On December 31, at 9:18 a.m., Matthew Berry was tagged in a tweet:

A similar tweet came the next day. And then the next day. The most innocuous Berry posts were met with more pleas from his “biggest fan” just asking for some kind of response. 

“At first, I thought maybe he was a crazy fan,” Matthew Berry told Fantasy Life — in an exclusive interview. “Then eventually he explained in a tweet that this was his fantasy punishment for losing his league. Hilarious.”

And yet, as hilarious as it was… there would be no reply. Berry says that once he realized what was going on he wanted to see if the mysterious SGIV account would reach 100 days. And it did. But there was one problem.

“When he got to 100 I was out of the country on vacation with my family,” Berry explains. “And I couldn't really do anything.”

Fast forward to Day 114. With Reddit and Fantasy Cares running a charity event for the draft, the moment presented itself. 

And it did not take long for a generous soul to step up:

SGIV's extended punishment, spanning (technically across) two years, two seasons, five months — however you want to spin it — would be coming to an end. So we reached out to the guy behind the account, Alex Parham, to see exactly how this came about. 

The Iron Throne League – an homage to Game of Thrones, complete with a trophy that is a replica of the one in the show and a YouTube page full of hype videos — is entering its seventh year. Previous punishments have included the Waffle House challenge, having to do a calendar shoot, and the “Waste Management” punishment (where the loser gets a ton of gross concoctions and old food dumped on him by his fellow GMs). Every four years they make a professional comic book based on matchups and games. 

The league is a mix of friends, some military members, family, and extended networks. 

“The league is a brothership,” Parham explains — also in an exclusive interview with Fantasy Life. He says it goes deeper than just playing a game, as they've sent each other baby gifts, arranged care packages for the family of a league member who was deployed overseas, and they plan massive draft day trips to everywhere from Buffalo to Vegas. 

And, of course, place bets on how long it will take Matthew Berry to reply to a series of intentionally creepy tweets.

“I honestly did not know when Matthew would respond,” Parham says, adding that he set an over/under of 365 days and 1500 posts. “Most of my group took the double over,” he admits. 

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One member of the league, Travis Garner (aka “the Kingslayer") even sent an email to Berry to ask him to ”wait all season long to respond to this guy and make him pay for his punishment." 

On April Fools Day (aka Day 92), Parham created a fake Matthew Berry account, replied to himself, and “for a split second” had a few members fooled. But no dice. 

But at long last – and despite Garner's wishes – the day has come to end Parham's punishment. Fittingly, as the new dynasty season begins for most players. 

As for next year? The punishement remains shrouded in mystery. 

“There are 12 ping pong balls full of ideas,” Parham says. “One gets taken and then we vote on the next idea to go in.”