I was not surprised about the ulterior motive because he is not the only one who has them.

If a member with hardly any posts worth reading and hardly anything positive to contribute to the forum starts a Get Merits thread, that is highly suspicious. When members with little to no history or contributions or newbies miraculously find themselves on that thread receiving merits then that too is highly suspicious. When the same members are repeatedly given merits seconds after the next game is posted because again they are miraculously online at the correct time, then that too is highly suspicious. Also, what makes it more fascinating is that almost none of the games were posted at the time deadsea33 announced, they were taking place later yet miraculously certain members were there posting and collecting merits.

When I originally came across the thread I noticed your name and cygan in the OP and to some degree I think that provided a cover of legitimacy to deadsea33 to carry out nefarious activities including merit abuse. That was also part of his ulterior motive. When members stumble across those boards and notice names of well known and/or respected members in the OP as reference points then it goes a long way to removing the element of doubt.

There was absolutely an ulterior motive therefore I was not surprised deadsea33 was caught out and as usual it is the arrogance that some members of this forum display that brings them down. Had he simply not reacted to the neutral tag placed by hugeblack and had he not started a thread to complain then he would not have had his account analysed.