Also on July 15, 2004, I recieved an email from hokie. It was a letter to the league. It was an updating letter that I had no business of knowing. I responded to her with this...
Well... This is the only thing I got from you. I already took out my platinum. I can't withdraw because, I get this.... the_rattlesnake_of_spades is in the penalty box until Wed Dec 31 15:59:59 1969 and cannot be withdrawn. So you need to finish the job or have someone else do it. I don't care. I'm not going to return to the league.
It was strange to me to see that I couldn't withdraw from the league. I never seen anything like that before. No matter, nothing more I need to say about any of this. I'm still a platinum member of Cases Ladder...
From time to time, I check to see how my former leagues are doing. Spadez went to hell and I had nothing to do with it. It went from a "Christian" league to the typical type of league. Months later, the league was deleted. Coyotees couldn't get started and it died a month or so after I left. Fantasy Player also parished about the same time as Coyotees. Maiden went through a couple of HA command changes. It's still a decent league and it's a member of the BOLs. I'm happy that Maiden is where it belongs. Maiden's own Battle Leagues had a good run. I'm not sure when it was no longer of use. The championships it had were great, just to bad I wasn't much a part of it. Spadeslite is still around. I don't know all the details of how it manage to survive. They got rid of the admin that wasn't really there and now have a fully active administration. A friend of mine, Kenny, is still a member of the league. He told me that things are better but it took a couple of months for this to happen. He almost left, a couple of weeks after I did, due to the fact that people said he was cheating to get to the top. I know this isn't true. We were partners during my run with Spadeslite and cheating never crossed our minds. He plays in the same fashion as I do and the reason why we clicked so well. When he threatened to leave, a few other players were willing to follow suit. However, the admins were able to fix the problem, proving his innocence, and worked on getting better. I know back then that they were still having troubles on getting members to play. I also asked Ducky about the league. She said things are better and wondered if I wanted her to ask Steve to get me back in. At the time, I said no and I wasn't coming back....
What matters to me is that I need to find a truely active league. A league that can handle the spades skills of this Rattlesnake. A league that is true to it's word and not being hypocritical to it's own rules. All I want to do is to play spades with true friends. I'm willing to host tournaments too, but only if I am asked to do so. I can be admin, if need be. If I become admin again, I might as well create a league of my own...
I haven't played a single game since I left Spadez. Not until January 2, 2005, when I went into a Yahoo! spades room and played a few games with the bots. Those bots don't change. I played against a few real players. I won the first four games of this year, to start the year out right...
July 27, 2005, I still haven't found a new home. I've been looking but not as I should. The past year, I took off from league play. I wanted to give more than enough time to let all the bullshit end. However, different leagues with the same problems. I don't understand why no one else can learn from past mistakes. Ok, Bragging Rights is known as Battle of the Leagues and they are doing things in the manner that I once suggested. This suggestion was shot down when I presented it. I love how my ideas won't work until someone else comes up with it a couple of months later. I don't care about getting the proper credit. All I care about is that it's being done the right way. Just one thing, there're still too many leagues that play in Yahoo! rooms. I still feel that Yahoo! leagues should be slit up into divisions, to ease the BOLs. However, I haven't heard of any problems of how things are being done. By the way, I like the idea of being able to play in a special tournament without qualifying for it. Now, I just need to find a league, modify my name to be able to participate in this monthy event!
I want to play in a league again. I am able to play, and possibly host, at any time. I can devote some of my free time to the game I love the most, Spades. All I need is to be given the chance to spade again...
I know my Spades History won't end here... To be continued!
