this is a working admin command handler, that is it sends a message to the active player with proper substring. else if (command.startsWith("admin_event_start ")) { activeChar.sendMessage("Trying to start a " + command.substring(18) + " event."); return AutoEventManager.startEvent(command.substring(18)); } from AutoEventManager class: public static boolean startEvent(String theEventType) { System.out.println("AutoEventManager startEvent(): got start event call: " + theEventType); if (!eventInProgress()) { System.out.println("AutoEventManager startEvent(): event not in progress, ready to go"); if (theEventType == "TvT") { System.out.println("AutoEventManager startEvent(): starting TvT"); EventType = theEventType; TvT.startAutomatedEvent(); return true; } else if (theEventType == "CTF") { System.out.println("AutoEventManager startEvent(): starting CTF"); EventType = theEventType; CTF.startAutomatedEvent(); return true; } } return false; }