Overview
Trapgate is an event in “Network States.” It begins when Chester Beauchamp, an Axis naval player in HOIMMRT known as Dongwaffen, posts a Soviet battle plan in the public Axis General Discord.
Event
Beauchamp posts the document late at night and says he obtained it from the laptop of Vera Velasquez, a Soviet faction player known as @veravee. Other players question whether the document is genuine, but BigIron6 publicly confirms that it is real and that Axis high command has had the plan for two weeks.
BigIron6 announces that the German invasion of the Soviet Union is beginning. The narrator follows the invasion through a stream and multiple online faction spaces as German forces quickly break through the Soviet front.
The Soviet faction debates whether the game should be rolled back because the battle plan was obtained through real-world deception. Millicent reports that Vera does not want the authorities or media involved. Vera then stops logging on to Tankies United II, and CatgirlLenin and Siskover resign after Soviet leaders blame them for failures in army preparation.
Trapgate later leads to a real-world attack in Portland. Ethan Frunn, a Tankies United II poster known as @Amethyst, attacks Beauchamp outside his house. Beauchamp is hospitalized, Frunn is arrested and later sentenced to juvenile detention, and local news treats the case as violence between political extremists without naming HOIMMRT.
The incident increases public attention around the game. HOIMMRT gains more viewers, more active players, and new online discussion spaces, while the simulated war continues without a rollback.