Piano Tuners Hacking Scandal

Ft. Worth Piano Tuners Hacking Scandal

Screenshot showing one of the random number generators procured to Golly's E Division by the Piano Tuners' shell company. (Source: XKCD webcomic https://xkcd.com/221)

While the Toroidal/Season 16 postseason was still ongoing, the Piano Tuners became embroiled in a hacking scandal. Leaked documents showed that the Ft. Worth Piano Tuners had formed a secret partnership with the Delaware Corporate Shells with the purpose of creating shell companies to sell backdoored random number generators to Golly's E Division (Engineering division, responsible for all Golly simulations). This had enabled the Piano Tuners to manipulate the outcome of both Toroidal/Season 15, in which the Piano Tuners emerged as champions, and Season 16.

One of the most unexpected consequences of tampering with the random number generators was that it led the Sacramento Boot Lickers to undergo a drastic personality change. Over the course of Season 16 the normally-obsequious Boot Lickers became inexplicably nasty, uncharacteristically crushing their opponents, and displayed a stunning improvement in their post-game trash talking, leading commentators to speculate that the Boot Lickers had incorporated trash talk exercises into their offseason training routine.

When news of the hacking scandal broke amidst the Toroidal/Season 16 postseason run, the Boot Lickers realized that they had lost the previous season's Toroidal Cup to a pack of cheaters. The Boot Lickers set out on a bloody path for revenge against the Piano Tuners.

Season 16 was a rematch of the Taste of Texas Series, with the Tuners managing to cheat their way to the championship series, and the Boot Lickers reaching the championship game by crushing their opponents with a singular focus.

Unbeknownst to the Piano Tuners (who were completely unable unable to win matches without cheating), the Commissioner's Office had ordered E Division to deploy patched random number generators. The generators had been found in a dusty warehouse, and they made a tremendous racket, but they would allow E Division to simulate matches without relying on the Piano Tuners' backdoored random number generators.

The Ft. Worth Piano Tuners were nearly eviscerated by the eventual champions, the Sacramento Boot Lickers .