Soulkeep Update - Double Coconut has made some major changes and enter the Soulkeep Police lol

Good morning Splinterfriends and Soulkeepers,

It's been awhile since my last Soulkeep Update, which you can find here:

Previous Update Link

Last time, we were dealing with an interesting situation in Soulkeep.

Alexandrp54321 had gotten into League 10 and the ability for the other players to earn enough souls to get there quickly, had been removed from the game. This created an unfair an insurmountable advantage.

In addition, with the old mechanics of gameplay, if there was only one player in a League... they earned ALL of the SPS in that Leagues Reward Pool!

This situation, with no remedy, forced the DAO to suspend SPS Rewards until Double Coconut could come up with a solution.

Unfortunately, this sucked for everyone. To make matters worse, the players who were the primary cause of this issue refused to take any accountability and were Absolut assholes to the other players in the Soulkeep Discord.

They blamed everyone and everything else and refused to acknowledge they had an unfair ability to earn souls due to certain gameplay elements that were changed... giving them a permanent advantage.

So let's recap the issues that caused the DAO to suspend the $SPS Rewards:

1. Changes to gameplay that allowed one player in the top league to be there with no way for other players to catch up within 6 months or so...

2. If one player in a League... the ENTIRE League Reward Pool (RP) allocated to that one player regardless of score/attempts

3. Issue 2 allowed Alexandrp54321 to play 1 time each day, for free and as long as they killed 1 fiend... they would earn 8,000+ SPS each day.

4. A glitch was discovered by the community where a player could buy multiple batches of Soulboxes each day (supposed to be limited to 1 batch/day). This was not addressed for a LONG time and players took advantage of it... until the community was like "WTF BRO"...

5. A Gameplay Change moved us from "Random Ruleset Generation" to "Same Ruleset, every map, every time"... This inspired some players to create Alt Accounts so they could take advantage of the Free Attempt to scout with one Alt, then use another and another, etc to learn the nuances of each map and unfairly lower their cost of attempts... while placing all of these accounts in the highest leaderboard positions - thus draining the Reward Pool via manipulation.

The Community had been pointing the Multi Account issue out for WEEKS if not MONTHS... but nothing was being done and interestingly a lot of the "Multi Account" communication in the Discord seemed to have been deleted... the Multi Account issue was one of the major factors in the DAOs decision and DC's strange silence on the matter did not help.

With these issues and no way for players to earn enough Souls to catch up to Alexandr in any reasonable time... drastic measures were taken.

Yikes, sorry about that... cool gif though lol

Recovers from epileptic seizure

With the issues noted, let's take a look at what changed and how things have progressed! Are they any better or are we back in the same boat, heading for another iceberg?

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The first thing that happened was Double Coconut Reset everyone to League 1.

That... is a truly haunting image... but yes... we were all shrunk back to League 1, with no Souls. A total reset.

This kinda sucked and I was lobbying for a different type of Reset but hey, it is what it is 😅

Second, Tournament Attempts were limited to 10 Tries per League, per day. This was done in an effort to prevent players from spending a SHITLOAD of DEC to zoom up the Leagues... which is weird because the issues weren't that players were in the high leagues...

It was: they got there and other players were prevented from getting there by gameplay changes and those players in the top leagues were able to earn INSANE amounts of SPS without burning any DEC

Third, Soulboxes were reset and there was some stupid nonsense around the timing of the release of the Soulboxes and the reset but whatever, trivial detail. (Interestingly revolving around one of the primary bad actors...)

Fourth, the League RP was now going to be distributed at a set percentage, per position, e.g. 1st place gets X%, 2nd place gets Y% and so on... this prevents the issue where one player could take an entire League RP.

Fifth, any UNPLAYED Leagues would have their RP added to the next days Overall RP and distributed the same way to encourage the Lower Leagues to play, earn and move up.

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On Monday, December 2nd, the Tournaments were reopened and Soulkeep was "Relaunched".

Despite a number of players calling it quits, there was still a large chunk of people chomping at the bit after the Reset.

As you can see, some players were smart at the start - they used Soulboxes to skip League 1 and Mamont33 played 6 Attempts in League 2 and Ksantoprotein played all 10! (You'll read more about them in a bit)

I was dumb and only played 1 attempt in League 1, thinking it was only 10 Attempts per day... not per League... womp womp on my end lol

By playing these 10 attempts, they gathered as many souls as possible in the lower Leagues, before advancing up to League 3... this is critical because while you earn more Souls in Higher Leagues... the Ticket Cost to play drastically increases too

REMEMBER! ONE TICKET = FOUR (4) DEC!! SOULKEEP IS EXPENSIVE & A HUGE DEC SINK!!

Here again, Ksantoprotein played 7 attempts in League 3 and there is Alexandrp54321 with 6 attempts as well!

Day 1, these players are in LEAGUE 3... WHY??? Because they spent a TON of DEC on Soulboxes and Tickets...

Nobody made it to League 4 on Day 1... but by Thursday, December 5th - a lot of players had made it to League 4 already!!

Again, look how many attempts are being played:

Mamont33 with 5
Bakenbard with 5
Alexandr with 7
etc etc etc

Now you may ask yourself... where are you CaptainDingus? I thought you were good at this game... While I do maintain that I am halfway decent at this game, there are ultimately to ways to play a map...

Competitive (aim for the top spot) or Farm (harvest the most souls)...

Here I am in 10th, in League 4... I was farming my ass off so that way I could stay near the top League, as the higher Leagues opened... I didn't care about placing well the first few days... and I didn't have a lot of time that week - not a great week for me but that's life.

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By Friday, Dec 6th you can see Alexandr and Ksantoprotein have entered League 5... how?? THEY PLAYED WAAAAAAAAAAY MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE (this means they spent more DEC)

Here's League 4 for Friday, Dec 6th and look at all these attempts!! I'd like to point out that I beat Alexandrp54321 that day but they played 7 times and that's what pushed them into League 5...

Sat Dec 7th saw Bakenbard enter League 5, again due to massive amount of attempts... not Gameplay Changes that were unfair to others...

Sunday Dec 8th... I arrive in League 5 along with some others...

Ksanto and Alex both play a ton of attempts 9 and 7 respectively...

This allows Ksanto to move up to League 6... NOT EVEN ONE WEEK IN!! The DEC burn is crazy at this point...

Despite Ksantoprotein being the only player in League 6, they did not earn an insane 8,000 SPS or whatever, they earned the 1st place percentage of League 6

A lot of positive changes had been made and we had a FAIR game that rewarded those who played Smart and also those who played a LOT... Which is ultimately what you want to see...

However, not everything was working 100% as planned... players in the Discord were noting that the Multi Account issue had not been fully addressed, even though Double Coconut had stated it was not going to be allowed...

As you can see in League 2... Alts or from players running Multi Accounts were running rampant...

Gel006, Gel007 & Gel008 for example 1... Gel008 and Gel006 only played 1 time each because Gel007 played first, recorded the maps and then used that info to play their 2nd and 3rd accounts FOR FREE... and leech/steal 1,046 SPS from other players... WITHOUT SPENDING ONE SINGLE DEC!

This is a large part of why the DAO shut off the rewards last time... and as you can see... they weren't alone...

ARJWhite and ARJayf2 are noted as well as Sci-Populi, who as you can see brazenly went so far as to name their Guild "Russian Mafia" which was the term a lot of players used to describe the tactics employed by those who were manipulating the system before the reset... and they happened to be Russian lol.

I'd like to point out that I don't care where you're from - if you unfairly cheat and manipulate things to your advantage, then speak to people in the manner which they did... I am not going to like you.

I have nothing against people of any nationality, race, religion, etc... just don't cheat and don't be a dickhead and we won't have a problem... kinda simple rules to live by really...

Back to the matter at hand... it seems a lot of issues were solved but the Multi Account issue lingered and now a new problem had arisen... Apparently BOTS were now a thing?!?!

Oh look... the Russians... again... and as usual... Alexandrp54321 was behind it... but pretended again that "this was for the good of the community"...

WUT.

The community at large went bananas and raised enough of a ruckus that DC responded quickly and on 12/12/24 put out this statement:

Bots were EXPRESSLY against the ToS in the Whitepaper from the beginning... so this was new issue. I was very interested to see how DC would handle this... as well as address the MA problem that was apparently still plaguing the game...

On 12/16/24, Double Coconut released this update in the Discord Channel for Soulkeep Updates:

Surprisingly fast response from a team who had been known to let issues slide for weeks, if not months, previously!

I am impressed at this stage, a quick and decisive response is what was needed but lets look a little bit more at this statement...

The First Attempt, which was Free... Has been removed

This means... ALL Tournament Entries, now cost DEC... Soulkeep is still #play2earn... but now it is... #pay2play?

This is presented as a preventative measure to ensure Bots/MultiAccounts can't skim the system at any League, not just the lower Leagues... but it frustrated many players, including myself...

The founder of www.splintercards.com and Soulkeep Player @tehox suggested averaging the cost of Attempts 1 & 2 so as not to punish Players... but this has fallen on deaf ears.

He suggested several other things to which DC argued... but upon reviewing the math we all learned a valuable lesson: Tehox is fucking smart... and correct.

Personally, I think it is interesting to note at this point, that yet again... another measure was taken to change gameplay and that benefitted Alexandr, Ksanto and Bakenbard who had advanced to League 7 by 12/16/24...

Double Coconut, either by INCREDIBLE COINCIDENCE... or by design... made it harder for those in the Lower Leagues catch up...

Now, this isn't ANYTHING like last time where it became IMPOSSIBLE to catch up... it just meant players now had to spend several thousand more DEC to advance than before...

A minor inconvenience but still, ironically, working in the favor of the Russians... THE SAME PLAYERS AS BEFORE... but this advantage wouldn't take MONTHS to overcome, instead it would be days... but hmmmmmmmmm...

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12/22/2024 DC announces "The Fair Game Policy is in effect starting 12/23/2024"... they also stated they would Ban players who Bot/Multi Account IMMEDIATELY...

But while they posted this in the Discord, the update kinda caused a glitch with the new In-Game "pop up" notification and new "User Agreement"...

So they had to re-do it on 12/26/2024

Some players were upset it was taking so long... while others pointed out the only place one could read the updated ToS and Rules was in the Discord... which not everyone who plays, has joined... but again I must commend Double Coconut with how fast they addressed these issues.

They heard the issues... addressed them and implemented changes incredibly fast compared to previously and might I say... rather quickly when compared to Splinterlands standards... and it was done over Christmas no less!

Please do not interpret that as a jab at the Splinterlands team, instead a reminder that issues like these typically can't be solved "immediately" and we need to compare how quickly they are addressed and resolved fairly against other similar issues.

After the statement regarding the new Rules/ToS going live was released on 12/26/2024... Double Coconut released this statement the following day:

Enter... the SOULKEEP POLICE

Nothing like making a VERY public report, with lots of screenshots, to keep all parties accountable... and you better believe I will make these REGULARLY... and I am willing to wager that I am not alone...

That statement from Double Coconut was released on 12/27/2024 and today is 12/29/2024... let's see how that played out and changed the tournament landscape over the last week...

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12/25/2024

While the Bot issues were solved IMMEDIATELY, this is a prime example of the Multi Account bullshit that players are complaining about...

1st: ARJayf2
2nd: ARJayf
3rd: ARJayf3
5th: ARJwhite
6th: Delegat (a big "fuck you" to name an account "Delegat" due to the Delegation Exploit they abused last time - see the previous article for explanation of "Delegation Exploit"... but look who it is... you guessed it, the fucking Russian Mafia...)

Multi Account users have taken 5/10 top spots and leeched around 1,400 SPS that should have gone to normal players not those abusing the Multi Account cheat... IN ONE DAY: 1,400 SPS

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12/26/2024

[This is where new measures and ToS go live]

Oh look... yet again:

1st: ARJwhite
3rd: ARJayf3
5th: ARJayf2
6th: ARJayf
7th: Nivanger (Russian Mafia)
8th: Delegat (Russian Mafia)

Seriously... whomever runs @arjayf and those other Multi Accounts is a cunt and I'll say the same thing about @nivanger @delegat and the rest of the Russian Mafia.

Another 1,200 or so SPS leeched by these assholes...

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12/27/2024

Ok... this is where Double Coconut stated they had implemented the first round of Bans... lets see if it helped or changed anything... 🤞🤞🤞

League 1

Ok... League 1 looks pretty clean and I scrolled down to the bottom... all seems to check out...

League 2

Le sigh

Ok well... League 1 seemed clean but League 2 is still plagued with:

3rd: ARJayf
4th: ARJayf3
5th: ARJwhite
6th: ARJayf2

This cunt is still here and stole another 750 SPS from other uses and did it all for the extremely expensive cost of:

6 Tickets x 4 = 24 Tickets for 4 Accounts First attempt = 96 DEC... plus 12 Tickets for the 2nd attempt from ARJayf2 is another 48 DEC...

So ARJxxx paid 144 DEC to take ~750 SPS... Why would other players want to even try to spend 5+ attempts to beat them... when you can run 4 accounts and spend 1-2 attempts each to earn the same amount?

Please note: A ticket must be submitted to Double Coconut to report players so Double Coconut will investigate them and take appropriate measure... It is not going to be a "knee jerk" or "instant" reaction... it will take time and effort because DC has to do their Due Diligence to ensure they are being fair...

Here is the link:

https://doublecoconut.freshdesk.com/support/tickets/new

By all means, please feel free to report these players and all others who are violating the Multi Account policy and updated ToS 🤷‍♂

But wait... where's Delegat and Nivanger????

Hmmmm these seem to have disappeared... but they were long associated with Bakenbard, Kapusta, Ksantoprotein and Alexandrp... let's move up a League.

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League 3

Oh look... More Russian Mafia... 🤡

Funny thing about Blockchain data... it's all public... oh LOOK 👀... that was AWFULLY NICE OF @sci-populi to just GIVE bateu a Celine considering how much they cost!!!

I wonder WHY they would do that...

And yes... if you check Bateu-3's cards... many of them were purchased by "bateu" and transferred to "bateu-3"...

Which logically means... Sci-populi... who is owned by Ksantoprotein/kapusta/alexandr... is the same player as bateu and bateu-3... UH OHHHHHHH... looks like a ToS violation to me and should be reported...

That... combined with the fact that Bateu is in "The Grand Praetorian Army" and Bateu-3 is in... drumroll... "Russian Mafia"...

Pause... I have an idea 💡

Introducing... The Russian Mafia!

Would ya look at that... shocking right? No... probably not.

Ok... let's get back to checking the Leagues out... on to League 4!

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League 4

10 players in League 4 and all seems to check out but some players complained about Breaker77... but without further investigation, I can't say for sure.

Gel005 seemed to have only played 1 account since the updated ToS went and that checks out as following the ToS... I still think @gel005 is pretty shitty for running those Multis as long as they did... but fuck'em, whatever.

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League 5

Remember when @jonaro abused the Soulbox exploit last time... pissed everyone off... got reset back to League 4... well this time, they have played their ass off and are in League 5 - no exploits this time... nicely done and well played.

Unfortunately... we see some of the players that started the Multi Account drama...

Sci-Populi... more like "Sci-Poopuli" lol
Kapusta676
Livenston

Tehox and crew shared a bunch of on-chain data linking these players, as well as "Bakenbard", "Alexandrp54321" and "Ksantoprotein

Interestingly, when asked in Discord by the community to make the list of Multi-Account Violators "Public" via a "Wall of Shame"...

This is the response from Double Coconut:

"We will not publish the list as it's a confidential information"

First of all... no the fuck it isn't - everything is on chain and recorded... we, the players KNOW who is Multi Accounting... the only reason I can think of to keep things "confidential" is.........

IF YOU ARE HIDING SOMETHING

Funny enough... I am willing to bet players like @tehox will be monitoring on chain data, API interactions, transfers and more...

Double Coconut... for the sake of maintaining the trust of your small bit of remaining and loyal players... You should probably post the list publicly.

Because the same group of players who abused the ToS... seems to be skating by and favored... every... single... time.

Next up, League 6 - 12/27/2024

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League 6

Here we have Livenston moving up from League 5 to bag another 1,121 SPS... and Sci-Bots raking in just shy of 1,000 SPS...

ALL. MULTI. ACCOUNT. CHEATERS.

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League 7

Bakenbard and Mamont33, some of the OG abusers of the Delegation Exploit, the MultiAccount exploit and more...

Still allowed to play... despite OVERWHELMING evidence....

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League 8

Oh look, these guys... 1 attempt each... STEALING 4,000 SPS AGAIN...

The good news is, many players like myself are not far behind them... days not 6 months or more.

But the issue needs to be solved: Ban these players for violating the ToS.

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Quick look at violations, if any from 12/28/24

League 1: Clean
League 2: Are you fucking serious????

Please report ARJ's accounts ASAFP

League 3: Clean

League 4: Clean

League 5: Kapusta676 somehow still allowed to play??? #sus

League 6: Clean

League 7: Clean

League 8: Alexandrp54321 is still allowed to play??? #BIGsus

What's DOUBLY sus about Alexandrp54321 and Kapusta676 still being allowed to play is their comments in Discord:

Alexandrp is extremely confident they won't get banned... I wonder why that is... there can only be few reasons... and the primary one is something that was considered before the DAO suspended the SPS for the Reward Pool... and SUPER SUS...

It would also probably be why Double Coconut is reluctant/refusing to make the list of Multi Account violators public...

Please note: Kapusta never really comments in Discord unless Alex says something or they come online to berate others... just a bunch shitty humans in my opinion... it's like they only ever are online at the same time... every time... That's weird right?!?

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Today, 12/29/2024 - 10:10am EST

Let's look at the tournaments today to see how they look... if there are any remaining Multi Accounts, after I post this... I'll be Reporting them.

I haven't reported anyone yet, I wanted Double Coconut to have a chance to clean it up on their own to show us they are serious.

They've done a pretty good job so far and the community needs to step in and Submit Tickets for the rest...

The only thing that is not sitting well with me... is they won't make the list Public...

It's not like it's not on chain... and there are a LOT of tech savvy people here with the ability to locate/identify/track the transactions...

League 1: Clean as of now
League 2: Clean as of now
League 3: Clean as of now
League 4: Clean as of now
League 5: Kapusta676... really?
League 6: Clean
League 7: Clean
League 8: Alexandrp54321... Hmm...

Why weren't they banned but ALL THEIR OTHER ACCOUNTS WERE 🤔... did Alex know something for CERTAIN to make such a bold comment and be correct about not being banned... there is only ONE way he could KNOW that... #SUPERDUPERSUS

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The good news is: 99% of the issues have been addressed and both Bots and Multi Accounting has been stopped.

I applaud Double Coconut for their efforts thus far... but yet... just like last time... one player in particular has been given special privilege, made it easier to stay on top by restricting others, been a total asshole about things... yet not punished AT ALL...

In fact... one might say they have been REWARDED... by being allowed to do all of this, despite everything...

Have faith though, I shall be monitoring this from the front lines and giving regular updates to ensure everyone and I mean... EVERYONE... is held accountable.

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Again, great work Double Coconut, we are 98% of the way there!

I am certain myself and many others are about to enjoy a fun period of competition where ACTUAL PLAYERS are rewarded for competing in a game that is FAIR to everyone... with a Reward Pool distributed among these players in an equitable manner.

Thank you again Double Coconut, for recognizing these issues and your hard work to address them in a timely manner.

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That's all I have for you today folks!! Thank you for reading and I would LOVE for you to join me in game!!

Naturally, after everything leading up to this moment, I do think Splinterlands and Soulkeep are some of the BEST web3 games out there!

They bring the #play2earn feature to the forefront of development as well as many opportunities for people to earn rewards - whether Player or Investor!!

If you're interested in the future of gaming, it's worth checking out!

You can sign up here: Splinterlands

Cheers 🍻,

• CaptainDingus

#Splinterlands #Hive #Soulkeep #play2earn #web3 #NFTGaming #Rebellion #Conflicts #TowerDefense