Well I am withdrawing from a league I created. I am unable to participate in it with son. So since I cannot play and I would never Barr my son from playing I hereby withdraw. I have spent hours upon hours working on this league and it just isn't worth it.

The community will RISE up and defend you howard. This is crazy.

Wait, what? You wanted to play in the league you started? While I recognize the possibility of a conflict of interest possibly occurring, what brought on this development of you being told you can't play in the first place?

Judges tend to not play at the venues I frequent in real life, with the exception of bye rounds, maybe. Should it be any different online? (Howard awesomely cleared it up for me. They rotate judging for league work.)

Here is the whole story:

I created Hcol, the structure, the leagues, the prizes...pretty much all of it. I began by contacting Typhon who had also received a inquiry from Icarus at the time. We ran with it. I asked other people to come on board and help me. That is the other other league directors. They helped me in decision making, rules and structure..so even though I created it I cannot take all the credit as they helped me greatly. The league was structured with a commissioner (me) and 4 other directors. That gave five of us the ability to rotate and be over each league. We decided to do this as we didn't want the league director to play and that we could take turns running the league...letting us all play. I of course continued as commissioner always making sure the league was moving forward and being run properly.

I ran the first league and had to also run the second league due to Timeshadow having work related problems that would not allow him to run the league. In each of the leagues we have to submit names to Icarus so they could check for duplicate account entries. They kicked out a few players but not very many.

Late in league 2 Yamah suddenly discovered that Evildad and Zacdakiller were father and son. Yamah told me one or the the other had to be removed from the league. I protested this vehemently. I knew and know for a fact they are two different people. She insisted. I refused and typhon backed me. We held our ground but finally we relented and I made a phone call to Evildad stating the ruling. I felt terrible but told him that Icarus had agreed to looking at changing the rule in the future. So Zac withdrew from the league.

League 3 began and I submitted the new rules to Icarus for approval. I edited the same household rule and it stated that no one in same household could participate but that exceptions on a case by case basis could be made by the league director. I felt we could police the exceptions better than Icarus.

Icarus approved the format and rules. I made the announcement and set league 3 up ready for play with Crimmy as Director. On the day of the announcement and posting Icarus suddenly discovered the rule edit. Apparently they had overlooked it before. Well they pitched a fit and forced me to change it to what it is now. Roughly it states that no one from same household may participate but that exceptions can be made on a case by case basis by Icarus not the league director.

I asked them at this time (three weeks ago) if both easton (my son) and I would be able to play in the league. My son doesn't even live with me but is here mostly on weekends. Most of the time he is logged on a separate ip address. It is well known we are two separate people. Anyway I was told a decision wouldn't be made until Crimmy submitted the players signed up to Icarus. He submitted the first batch with both of our names in the list three weeks ago. Icarus never stated there was a problem and we thought everything was OK.

Three weeks later and just before the league was set to begin Icarus sent a email to Crimmy stating there would be no case by case basis. That means that anyone that is in the same household, has used same email address, used same payment method, or has ever used same ip address...can be one per. That of course means that easton or I cannot play. Therefore I withdrew from competition as i will will not Barr my son from playing.

I originally got in to heroclix years upon years ago with both my sons. It was something we could do together and all of us have enjoyed. we have a lot of good memories from it. Those memories are why I give back what I do to Heroclix. Its why I began the league, its why I contribute to Dragoncon, and was why I became a judge years ago. I wanted to give back and provide enjoyment to others for something that had given me so much.

I cannot support something that prohibits family participation. It is why I got into Heroclix to begin with. Therefore I withdraw until they either come to their senses or until we do something separate from Icarus Studios.

Is there anything we can do for help?

Yeah; this sucks. I just don't understand how this even makes sense ... and I'm half tempted to have everyone sign on HCO from my laptop at GenCon so that we can all register the same IP address! There are many ways to break the system. Maybe that's what they want .. for me to start detailing how to spoof IP addresses, to use "burner" credit cards, to show everyone how gmail allows for unlimited unique email addresses that all end up in the same inbox (which also gets you unlimited PayPal accounts).

Hopefully they'll reconsider; and we can put an end to this topic.

This is outrageous you should still be in this, there must be a loop hole in the rules or something.

I wish I could say I was surprised by this but I'm just not. Icarus has time and again made decisions that are baffling in terms of customer service. It's the number one issue with the game at this point.

Even though it caused a ruccus I appreciated your ruling in the playoffs in the last league. I have never had a bad game with Easton, he is a great player(much better than his father, muhahahahahaa). This decision doesn't suprise me either becuase Icarus Studios isn't about customer service. They are very much about turning a quick buck and turning their head away from legitimate issues.

Howard,

Wow. I'm sorry that you have to resign. It's awful that you have to.
Thank you for all of your hard work & time making the leagues what they are today.


This is just another negative instance to cause some to reconsider investing any further $$ or time in the online version of this game. One would think HCO would want more people playing and the game growing instead of driving away the limited fan base of players they already have.

Glad that I never invested time, money, and energy on HCO.

This validates my decision not to participate.

It's a bunch of BS. I don't understand half of what HCO does or why, but I've still supported them. This time however, I cannot. Consider this my withdrawl from the league as well. If I need to inform someone personally, please let me know where and how.

so me and icemanpmr we are brothers and some times i go to hes house and play hco, never did one problem

Icarus are stupid or what??
if fathers and sons want to play what is the problem??

if howard and easton dont play anymore i will go ou to in a form a protest agains hco...

idk if i can have fun in this league knowing the creator is getting screwed out of being able to participate. i was really looking forward to L3. i have not been in an HCO league b4. good thing local tournaments are back in my area $10 a tourney is too steep when i can play the real thing for free.