United Kingdom
I am going to set this out as briefly as I can. There are parts missing - bcs I do not want to encourage silly behaviour from those outside these forums who may wish to educate htemselves on how we try to nail down the problems we faced here. Most IT professionals here probably have a very good idea anyway.
The issue at stake is a question of trust. It is a question of how to deal with a player who breaks rules. It is not an issue of life and death, rape or pillage.
The organisers were, and are aware of the subject's background - and it went to a vote initially, when the subject in hand asked if he could be allowed to enter the tourney. At that stage, the prizepool was not as large as it now is, and some were more lenient than others.
So, he was provisionally allowed in, although the organisers had to set up safeguards... and these were under review, when the double accounting came to light late in the day. In other words, the questions of trust and rule breaking magnified themselves horribly. And the prizepool had grown again.
That in turn caused an even closer inspection of what effective monitoring might be made and whether indeed, there was any point. Ultimately, this was what caused the decision to be made.: the results of another breakdown in trust. Like Ciez, I believe we are dealing with the same cyber person - Razh/dbmb - and we are by no means the only ones
So when to publish? Certainly not before the sign-ups had closed - that was midnight on Friday. - we did not want the risk of yet another account being created and entered. And after that, we did not want to tarnish the opening of the tourney. So yes, we left it until the last minute. We do not owe a rulebreaker anything in these circumstances It was, and is, our paramount duty to protect the tournament and the interests of the community who supported it and who helped to create it . Rule breakers have to take whatever decisions we choose to apply.
As a result, the question has now been raised in Staff as to whether there should be a Fair Play Forum established, with commensurate sanctions. This is a thorny subject, since Relic apparently asked us to lay off this subject, when COH2.ORG was first established. Relic would take care of it themselves. The issue has been documented in threads before.
And certainly, I can testify to the number of threads we have hsd to lock, or invis, raising questions of cheating , some unfounded.
But now the Community has established that it wants big tourneys and will pay for them, the issue is back on the table, It certainly won't get resolved fast, and even if proceeded with, it will be necessary to think through any longterm bans we might propose in such circumstances
Lesson to be learnt? Dont cheat. Don't break trust.
I am realistic enough to know this reply will not satisfy all of you - I apologise - but there is nothing more I wish to add, to what I have written here.
To be honest, this reply was better than cold silence.
Its a little worrying to know all this was done and pre-known in the shadows of OCF, But aslong as something is been done about people like this... then thats good enough for me.
Relic Entertainment
