I received a reply to a standard roster issue notification sitemail from gigrant just now. The text is below:

"i'll never know how a non D+ player got on the roster. it's not too hard to set fielding ratings on a player search. i cringed when i saw yet another roster issue. was pretty excited to build the teams way back when the leagues were announced, but it's been a long time and i've had to make changes and changes. i'm pretty much over it and have pulled my teams. nothing personal, and i wish you guys well moving forward."

I went to reply but he has also blocked me. Can someone send the following to gigrant and let him know it is from me?

"Whoa — hey, is there anything I can do to for you to reconsider?

This will hold up the tournament for all 95 other players while I find a replacement and they build all the teams.

There will not be any more roster issues for you to fix as roster checking is now completed outside of some stadiums (which don't apply to you)."

If he does not reconsider, we will open up the leagues to anyone and there will be no requirement that the owners who enter play in all 6 leagues. This will be the fastest way to get started.

The weird thing is that he only had issues in 2 themes. There are 7 owners who had issues in 3-4 themes.

If anyone hears back from him please forward the sitemail to me.

If no one hears from him by tomorrow afternoon I will open the spots up. I don't think this will hold us up very long since our themes will appear at the top of the list. I will also post an ad at this time.

I sent him a message. I'll let you know if he reads it and/or responds to me.

Thanks!

Posted by ozomatli on 6/4/2020 9:25:00 PM (view original):
The weird thing is that he only had issues in 2 themes. There are 7 owners who had issues in 3-4 themes.

He had a couple fixes before. He had an illegal ballpark in the $120M theme. I asked him to change it and he changed it to another illegal park. So I had to ask him again, and he picked a compliant one, with this reply:

"i realized my mistake and came back to fix it. i'm going with Turner. it's hard to remember anything about the philosophy behind the team or the league rules when it takes so long to get started. i hope oz can fix this in the future. 2 weeks is plenty. this takes far too long and is irritating."

If something like that sets him off, might be better moving on without him. He'll likely get bored after a few weeks and we'll be left with some deadstick teams skewing stats.

That's helpful context.

While I agree that it sounds like he shouldn't've signed up (there is no good way to force this tournament to start faster since there's no guarantee how quickly 96 people will sign up when I first post the signup thread), I'd prefer to have him back in so that we can have a full/regular field of 96. I don't think it's crazy for us to wait for tomorrow to give him a chance to cool off.

He's an established owner in Open Leagues, so I don't think he would get bored and abandon his teams or anything like that.

I also would ask everyone to refrain from insulting his choices. We don't know what's going on in his life and it's entirely possible (likely even) that this was just a bad reaction. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt here and give him some time to cool off. He definitely won't come back if people are posting negative things about him.

My reason for sharing this in the first place was simply transparency due to the urgency of aligning on a replacement strategy, if it comes to that (since the tournament is set to start in a few days). I definitely don't/won't condone people speaking badly about an owner.

Shoot — he just sitemailed me again. He shared some personal things that, to be frank, totally explain why he would be on edge at the moment. I won't share those with the group out of respect for him and his situation.

A few of the comments in this thread definitely hurt him a bit more and I think the chance of him returning is minimal now. I'm going to give him until tomorrow afternoon to reconsider, just in case, but will also start working with the commissioners of the leagues he was in in order to open them up to anyone.

Gigrant, please come back. These are strange times we're living through. Whatever your situation is, I think most people on this site would support you.

Agreed. Super challenging times. WIS has been good therapy and a nice distraction. Hope you can find some solace here, gigrant.

Agreed.

Let me add my voice to encouraging you to come back gigrant. I have always appreciated the solace I've found in this site, especially when I was going through difficult times in my life. I would hate to see a respected member like yourself leave like this.

Please stay !!

Gigrant, please come back in. The past few months have been a difficult time for me as well, both personally and professionally. You’re a good owner and your expertise in this game is respected. Please, hang in there, and come back in if you can. Thanks!