As I'm sure most of you know, a month ago we banned a couple of players for win-trading in ranked duels. This happened after we had made comments in SOTS and a discord announcement making it very clear that this would be the punishment if we caught someone doing it. At the time we received no feedback that people felt this was too harsh for the offense but as soon as their 'friends' got banned they suddenly started making comments.
We find it frustrating that people are unable to see or understand the damage win trading in ranked duels can do. Matches happen so frequently that it is impossible to catch this behavior immediately and as a result, ELO changes hands many times invalidating/unfairly swaying the majority of the ranked ladder. Simply resetting their ELO does not fix the problem as they will have had many matches with others prior to this, either giving or taking away incorrect ELO values from countless other players. Then every person these players fight will also result in incorrect ELO values being exchanged, spiraling very quickly. It would be an impossible task to refund and roll back all these fights, and even if we could most players would find it frustrating as some of their wins would be taken away. While conquest win trading could be argued as more serious it is much easier for us to roll back as there are less fights that happen.
This also doesn't take into account people who may take titles and rewards away from others by win trading (pushing others down the ladder), as there will likely always be a small handful we do not catch. Again another reason for the deterrent to be substantial enough to discourage this behavior. Then there is the time and effort it takes staff to check and deal with people breaking these rules, while we have plenty of automated systems, they often require human input to sieve through false positives.
We find the arguments that because it's the same punishment as doxing, it is suddenly an equivalent offense, even more aggravating. While we have a sliding scale of punishments for some offenses, there comes a point where they become a 'perma ban.' This does not make all perma bans equal, as can be seen by the ban appeals forum and the varying responses they all get. Some of these may have to wait years to get unbanned (or never in the most serious occasions) whereas others just months.
However, despite all of this, we feel we now have a better solution to dealing with win trading in ranked. From this point on anyone caught win trading will be temp banned from the server for a minimum of 1 month (could be more if they have other previous offenses) and permanently banned from all forms of ranked duels (with their ELO also wiped). Any previous collectibles/titles they have obtained from ranked duels will also be removed. We agree that with Loka growing and having multiple facets to it, having a system to remove individuals from specific features on the server is the better middle ground.
As for the players who were banned after ignoring our warning, we are willing to retroactively apply this new punishment to them, despite us being very clear about the repercussions prior to their ban. An early Yuletide gift if you will.
The next ranked season will begin in early January.
We find it frustrating that people are unable to see or understand the damage win trading in ranked duels can do. Matches happen so frequently that it is impossible to catch this behavior immediately and as a result, ELO changes hands many times invalidating/unfairly swaying the majority of the ranked ladder. Simply resetting their ELO does not fix the problem as they will have had many matches with others prior to this, either giving or taking away incorrect ELO values from countless other players. Then every person these players fight will also result in incorrect ELO values being exchanged, spiraling very quickly. It would be an impossible task to refund and roll back all these fights, and even if we could most players would find it frustrating as some of their wins would be taken away. While conquest win trading could be argued as more serious it is much easier for us to roll back as there are less fights that happen.
This also doesn't take into account people who may take titles and rewards away from others by win trading (pushing others down the ladder), as there will likely always be a small handful we do not catch. Again another reason for the deterrent to be substantial enough to discourage this behavior. Then there is the time and effort it takes staff to check and deal with people breaking these rules, while we have plenty of automated systems, they often require human input to sieve through false positives.
We find the arguments that because it's the same punishment as doxing, it is suddenly an equivalent offense, even more aggravating. While we have a sliding scale of punishments for some offenses, there comes a point where they become a 'perma ban.' This does not make all perma bans equal, as can be seen by the ban appeals forum and the varying responses they all get. Some of these may have to wait years to get unbanned (or never in the most serious occasions) whereas others just months.
However, despite all of this, we feel we now have a better solution to dealing with win trading in ranked. From this point on anyone caught win trading will be temp banned from the server for a minimum of 1 month (could be more if they have other previous offenses) and permanently banned from all forms of ranked duels (with their ELO also wiped). Any previous collectibles/titles they have obtained from ranked duels will also be removed. We agree that with Loka growing and having multiple facets to it, having a system to remove individuals from specific features on the server is the better middle ground.
As for the players who were banned after ignoring our warning, we are willing to retroactively apply this new punishment to them, despite us being very clear about the repercussions prior to their ban. An early Yuletide gift if you will.
The next ranked season will begin in early January.
