Thorodsson on the Eve forums. These latter names are where things get a lot more interesting.
Let us start with what appeared to be the main actor in this debacle, Ivan Vor. Having gained the attention of many talented folks within The Imperium, connections were being made. Initially, the most interesting was the ISK connection between Ivan and Michael Sionis. It should be sufficient to say that the amounts and frequency was indicative of a relationship that was far from casual.
At this point, many would have stopped looking further. I mean who cares, right? Well, Eve is the sort of game where stories have to be worked for, unlike so many other games. This is perhaps the reason why there is a propensity for players to be so curious. So searches were conducted for Michael Sionis. During this search the character Dredward Teach was unearthed, and this character was keen for any in-game donations to be made to Michael Sionis.
“Donations”…? Well, that seemed something worth following, so what was Dredward looking for donations for? Dredward Teach was looking for writers and other talented folks in order to promote the Twitch stream of riso2015. Yet another name crops up, and this is where things most certainly get a bit more interesting. The riso2015 persona lives on Reddit, and also has a Twitch channel. If you look at the posting history on Reddit, you will find that the opinions and actions of riso2015 are at points questionable. One such post you will find is entitled “I tried to kill a corp because I was bored”. This is a pasttime that is not unheard of, but becomes more intriguing when you then note that there is a link with Oleif Thorodsson. In this post on Eve-O, Oleif Thorodsson offers certain specialised service sthat are articulated with “We kill corps from the inside out! We’re literally cancer!”. There was also a link between the Eve poster Oleif Thorodsson and Michael Sionis, where Oleif stated that Michael was their alt.
The “We’re literally cancer!” element could then be used to explain what was happening here. You see when Dredward Teach was looking for talent they advised that they run a community that gives away ships and raises money for cancer. Normal thinking folk may have been inclined to think that the “raises money for cancer” is an act of charity in helping find a cure or offer relief. It would seem though that when you start to link all the threads up the opposite is true.
Threads! Threads! So many threads
For those of you of a more curious nature, you may well have looked at the second page of the Eve-O forum post where Oleif Thorodsson was offering his services. There you will note a name that will likely seem familiar if you are inclined to read other lesser sites. So why would such a genius be so open in contacting an entity given their supposed talents? Grath Telkin shed some light onto this matter when talking about The Casino War on the Open Comms Show on May 26. Grath simply and quite colourfully stated that what this “mastermind” thinks happened does not relate to the truth in any way.
Subterfuge and infiltration are common place in Eve and add greatly to the stories that we make. It should be remembered that those looking to become involved in such activities will often become instruments of others. An example of this would be with the attempted revival of Kugu. The Kugu of old died a tragic death, but recently the brand has been resurrected and is being promoted as a method to “get dank leaks”. All for the paltry sum of delivering intelligence on an organisation or the sum of 1 billion per month. The amount is payable to Lazuli Loto who is now in Ghost Legion but formerly a member of NC. Ghost Legion was the alliance that was used by C4W3 after the Care4Kids nonsense folded. Ghost Legion also seem to turn up to help PL and NC quite a bit. Now guess which “mastermind” has been active in promoting Kugu. Exactly.
You could easily make claims of this all being a little “old aluminum hat” and that is a fair comment to make. It is important to note that this article only started as a small piece that was supposed to convey what happens to shit posters who try to take advantage of Newbees within The Imperium. In addition, to serve as a warning to lesser able alliances that may tolerate such tomfoolery. But in the investigation, more and more evidence came to light. All of this is public information in the main so can be checked quite easily.
It has been an incredibly interesting journey of discovery writing this article. If you have more to add then please do in the comments section. I am confident that there is a lot more that can and will be written about this in the future.
Editors Update: Whilst Kugu may be a hotbed of subterfuge and leaks, they are in no way associated with the individuals mentioned in this article, and are purely mentioned as an example of the wider stories that can unfold. Additionally, should any alliance wish to ensure they avoid Michael Sionis and his alts, we have also been given information that he is also known as Crashtec, so, as with everything in Eve, verify this for yourself, but, Caveat Emptor.
