QUASAR
Target of an organized coalition.

It all started in September. It was a completely normal week. Work was going as usual, the community was active as always, and there was no sign of what was about to come. I must say this is not the first time — we've received threats and attacks that no one should ever direct at another person. It got to the point where we haven't been able to use the CFX forum for years, because people always come after us.

But that day, several stores published a statement at the same time. The Discord community chat started filling with messages at an impossible speed. Insults, direct attacks, constant offensive messages. The volume was so high that not even the moderation bot could filter everything. Every second, more and more messages poured in. The situation became completely uncontrollable. We were not prepared for something like this. Nobody was. Within minutes, the chat went from being a community space to total chaos. The only option we had was to close it — not as a strategic decision, but because it was simply no longer manageable.

That's how we found out something was happening. You tried to write, but it wasn't a viable option. The only thing you could see was how hundreds of people were piling on us and we didn't understand anything. From there, the next step was to try to understand what was happening. We entered the website they were sharing. The whole team was on a call at that moment, trying to find some logical explanation. But what we found left us completely in shock. A long text, talking about "justice for the community", accompanied by a large number of out-of-context screenshots. In them, I was directly accused of having stolen other people's work.

There was no room to respond. No space to explain yourself. Trying to say anything was impossible. Discord was still completely out of control. The insults didn't stop, the attacks were unstoppable, and any attempt at communication was buried in seconds. And when we closed the chat to try to contain the situation, it didn't end there.

People started opening support tickets just to keep insulting. It was no longer just a moderation problem. It was direct harassment. The atmosphere within the team was unsustainable. We were all on a call, trying to react, without really understanding what was happening. The anxiety, stress, and helplessness were real. Some of us were practically on the verge of breaking down. We didn't understand why that page existed. We didn't understand where it all came from.

Until we started to see things more clearly. We realized that several stores — many of which had started from scratch and to which we ourselves had given space within our community — were sharing exactly the same message en masse. And that's when we started to understand a large part of the problem. There were names that didn't surprise us. But seeing the level of coordination did. None of those who participated ever came to talk about whether something bothered them. Nobody ever came to say anything. They simply decided to pick a target, and it didn't matter how they went about it, whether it was right or not, but they had to achieve it, and that's how it was for a long time.

Even so, at that moment, the main problem was not pointing fingers. It was surviving the situation. Trying to regain control of Discord. Trying to stop that mass of people attacking us at the same time. And trying, somehow, to find a moment to be able to say something. But at that point, not even that seemed possible. We made a couple of announcements and carried on as normally as possible, seeking help from the platforms.

We decided to make a website in response, defending ourselves. We spent a day trying to explain everything as quickly and clearly as possible, and just when we responded and thought we could breathe a little, within minutes the Warden community dropped the message that, after the "irrefutable" evidence they had seen, they were going to blacklist us. And that's when everything came crashing down on us. We basically realized that's what they were waiting for: for us to try to defend ourselves so they could then block us from all sides.

At that moment, honestly, we panicked, because we thought it would be the death of our community. A team member, although not all of us agreed, tried to mediate with them, with the innocent idea that if we agreed with them on something they wouldn't block the store — which was a terrible idea. But of course, at that moment we all felt trapped. We were completely shut down, or at least that's how it felt, we could only watch as people left, one after another, unable to stop it, because with their 24-hour notice, people panicked just like us.

Almost minutes later we realized that it didn't matter what we said, how we said it, whether we defended ourselves or agreed with them… They weren't going to listen. It was absurd to try to mediate such an out-of-control situation on such a massive scale.

And I speak in plural because I didn't live through this alone, but accompanied by people who have been by my side working hand in hand. We all lived through this equally. People who make a living from the store were contacted to ask how it felt knowing they were going to lose their jobs. Half of the support staff left. People from the internal team told us they couldn't handle the situation and were very sorry, that they were with us, but had to leave. Days later they were in other stores helping to spread the same message as everyone else.

Long-time partners left because they didn't want to be involved in something like this. The collaboration I had with the Helix project kicked me out, without a word, when most of the devs in there were recommended and brought in by me — we were supposed to be friends. Although later in their chats they also mock that same project.

But even so, the entire dev team supporting us to death and giving encouragement, and those who stayed were a huge pillar throughout the whole situation. We were between both sides of the coin. But with a cooler head, after two days we could feel calmer about it, because we knew that on our end, nothing would happen.

After launching the website, where we compared what they were saying with our side, we received two emails from the person heading the page. We must clarify that the first email received was poorly written, and the second said the first was an error and that this one was correct, pretending to be a legal representative, saying we were breaking the copyright of their website and that if we didn't remove the comparison photos they would sue us.

It was clearly a pressure attempt to make us delete everything. It should be emphasized that they shared all of this with screenshots, mocking us for having responded and for having received that email, in addition to personal mockery aimed at me. And although they sold it as justice, the only thing they wrote were insults, mockery and pressure.

On our part, we did contact our legal team, who at first didn't agree with the website, but seeing the social pressure we were being subjected to, urged us to try it. As the issue didn't subside, we were recommended to remove the website, since we were already in a legal dispute with a content creator, who we believe was part of the instigation of this event.

During those three days, CFX stopped responding to us, removed themselves from the equation, and the only thing Tebex told us was that our store was in order. After removing the website, since it was nothing but fuel for their narrative, they uploaded "exhaustive" analyses of our response. Clearly, any move we made, whether we breathed or not, was analyzed in detail, but not in a neutral way or with the goal of listening. Their narrative was the only valid one for them; everything else didn't matter.

They dedicated an exclusive channel to us in their new community. We released several open-source codes so that people still caught up in that narrative would ease up and see that things weren't like that, but it didn't matter either. Many people stayed with us and we had never felt so supported.

A member of our support team tried to mediate and clarified something very important: part of these people (Warden) openly admitted that they didn't actually see all those website "proofs" as real or viable evidence. What was really happening was that controversial creators weren't to their liking and they didn't want them. The only way to block them was to attack their economy.

Near the end of this conversation, another person from this community joined, saying it didn't matter that none of the evidence was relevant, that we had admitted to violating "some TOS" with NPC interactions. Under the pressure of more than 16 communities against us, and the threat of banning over 30,000 people for being in our community — but hey, "admitted".

Many customers came scared asking for solutions to the massive withdrawal of compatibility, and although at that point we didn't know how we were going to manage it, we didn't leave anyone behind and shortly after we found the perfect solution.

While they were selling their products and making lists for people to remove all our products, we offered ours to the community so that no server would have to suffer the consequences of what these people were doing against me. Because, being realistic, the most affected were also the players and servers in this situation, who found themselves caught in a senseless war that directly attacked their wallets.

We received several reports that, because we didn't fully understand how the system worked, we let pass when we should have responded. But since we had never been in this situation before, we didn't understand the procedure. The number of mass claims made in those few days ended up triggering the store's closure for a week. But we weren't going to let ourselves be trampled so quickly and we came back stronger than ever.

We chose to turn a deaf ear and move forward, although these people to this day still haven't let go. They said more things would come out about more people, but the only thing we've observed is that they cling to our name very eagerly. And that, if you don't think like them, they'll do everything possible to make you regret it.

We kept working and went even further to try to smother all of this, showing that we know what we're doing and that effort is answered with more effort. That's when we started the path towards our own ecosystem.

Things seemed calmer after a while, but inside we kept battling, because it was impossible for them to leave us alone so easily. The mockery kept piling up in that group. Every step we took in our store was already considered theft according to them. They made videos after videos that we fought to take down, while they kept mocking. In them they claimed I had scammed and stolen millions of dollars, with "precise" calculations from calculators. It was even said that I was in jail. The narrative kept escalating, which makes sense considering nobody stopped them.

They took control of a large part of the community through the fear that, after all these events, they had generated. I don't know if they're really aware that accusing someone of such serious crimes without evidence is, in itself, a crime, or if in their minds they're really convinced it's the right thing to do. New partners who came in had to leave just as quickly, because as soon as my name was announced, their chats exploded with insults and more harassment.

Direct messages to customers, pressuring them to stop buying from the store, sharing the website over and over again. In summary: an absolute lynching, aimed at me personally and my brand.

There was a clear objective: to remove us from the ecosystem or weaken us as much as possible. And honestly they almost succeeded, because many people left due to fear of the store closing — which didn't happen — many people left because they removed compatibility and support was denied in other stores for having our products, exploits were planted in certain places that block your server when using any of our scripts, while redirecting you back to their website, and they were forced to switch temporarily or permanently.

But one thing is clear: when the work is good and has love in it, it shows, and people know that. And I thank everyone who appreciates it as it deserves. And here we still are today, many months later, and they still haven't let go — in fact, it seems to be getting worse.

They even talk about a "lawsuit" that I have never received any notification of, but which for them is sufficient proof that I stole, although nobody has real information about it. For which money was even offered to testify against us, publicly, to a member of our staff. Clearly the chat was magically reset shortly after that. But we still kept that offer, because it was a limit too exaggerated, that even we couldn't believe.

As a consequence, we have a product blocked unfairly, the mockery and derogatory comments don't disappear, while they continue with the same narrative and don't let anyone exist if they don't follow it. They're still there. Nobody says anything. I don't care anymore. But now it seems they're going after more people, whether fair or not, just for being associated with our store, or simply because they decided to.

I can't speak for everyone, but I don't recommend it to anyone. Because when the other side is not allowed to defend itself, when a single narrative is imposed and constant attacks are made… no matter what they say: It's not justice, it's harassment.