lemmings121 wrote:imho: past bans for smurfs have been more lenient, but circumstances also were different. They literally tried to steal a flight to uk from snow, and potentially a 4k usd prize from the other players, not to mention escapetv.
I'm sure the decision to ban kynesie as well as tit is the right one here.
eh
From what I recall there's been two bans for smurfing in the past. Once for Hazza smurfing on bobabu in Autumn 2016 and once for Butifle smurfing on Sir_Musket in 2nd Chance Autumn 2017. In both cases both players involved were immediately DQ'd. In the former case there were no further penalties besides the DQ. In the latter case there were further penalties; I'm not sure if those further penalties were completely specified, but they ended up amounting to a season-long ban for Butifle (no major was run in Spring 2018; instead there were a sequence of weekend tournaments run for a "tournament season") and Sir_Musket was banned from forums and tournaments for unrelated reasons making the question for him irrelevant.
From that precedence, I don't think there can be any question as to whether or not there should be an immediate DQ of the players involved, no matter what the circumstances are. The only way in which this action would be harsher than before then is in determining how long the indefinite tournament ban is. In the context of a free flight to the UK, a 4k tournament, and an opportunity to hang out with SoldieR irl, that seems a little like debating whether or not to punish someone with 30 years in prison or 30 years in prison plus they have to pay their $50 parking ticket. Regardless, I'm not convinced that it's harsher even with the indefinite tournament ban. Like, since indefinite can be as long or as short as you like, you can either divorce the context from the actions and make "indefinite" a short amount of time consistent with prior admin actions, or you can account for the context and the inconvenience that's caused and make "indefinite" a long amount of time still consistent with prior admin actions.
unrelated: It's probably worth noting that EscapeAoE is a third-party organization not technically affiliated with ESOC, they have full-time employees whose career and livelihood is materially affected by the success of the organization, and I'd be very surprised and impressed if this event came at a net profit to them. I'm speculating heavily now, but it seems likely that Interjection is the main representative of AoE3 at EscapeAoE, and it's not a good look when a major event like this has this kind of stuff. EscapeAoE's willingness to be involved with AoE3 isn't a guarantee and it's probably a good idea for everyone to do their best not to screw it up.