Hours before the final armor timer of GR-8JV’s station was due to come out, a drama was unfolding as a result of alleged behavior at a PL Fanfest dinner in Iceland. The original poster, a member of Pandemic Legion made claims that HERO CEO Lychton Kondur had not only been uproariously drunk and aggressive with other attendees of the informal gathering, but had also walked out neglecting to pay an extremely high bar tab.
The reddit thread very quickly spiraled out of control with people doubting the veracity of the claims, while others spoke in support of the allegations. This being Reddit, the usual amount of “shitposting” was taken to an excess. As users demanded proof, eventually the groundswell was enough that the organizer for the event Ander, came to clarify that it did in fact happen:
Hey guys. Ander here. Im the guy organizing the PL fanfest dinner.
Anyone who question the identity that can just poke me on PL forums and verify my reddit account .
I asked bob not to repost, but being the rumor-mill and upvote-generating machine he did anyway. I will take care of that internally. I do also apologize myself for posting this on our IRC but the rumor mill was spreading by others before I even got back to my hotel room, so better to make things clear than it going out of control.
As for this event, I realise anyone can have a bad day with the booze. Granted he’ll have a hangover tomorrow, and might need to talk to some people to sort things out. He’s welcome back next year (although maybe not downing 15 jameson shots in quick succession) :)
The PL dinner is an informal (non CCP affiliated inofficial) PL/Waffle invitation only event, but if you’re nice and friendly enough you will most likely be invited if you really want to go no matter where you are from. We believe people can be adults and civil.
(This will probably be my final comment as I hope to see the solar eclipse tomorrow morning :) ) If you’re at fanfest and see me around, come say hello and introduce yourself :)
Now from my last post on the matter of those questioning BNI leadership based on the existence of other failures, this will be a break from that trend of somewhat defending BNI. As this is simply inexcusable. Leadership in-game and out is not always based on merit. And if this is behavior that characterizes the person that leads an alliance, I’m beginning to question that person’s capability, not just to lead, but to be a decent person. No one who has their priorities in order, let alone who is as passionate as Lychton says he is, would allow this conduct.
Regardless of how much if at all this incident was embellished, there is no room for it in EVE or out. If his alcohol consumption was in fact a major contributing factor here, I would plead that Lychton get some help. I hate to have to say it, being a line member of BNI but, Lychton is fast-becoming part of the reason people dislike the group. For me personally, it appears that he needs a break from the game and the meta. And as far as I can tell, no one seems to be able to reach him and tell him to step away and let someone else take over for a bit until he gets sorted out.
BNI and the EVE community at large are a big part of why I play this game. And we all have ups-and-downs, but this is way down.
