Originally Posted by
Elldallan
Whether he has or hasn't is irrelevant, he can break the deal as posted without actually crowning. Yes he has said he doesn't intend to dethrone ASF, but the thing is that Bart has a, shall we say sketchy record, so I wouldn't necessarily take his word for it if his actions seems to indicate something else.
As stated by the dictionary you told Palem to go look up you can unconsciously compete with somebody, therefore it naturally follows that no concentrated ingame effort wouldn't and indeed couldn't be a requirement. Indirect action or unconscious action is sufficient if orchestrated by a party to the deal. If Bart is for example scheming with other kingdoms to try and have Kingdom C take #1 from ASF and then take #1 from Kingdom C then he is actively in competition for #1 regardless of whether he himself takes any action until ASF has already been dethroned.
Not if Bart was actively trying to make ASF's opportunity pass because then he was in fact "actively striving to establish his dominance over ASF", ie compete with ASF and thus he would be in breach of the deal.
Sure there might be no precedent on this issue yet. But the usage of the word compete clearly sets a standard, which is that if Bart is by any means consciously or unconsciously trying to gain dominance over ASF then he is competing with ASF which is forbidden under the terms of the deal. On the other hand he is free to take any action that cannot be viewed as competing or trying to assert dominance, for example he can try to ruin ASF by indirect means as long as he doesn't gain from it, but if at any point in time he gains from it then he is competing and thus he is in breach of terms.
The dictionaries are pretty clear as to what sort of actions constitutes competing, and as such anything that can be considered as competing is banned.