Julien and the Flames

[SharksGM]

To all GMs,

I am very disappointed to report that we have been forced to ban Julien (Calgary.Flames) from the league indefinitely.

As you may have noticed, on January 24th, the boxscores for the games were shifted down such that Calgary's appeared first, followed by the remaining games in their original schedule. This indicated that the simmer (Julien) had edited the schedule to put his own game first, run the sim, saved it, and then edited the schedule back without changing the order of the boxscores and reports. While this could have been an (unlikely) mistake from using a test sim schedule, further investigation revealed that over the last two seasons, the Flames' record is 33-0-1 on nights simmed by Julien (that's one shootout loss). This is a rather improbable result.

While EHEC is a recreational activity, we take integrity seriously. Nobody wants to play a rigged game. Unfortunately, EHM's outputs are easily edited plain text, so we rely on trustworthy simmers to keep the games legitimate. We have safeguards in place to prevent playoff cheating, as simmers are never permitted to sim their own games. Unfortunately, in Julien's case - and despite his genuine efforts and contributions for the league - we placed too much trust in his integrity and didn't check his work closely enough. When confronted with the overwhelming evidence of his cheating, Julien unfortunately chose to repeatedly lie about his actions until it was no longer remotely plausible, and has refused to accept responsibility or even apologize for his dishonesty. It should be clear why we can no longer trust him to be part of the league after this.

Going forward, we will need to determine how to repair the damage this has done to the league. By our accounts, the Flames have gained about a 12 point advantage from Julien's simming this season. They will be assessed a penalty of 18 standings points to compensate the rest of the league, to be assessed at the end of the regular season. We have considered other options, including banning the Flames from the playoffs this season, and forfeiture of 2019 draft picks. The former option is convenient, but I would rather return to a completely fair game as quickly as possible (the penalty puts the Flames in 12th at the moment anyways). Since Julien is not going to be managing the Flames, penalizing a future GM by forfeiting draft picks isn't really necessary either.

Lastly, a reminder that we're all doing this for fun. I enjoy the challenge of facing real people in a game of skill and chance where you have to plan ahead carefully. I hope that's why you're all here too. We will begin another recruitment push shortly and hopefully find some more hockey fans out there who feel the same way. Airing this dirty laundry out in public isn't going to help, for sure, but we felt that we had no other choice. We've had a few unpleasant GMs in the past and I'd rather fail at keeping an honest league of decent people together than put up with petty fake bullshit like this.

If you have any comments or concerns about this, please let me know.

[Jets GM]

This has been a very upsetting 24 hours.

I can only begin to express my disappointment with Julien. His betrayal is a sting that will remain with me for some time. However, the evidence is overwhelming that he has acted in bad faith. Unfortunately, the prior controls we had in place did not account for bad faith actors which allowed this fraud to go on for some time. We are lucky to have such strong people that were able to detect the manipulations and bring it to our attention.

I wrestled with wanting to spare Julien and his Flames since we had built such a long relationship over many seasons. But, after some reflection, I think we all came to the realisation that there was no way he could remain the Calgary GM. We need to maintain the integrity of league by having strong governance and appropriate controls. The actions of Julien, which he still is struggling to fully comprehend and accept, have tarnished the incredibly strong reputation EHEC has. In order to work reestablish the trust and soundness of our league, it needed to start with appropriate response to the fraud. While there is no perfect response to this messy situation, I think the league has come to an appropriate conclusion.

I'm sorry this has happened. I still really love this league and enjoy competing against you all. Part of the thrill of victory comes from knowing how serious we all take our individual teams. This is going to be something that takes time to fully recover from, but we have chose to be radically transparent with you all. We still have an amazing core of GMs that we can lean upon during this difficult time. I know many of you were close to Julien. If you come into contact with him in the future, I would encourage you to let him know how his actions effected you individually.

I am personally committing myself to filling our vacant GM positions. I'm developing some new strategies for advertising our league and I think our strong active base will be enough to carry us through the next while. If anyone has any ideas on how to increase the visibility of the league and get new people involved with EHM, please PM me.

Thank you to all the GMs that make this possible.

EHEC will overcome this and be stronger for it.

[Dallas Stars GM]

... further investigation revealed that over the last two seasons, the Flames' record is 33-0-1 on nights simmed by Julien (that's one shootout loss). This is a rather improbable result.

Just WOW.

I'm shocked but I have to say that I kind of knew it, or at least it seemed that way to me as well for quite some time(same goes for the injuries), but I didn't want to sound paranoid or desperate while having no proof to back it up, as I haven't been keeping track of it. After all has been said & done - I guess I should've been.

So he was basically winning games for himself, right?
....I will never understand how somebody can feel good about himself while winning so cowardly. Actually, at the end of the day, all he ever did was to lose.
False self-assertion. This is just sick.
My personal P.S.: We also have had two guys doing the same thing, back in the day when I was playing in former Czecho-Slovakian EHM league.


Huge thanks to all of you who weren't afraid and I give you a huge amount of credit, gut and respect for stepping up and doing the right thing.
Thanks to everybody who helped in any way to reveal this abomination.

I know many of you were close to Julien. If you come into contact with him in the future, I would encourage you to let him know how his actions effected you individually.

I have been in contact with Julien through facebook and we talked a lot about the league and it was always interesting and entertaining so yes, I admit that it's quite tough personally because it disappointed me.

I am personally committing myself to filling our vacant GM positions. I'm developing some new strategies for advertising our league and I think our strong active base will be enough to carry us through the next while...

Looking forward to have a GENUINE FUN and to enjoy our TOUGH, ENTERTAINING but always FAIR and FRIENDLY competition.
Stanley Cup should belong to the best one out there and not to the one who's the most cunning - even at the expense of fairness and friendship.

EHEC will overcome this and be stronger for it.

Fortunately, we have many great people and great GMs in this league.
Let's have more fun than anytime before - together.

[NashvillePredatorsGM]

I've been thinking this about a year.

[NashvillePredatorsGM]

"Thanks" Julien for injuries, slumpings and looses in Calgary directly competing teams. I'm really upset for such cowards and cheaters. Without cheats you maybe wont come even to playoffs.

[NashvillePredatorsGM]

On other side I'm happy that the other GMs not participated in this cheats with him and revealed his cowardness.

[Jets GM]

On other side I'm happy that the other GMs not participated in this cheats with him and revealed his cowardness.

It was tough Lubos and being in the WC especially would really piss me off. In hindsight, JR's obsession with winning at all costs should of probably tipped us off sooner. I think we all sub-consciously knew his drive to win was a little different then the rest of the GMs.

We chose to be transparent about this because its the only way forward. Everyone is on the same page and we can heal together. Overcoming this can make us a stronger league going forward if we choose to rally around the remaining troops. That's how I am choosing to handle it.

My PMs are open if you need to vent!

[VancouverCanucksGM]

Are you sure it was just this season?

[Dallas Stars GM]

Excellent question - although, for me, it's more of an rhetoric question rather than a curious one.
I'd also say that it was also the previous one and thus, Calgary Flames' Stanley Cup is invalid.
Or at least for me personally - it definitely is.
But right now, I'm only looking forward

[SharksGM]

Are you sure it was just this season?

The 33-0-1 is including last season too. 20-0-1 last season and 13-0 this season.

The Flames were 36-17-8 in other sims last season so that would have been a 107 pt season assuming equal schedule difficulty, but there is the additional benefit of having fewer slumps, more losses for opponents, etc. Just without that point advantage they would have finished behind Dallas and probably Chicago, not to mention Philly and Montreal. So while he couldn't have fixed any playoff games, he did selfishly fuck up the seeding for everyone.

[NashvillePredatorsGM]

Have in mind not just that he made wins for herself, he definitely made loses and injuries for other teams few ranks above or up to him. Some teams made trades cuz they thought they dont play well etc, its very complex.

[VancouverCanucksGM]

Are you sure it was just this season?

The 33-0-1 is including last season too. 20-0-1 last season and 13-0 this season.

The Flames were 36-17-8 in other sims last season so that would have been a 107 pt season assuming equal schedule difficulty, but there is the additional benefit of having fewer slumps, more losses for opponents, etc. Just without that point advantage they would have finished behind Dallas and probably Chicago, not to mention Philly and Montreal. So while he couldn't have fixed any playoff games, he did selfishly fuck up the seeding for everyone.

Now all GM's will probably go back through the sim's he did and see how their teams fared.

[Vik (Habs)]

Have in mind not just that he made wins for herself, he definitely made loses and injuries for other teams few ranks above or up to him. Some teams made trades cuz they thought they dont play well etc, its very complex.

While fixing other games is certainly possible, I doubt any injuries were deliberately caused. It'd pretty much require him simming until someone happened to get injured - there are too many different files to try to fix to cover that up. If you're worried about your own players, the three big injuries I remember (Shipley, Boeser, Jacques) all happened when Dan or Justin were simming.

[Jets GM]

Reading all these statements about how Julien's fraud has impacted GMs has reinforced my belief we made the right decision in firing him. While the suspension is current indefinite and I feel pity for JR, I don't see how he could have any future in EHEC.

I tend to agree with Vik. Injuring other teams players would be very time consuming; I don't think there is evidence to suggest that. However, I agree its possible that re-simming until he won every game isn't the only way he was gaining an edge. We will probably never know the full extent of the fraud, since he is so unwilling discuss the matter or show any contrition. I hope he gets the chance to read some of these posts and actually reflect on how many lives he has impacted negatively.

All I can say is I am sorry to the GMs that we didn't catch this sooner. I am glad were able to discuss this proactively and hopefully reach a conclusion that allows us to move forward.

[SensGM]

Holly SHIT!!

U guys made the right decision.

[TorontoGM]

What a scumbag.

But what can you expect from a Bruins fan? You just can't trust 'em.

[Edmonton Mike]

I'd also say that it was also the previous one and thus, Calgary Flames' Stanley Cup is invalid.

Definitely tainted. That's a shame.

By our accounts, the Flames have gained about a 12 point advantage from Julien's simming this season.

For whatever reason, you found 6 of his sims to be fishy?

Overcoming this can make us a stronger league going forward if we choose to rally around the remaining troops. That's how I am choosing to handle it.

And rally we will!

[Vik (Habs)]

By our accounts, the Flames have gained about a 12 point advantage from Julien's simming this season.

For whatever reason, you found 6 of his sims to be fishy?

Estimated based on Calgary's record when Dan/Justin were simming for both home and away games.

[Edmonton Mike]

I tend to agree with Vik. Injuring other teams players would be very time consuming; I don't think there is evidence to suggest that.

What about sliders? How much of an impact does boosting the injury slider all the way up can have on any given game?

I mean, long term injuries often happen to impact players. Only during Julien's sims last season - and I truly believe it to be purely bad luck - I lost Ryan Getzlaf, Brendan Perlini and Luke Schenn to long term injuries.

A simmer with bad intentions - again, not pointing any finger - could boost the injury slider to each of my games without me knowing anything about it. If a simmer has so much time to waste that he re-sims until he wins or gets the results he wants in a game, he would probably have some time to see if he could get an impact player out for a while, re-simming 5-6 times with the injury slider all the way up.

Can you even change sliders between games? If so, would there be any way of knowing, in the files, if the sliders were altered with during a sim night?

[Jets GM]

That's true. Adjusting the sliders in between games could be possible. I'm not sure if you have to "continue to next day" for slider adjustments to take effect. As I said, we will likely never know the true extend or JR's fraud.

I still feel like we are going to survive this given the reaction of the league. It really sucks, but there is to many good people still involved.

[Edmonton Mike]

I still feel like we are going to survive this given the reaction of the league. It really sucks, but there is to many good people still involved.

Firmly believe so too.

[IslandersGM]

Wow as a long time member of the league - good catch - too bad it didn't happen sooner. That was the right move to remove him.

[Bernyhawks]

Wow!!
Good riddance
He always wanted to rip everyone off

@ Justin/Dan, congrats on the bold move and I am glad you will not tolerate him coming back even if we are missing GMs for now

[BLUESGM]

Sucks. Julien was always willing to help me out and I know there was at least one off-season I dropped the ball on that he really assisted me. I play a lot of regular EHM and see a lot of this all the time. Kudos to you guys for catching it and making a good decision. Wish more would do the same.

[Jets GM]

Sucks. Julien was always willing to help me out and I know there was at least one off-season I dropped the ball on that he really assisted me. I play a lot of regular EHM and see a lot of this all the time. Kudos to you guys for catching it and making a good decision. Wish more would do the same.

If you ever have EHM questions, PM.

Anyone that has questions about the game or EHEC, PM and I will try my best to respond.

[AnaheimGM]

Wow!