Accusations, Bans, And Admins. Oh My!

[Maxzloch 0]

So... here's a fun story for you. I was playing on Dustbowl, when I noticed someone (Bcam77, the A may be off there) say they were using hacks in team chat. I asked him to stop. I spectated him, and he was using stickies instantly, precisely, quickly, and never missing his target. Jerking everywhere, and knowing where his enemies would appear. He was on my team, so that rules out what one of the admins called "being butthurt". I told the whole server that Bcam77 was hacking. Then, I noticed that someone had called an admin, something I didn't know you could do. Several admins came in, and I tried to explain to them what happened. They asked who was hacking, and I explained it to them. Multiple times, as they seemed to have missed it. They were told by many that he was using hacks. They told me that they were not aware of such hacks, and that Bcam would have used pipebombs more likely. Meanwhile, as I tried to reason with the admins, people in chat used sarcasm to mock me, as well as the other accusers. I had spectated him, as had others. The admins started to act less friendly, being jerks to me just because I had decided to report a likely hack. One admin told me not to come up with dumbass accusations, and find evidence, or something along those lines. This made me feel like the admins were against me rather than with me at this point. Multiple times I told them that Bcam had admitted in, but they never seemed to pay attention to that incriminating fact. After essentially being called a dumbass, because I was "butthurt", I told the admin that he was not on my team, and called him a jackass, which, I admit, was not something I should have done. The admin started a voteban on ME. Simply for calling him a jackass once, where as he called me something about as bad, if not worse. But, in short, I was mocked by the majority of the players, some admins, and since the admin started a votekick on me, for swearing at HIM, and using the call admin tool twice, when in fact they assumed that, as someone else had used it. I used it for the first time after one left. The kick succeeded, and the hacker may have gotten away for all I know. In short, I request a ban on Bcam77, which, as I stated, may not be his actual name, but very similar. He has probably changed steam names by now, and it is too late. On a personal note, this angers, and saddens me deeply, as this is one of many time a hacker has gotten away, but this time, the admins appeared to against me. One admin did keep saying "EVERYONE IS HAX" as if to mock me. I would also like to be unbanned myself. I do not want insults or anything personal to get in between this whole ordeal. That is all, and I thank you for your time. Please respond as soon as you can.

[- Mike - 2,728]

Really don't have anything to go off of.

http://forums.gamingterritory.com/topic/18424-how-to-request-a-ban-read-first/

[Gotcha 6,307]

http://stats.lotusclan.com/chat/tf?range=0&server=20

Waiting for Dr. Obvious' input.

[Kitten 1,813]

I wasn't there, but I can tell you that Bmcs777 plays comp tf2- plat and open. So, I think our admins made the right call about whether or not he was hacking. Comp players devote a lot of time this this game, and it's not uncommon for them to be accused of hacking on public servers.

Here's a short clip of him from a game:

Also, admins don't start votebans. They just ban. This was probably initiated by a donor.

[JMaster299 654]

I was not a witness or anything, but I wanted to offer a helpful tip. If you think someone is hacking, it is best not to say anything. It gives the hacker the chance to stop using the hack if they think they may get caught. That in turn can prevent you or an admin from gathering proof against the person. Also, you can and will run into exactly what happened in this case where other people on the server started talking trash because you accused someone else of hacking.

If you suspect someone is hacking simply jump into spectate and make a demo, make sure to grab a Status while making the demo. While doing that be sure to use the !calladmin feature that you have now learned that the Lotus servers have. Even if that Admin does not think the person is hacking, you will still have a Demo that you can post here that will be reviewed by multiple admins and/or staff members.

[Sphagnum Peat Moss 748]

I came in at the very end of this (wasn't called, just joined to play). Upon first joining, I immediately saw Max saying hacks and calling for admin, and everyone else disagreeing with him in chat and on mic. I saw that Dr Obvious was already in there and speaking with him, so I didn't do anything. At some point someone initated a voteban against him and it passed. I assumed he was just trolling and that's why the vote was started, but apparently not. Beyond that, I don't know anything else about this.

EDIT: I wasn't mocking you when I said oh noes all h4x. That was just a reaction to joining the server and seeing everyone accuse everyone of hacking over silly things. Sorry if you thought it was meant to mock you.

Also, did you record a demo of the hacks? If you did, could you please post it? As JMaster said, for future reference, if you think someone is hacking, quietly hop to spectate mode and record a demo of it, or at the very least type "status" in the console and screen shot their steamID so we can try to research them. If you scream hacks all over the place and calladmin on them immediately, odds are they'll stop for a while and the admin won't be able to catch them, or they'll leave and we'll have trouble figuring out who it was.

[Kitten 1,813]

By the way, I've checked the ban list - and you aren't banned. It appears you were votebanned by a donor (which is a 30 minute ban):

Combustible Lemons Someone needs to cool down, so I'm going to issue this
Combustible Lemons !voteban Max To cool down and stop issuing calladmin commands
Combustible Lemons Now when you behave
Combustible Lemons you come back

[+Dr. Obvious 14,606]

Oh my.

The person who started a voteban wasn't an admin. I know, it's hard to see sometimes, but admins don't voteban, they ban. If i - or he other admin present - would've wanted to get you banned, we'd just have used our ban command.

Second, i asked you on what you based your accusations of requesting a ban, except "being butthurt ;)". Seeing your post, i guess the emoticon and its meaning flew right past you, as much as the irony of him saying "yes, i hack".

Third, if you are so sure that he was hacking, you could still have made a demo. If you need assistance with that, we can, of course, help you. Easiest way, because, when you call for an admin, and you accuse someone of hacking, you should have proof. Your proof was the word of a couple of people against him saying he wouldn't hack, or short, word against word. Which is *not* enough for a ban.

So far about "why didn't you place a ban".

tl; dr: He's good. You're not. As long as you don't have proof, we won't ban just because you think he hacks.

I might want to add the following, though.

1) No, he has not changed his name - which would've been futile anyway, as we have his Steam ID, so we can track people by that.

2) I don't know about the rest of the people accusing him of being a hacker, but from what i've seen, you don't have any experience in that class, nor even in that game. Some people are just good, especially player that have quite some hours more. He is one of these players. Looking for his steam id shows that he is participating in quite some tournaments, highlander, gold level. That's like, from your position, calling a professional athlete a cheater because they can do things you can't do. Without having any visual proof (demo) except your judgement, which, sorry to say so, is rather lacking experience, we cannot just set a ban.

3) He was streaming his gameplay on twitch.tv (which i was watching - rather interesting, that's why i am a bit late with my reply). Therefore, we have visual and audio footage on how he plays (very good) and what has been said and done, at least from his team.

4) The guy who was starting the voteban against you was Combustible Lemon. He's a donor, not an admin. I might want to remind you that the majority (75%) of the server agreed to ban you. Not only the enemy team - which might be understandable - but also parts of YOUR team. Maybe you should meditate over that.

[Gotcha 6,307]

After reading Dr. Obvious' explanation and taking in account that you completely failed to follow the ban request guidelines, having no proof to back up your accusations either, the ban request will be denied.

[Nano 7,892]

I just also want to add that combustible lemons reached out to me directly after doing the voteban to let me know he'd done it and why. He also asked that I pass the message along to Dr. Obvious (which I didn't as he was offline at the time).

As such, I'm fine vouching for combustible in this case if anyone had any questions on that front.