Arby's Beef

*"this is a loss for flags as a concept"*

*--Cam Cain*

The **Arby's Beef** was a controversy that occurred during FlagVote 3. It was incited after Arby's narrowly defeated Cauca in Round 1, Matchup 186, and eventually led to philosovexillological debate over what actually constituted a flag. Arby's Beef directly led to the inclusion of Enron in FlagVote 4.

## Background

Arby's was first included in FlagVote 2, and was met with a mixed reception. Some voters derided its inclusion, others supported it with varying degrees of irony, and the flag ultimately upset the Chilean Antarctic Territory before losing to Alaska in the second round. After the vote concluded, Arby's participation and brief Cinderella run was remembered mostly warmly by #vexillology members. In the period between FlagVotes, the flag was infrequently named as one of the sillier inclusions to the tournament.

When Flagpoll 2 was still ongoing, Greg facetiously mentioned the Arby's flag as one that would meet some voters' strict criteria for limited colors and simple iconography. The poll that eventually included the Arby's flag was eagerly anticipated throughout the polling period, with Cam urging the other voters not to spoil its inclusion to first-time voters. Buoyed by high marks from Alex and Erik, the flag ended up as the 535 seed, set to face Cauca Department in the first round of voting.

## Controversy

Arby's was once again the underdog in its Round 1 matchup, which arrived with fanfare. On November 20, 2022, Greg tagged the channel to alert every voter, saying "you won't want to miss this one." He was correct, as Arby's pulled off a narrow 5-4 upset against Cauca. Throughout the vote, Cam grew increasingly agitated, deriding it as nothing more than a logo on a background, while others questioned whether that was intrinsically any different from other flags. Sully and Sahil in particular both argued that by Cam's logic, its opponent could be reduced to nothing more than three stripes.

The argument continued into the following matchup, with Cam questioning why anyone would vote against Rivercess County (then in the process of getting swept by Glamorgan, Wales) but for Arby's. Eventually, the discussion spiraled into arguments over what content flags should be "allowed" to have, whether a logo could be included on a flag with little else and be considered a flag, and what the difference was--if any--between flags like Serbia or Albania and Arby's. The latter comment inspired Cam to release a strawpoll between Arby's and Albania, in which he facetiously voted for Arby's.

## Loss to Lincoln

On March 31st, 2023, Arby's was defeated by Lincoln in Round 2 Matchup 185 in a tight 6-5 matchup. As Cam pointed out, four of the five Arby's voters were inconsistent with their Flagpoll 2 votes, with Alex being the only exception. Arby's voters averaged a 7.2 score for Lincoln and a 5.8 for Arby's. With the score deadlocked at 5-5, Yuki cast the deciding vote in favor of Lincoln. This sent Sahil into a frenzy, despite his off the record remarks that he didn't actually like the Arby's flag. He chose to write the flag's eulogy, using it to accuse Cam of voter fraud. Since the vote, he has lamented the loss of Arby's at any opportunity he has.