04-18-2021, 07:21 AMMemento Mori Wrote:

04-17-2021, 10:46 PMCapt_Blitzkrieg Wrote: I'll agree that we messed up. I disagree that we did so knowingly or in bad faith. Punishing our team to the point that we've lost two players does not fit the incident as it happened. If we were actually intending to abuse a loophole, I'd lay down and accept this as just desserts. I know in my heart and mind that the intent you've punished us for isn't there.

This is the fundamental issue for me. Toronto gained no competitive advantage from paying out the bonus a season earlier. The bonus was offered and paid because the team had spare cap that wouldn't have been used otherwise. If they had been told that by writing the contract in the way they had that the bonus would have been paid in S56 rather than S57, then they could've just paid the proposed bonuses as S56 salary - because that's where the spare cap was - or not paid them. There's no "gotcha" moment here. A poorly written and explained rule was interpreted in an understandable way, as has already been recognised.

HO should be working to make the league more enjoyable for its users. Forcing a team to trade away its players (and yes, "forcing" is appropriate because multiple alternatives were presented to HO and all were denied) because of a harmless misunderstanding is not enjoyable. Rules are important because they give structure that makes the league better, not because they are rules. If the rules conflict with basic common sense, the solution isn't to say 'rules are rules' and levy punishment.

I think being more subjective about rules is a step in the wrong direction. Rules, laws are written and enforced to give us that structure, but deciding when and where to enforce them sort of defeats the purpose. Intent is irrelevant. Whether or not it helped them is irrelevant. What's important is establishing precedent for the enforcement of rules. And, to do away with playing favorites and other exploitable endeavors. I mean, would this be fair to so many other "small mistakes" that are punished and enforced? The budget team gets punished for not catching it, so why not TOR?