Rock the KAZ-BAR

*"I never knew vexillology would be so dramatic"*

*--Andrew Beaudoin*

**Rock the KAZ-BAR** is the retroactively given name for a controversy in FlagVote in which two votes were initially counted incorrectly, flipping a matchup. In Round 5 Matchup 5, Kazakhstan squared off against Barbados with a spot in the Elite 8 on the line. Conor, Cam, Greg, and Sully all voted for Barbados, while Alex, Yuki, and Andrew voted for Kazakhstan. However, believing Greg's and Sully's votes to be inaccurate, Cam marked a 5-2 Kazakhstan victory into the sheet.

## Background

Throughout Flagvote and in #vexillology as a whole, factions arose among the voters. Most notably, the Eagle Boys, primarily Greg and Sully, became known for their love of flags with birds. Other voters, particularly Cam, disapproved of this coalition and its mission, preferring simpler flags and decrying flags such as Mexico and Guatemala. On August 14th 2019, he first used the phrase "cartoon birdy," which he would use several more times to describe supposedly inferior flags which were loved by the Eagle Boys. This frustration came to a head on September 24th when Guatemala defeated Ukraine and Mexico defeated Slovakia in back-to-back 4th round matchups. Later that day, Kazakhstan defeated Alaska in a 4-3 matchup where Greg cast the deciding vote in Kazakhstan's favor. Prior to Greg's submittal of his vote, Cam declared "Kazakhstan wins" in the chat, a declaration which proved correct.

Following Kazakhstan's victory, Cam became increasingly morose, referring to flags simply as "flag with bird" or "flag without bird" rather than by their names. The one exception over the next seven rounds was when he referred to Martinique as "flag of natural predator of bird." Martinique lost to Sweden, although both Greg and Sully voted for it.

At 11:11 PM that same night, Greg published the poll himself for Mexico vs Guatemala, referring to it as "Can's worst nightmare." The matchup wrapped up eleven minutes later with a 5-2 victory for Mexico, with Cam among Mexico's five votes. The next matchup was set to be Kazakhstan vs Barbados.

## Controversy

Votes came in quickly for the poll which began at 11:23. Sully and Greg both expressed sadness at the way the matchup was going. However, at 11:26, Cam's initial vote for Barbados disappeared. At 11:54, with Barbados up 3-2 and votes from Cam and Alex missing, Sully surmised that Barbados had won, but Andrew decided he wanted to wait in case Cam's vote reappeared. At 9:16 the following morning, with his vote for Barbados presumably locked in, Cam said the following: "Assuming those two votes were misclicks that’s a 5-2 win for Kazakhstan." He then marked Kazakhstan as having won in the sheet and began the following round, which was Norway vs Sweden. Five minutes after the poll was opened, Greg noticed that the official record said 5-2 despite the fact that the poll said 4-3 in favor of Barbados. Though Greg and Sully maintained that they intended to vote for Barbados, Cam declared that the result was final since the next round was in progress.

Compounding this problem was the deletion of the original poll. Though a screenshot of the 4-3 result still existed, Greg suspected that Cam had deleted the poll on purpose. Cam maintained that he did so accidentally and without any ulterior motives.

With the channel in a standoff, and Greg having invited Zane back into the chat, Cam sent out a new poll at 12:21 PM on September 25th. This poll asked the voters which flag deserved to move on, making sure to note that the question was not the same as asking which flag was better. He and Yuki both voted for Kazakhstan, while Conor, Andrew, Greg, and Sully all voted for Barbados. Cam mentioned the Guyana Controversy as precedent as well as the fact that he was suspicious about the Eagle Boys voting for Barbados.

Either way, with the second poll wrapped up, at 12:58 Cam said "Let’s take a page from UM alum Gerald Ford and pretend that all this bad stuff never happened and move on." The matter was ultimately resolved without further dispute, Greg broke the tie in the Norway-Sweden matchup, and the following matchup began at 1:01.

## Aftermath

Barbados defeated Norway in the quarterfinals and Albania in the semifinals before losing to Canada 5-2 in the finals of the inaugural FlagVote.

In FlagVote 2, the two flags met once again, this time in the quarterfinals with Barbados as the 3rd seed and Kazakhstan as the 11th seed. In the rematch, Barbados won 6-1 with Andrew casting the only vote in favor of Kazakhstan. Barbados then defeated Hong Kong in the semifinals and New Mexico in the finals to be crowned champions of the second FlagVote.

The term KAZ-BAR was coined by Andrew on 2-19-20 following a similar incident in the second FlagVote. Colorado defeated Dardania 6-1, and Cam questioned whether the voters voted in their best interest. Andrew responded by saying "Don't make me compare this to the dual faroe islands, or worse... rocking the kaz-bar vote." Cam, appreciative of the pun, closed the round and moved on.