There have been some confusions, questions, and general issues with people pertaining to ESEA's "rules" lately. It seems that a record number of users are causing trouble on our servers, and our website, getting banned, and they're not quite sure why. This article should clear up any misconceptions you may have regarding the rules of ESEA, and detail how to NOT be banned from your favorite gaming website. The most important thing you should remember, is that this should not be considered a list of "rules". ESEA reserves the right to suspend and or remove a Premium account without warning and without refund for any reason, including but not limited to the conduct set forth in this article, and any forms of unsportsmanlike conduct determined by ESEA. An ESEA global ban encompasses the ESEA servers, website, and any websites we are linked to. We will not remove bans due to a conflict with one of these satellite sites. Here we'll detail each ban type ESEA has, and how to NOT be banned from ESEA.


Cheating - First offense, 180 days & -50 karma, no increase for multiple offenses.
This one is probably the easiest, DON'T CHEAT! "Why would someone pay $6 to cheat?", we hear this question often, and yet we have hundreds of users banned for cheating on our servers. Don't kid yourself, people will always try to get around the system and cheat in ESEA. If you do, you will be banned, there's no question about it, it's just a matter of time. ESEA has a specific procedure regarding banning cheaters, the best way you can help rid our community of them is to add them to your Suspects List.


Server Disruption - First offense, 1 day & -2 karma, increases with each offense.
This is the all encompassing "Server Disruption" ban. Anything you do to disrupt a server that ISN'T covered by one of the previously listed bans, will get you one of these. To avoid this ban, you need to be on your best behavior, or rather "normal" behavior. Anything you're doing that could be perceived as disruption of the game could mean a ban for server disruption, including, but not limited to, blocking another player, slashing another player with your knife, attempting only to get "knife kills", spamming your use key near a player to give away the position, spamming text or radio commands, illegally defusing through a solid object, or abusing any known exploit of a map, such as the Dust2 cat boost where you can peek over and see long A. There are also lesser known offenses, such as shooting a teammates head in CS:Source to ruin their aim, or knocking a player off the bomb using a grenade of any kind. INTENTIONALLY stealing another persons weapon and/or being a jerk about it, is another good way to get banned for server disruption, if a gun is obviously dropped for someone else, don't go grabbing it. Last but not least, CAMPING will earn you a ban for server disruption. The point of the game is to complete the objectives by either planting a bomb, defusing a bomb, or capturing points. Sitting in one spot (namely, SPAWN) for an entire round is no help to your team, and is disruptive of the semi-competitive environment that ESEA pugs represent. In short, to avoid this ban you need to play the game as it was meant to be played. Have fun, help your team, if you want to camp in closet for an entire round, go play on a public server.


Racism - First offense, 4 days & -10 karma, increases with each offense.
Since we've applied a racism "filter" to our servers in text form, we've amped up the punishment for being racist in ESEA. Easiest way to avoid this ban is to leave race, ethnicity, religion, skin color, heritage, language, or anything else out of your smack-talk. The big one, the "N" word (not nigga), will earn you an immediate ban no matter what, and attempting to get around the racism filter will not help your case either. Let's not forget that we monitor VOICE chat as well, so even uttering a word you shouldn't will get you banned. ESEA takes racism very seriously, and it has no place in our servers, or on our website.


Vote Kick Abuse - First offense, 1 day 12 hours & -5 karma, increases with each offense.
Avoiding this ban is easy if you don't use the vote kick system. It should rarely be required anymore, and is really only there for those select few who just happen to be ruining a pug when the administrators are not available for live support. If you want to use the vote kick system appropriately, in order to avoid being banned you should only use it when the user has ACTUALLY done something worth kicking. This does NOT include "baiting", or being AFK, as baiting is not against the rules, and we have an auto kicker for the AFKs. Additionally, things like, improper flashing, or blocking, can be reported via the website after the pug if there is no administrator available for live support. The vote kick function should only be used in severe circumstances of server disruption. Besides, you'd rather see that guy get banned for a day or more than just be removed from your pug, wouldn't you?


Improper Flashing - First offense, 1 day & -2 karma, increases with each offense.
Ok, so you're on a team with someone who is being a jerk and breaking rules, or you just plain don't like the guy. If you want to avoid being banned for improper flashing, avoid the creeping desire to toss a white flashy thing in the guys face and laugh about it. You might think you're getting the "ULTIMATE REVENGE", but really, you're just promoting the server disruption that's already taking place, and causing some yourself in the process. Guide your flashbangs where they belong, in front of the enemy, and you'll avoid being banned for improper flashing. Besides, intentionally flashing your teammates is really only giving them what they want when you get banned for it.


Ghosting - First offense, 4 days & -5 karma, increases with each offense.
Ghosting has evolved over the years in ESEA. Since the dawn of "fade to black" only when users are in the same ventrilo, ghosting has become more of a "let's figure out how to use this to our advantage" rather than a "here is where my teammates are". Though the latter still happens, and is entirely possible while alive (which will get you banned), the former requires a little more definition. If you don't want to be banned for ghosting, you should not be letting your friend on the opposing team survive when you clearly could have killed them, or providing them with weapons, walking with/past them, or calling out and/or baiting your teammates in order to supply your friend with easy kills. All of these are considered "ghosting" in ESEA, so if you want to avoid this ban, avoid giving your friend any "special treatment" while in game. It is frag or be fragged after all.


Illegal Boosting - First offense, 1 day & -2 karma, increases with each offense.
Illegal boosting might be fun to do in public servers, boost your friend up through sewers and kill the entire other team, good times. If you do this in an ESEA server though, it's disruptive of the semi-competitive environment that ESEA houses, and you'll receive a ban for your troubles. PUGs are meant to emulate a league-play situation, and league rules apply. Don't want to be banned for illegal boosting? Suppress the urge to Houdini out of nowhere and pop some faces.


Website Abuse - First offense, 1 day & -2 karma, increases with each offense.
Sure, you've paid for access to it, but that doesn't give you the right to beat it like it owes you money. "Website Abuse", or in laymens terms "Abuse of the Website", is a very broad offense. It can range from causing trouble on the forums (bashing source in a source thread for example), to spamming someones guestbook, or even having an offensive alias or profile. To avoid being banned for this offense, you should treat every aspect of the website as if your Mother is viewing it. Because she is, we have a nanny-cam monitoring each account, your Mom is watching you post 2girls1cup on the ESEA forums. Do you want your mom to see 2girls1cup? I didn't think so.


Support System Abuse - First offense, 6 hours & no karma penalty, increases with each offense.
After we revamped our support system to include FAQ suggestion answers to common tickets before they need to be opened, we added this ban to penalize people who felt it was necessary to make our administrators work, even though their question was already answered. To keep this ban off of your record, read the FAQ suggestions before submitting a ticket on the website! You may also be banned if you submit numerous tickets for the same issue, even though your question was already answered by an admin.


Illegal Customization - Length varies based on severity of the offense, and previous offenses. -10 karma for each offense.
This is one of ESEA's trickier ban types, as it is tied in with ESEA Client's anti-cheat abilities. If you don't want to be banned for Illegal Customizations , you should refrain from using anything on our servers that may give you an unfair advantage over the competition. This includes the obvious, "smoke sprites", but there are several other things that will earn you this ban type. Don't use any illegal models, including spiked, colored, high-contrast, HLTV, or "FPS" models, spiked or highlighted bomb models, or any models that would make the game EASIER for you. This also includes the rarely seen "sound enhancers", which enhance hit sounds, bomb sounds, or footsteps, so you can hear things you shouldn't be hearing. Play the game as it was meant to be played to avoid being banned from ESEA for this reason.


Paypal Fraud - 365 days, this ban is not removed until debts are paid.
This is another simple ban to avoid. Paypal fraud means that we have provided you a service, and you have tricked Paypal into believing we have not, thus gaining yourself a fraudulent refund. ESEA does not offer refunds, and obtaining one in this way will get you banned, until you provide us by US mail a reimbursement payment for the money you stole from ESEA. Keep in mind that any payments made on behalf of your account are YOUR responsibility. Think of it this way, you wouldn't pay for a magazine subscription (who still reads magazines anyway?), and then after receiving the issues you paid for, dispute the charge on your credit card claiming you didn't receive the magazines. Fraudulently disputing a Paypal payment for ESEA Premium is essentially the same thing, don't do it!


Sharing Accounts - First offense, 30 days & -5 karma, increases with each offense.
If you're found to be sharing your account with a friend, or multiple friends, in order to "milk" an ESEA Premium subscription, you'll be banned. To avoid being banned for this, don't give out your account information to ANYONE. Not your best friend, not your teammate, not your "partner", not your brother, not your sister, not even your Mom. I know it sounds harsh, Mom just wants to frag after all, but sharing your account isn't worth being banned for the entirety of your one-month subscription length. I guess you could give it to your Uncle, but he'd probably cheat on your account and get you banned for that.


Karma Cleanup - 30 day ban & karma reset, no increase with multiple offenses.
The ONLY way to get this ban on your record is to be a detriment to the community, have a bunch of forum posts nuked, or leave every pug you participate in. If you want to avoid being karma cleanup'ed, keep your karma above 0. It's really not that hard, play some pugs, post appropriately on the forums, and be nice to people. After all, the whole concept of Karma is "What goes around comes around." If you have bad karma you could always make one of those cool yellow lists like Earl, and do stuff on it, that guy's all right.


Ban Evasion - First offense, length is equal to remaining days on the original ban & -50 karma, no increase for multiple offenses.
If you don't want to be banned for Ban Evasion, then you shouldn't get banned for something else in the first place! The 'Ban Evasion' ban is used for people who have been banned for lengthy bans such as cheating or paypal fraud on another account, and have created a new account in order to get around the ban. If you were banned from ESEA, it's for a good reason, so if you don't want to be banned for ban evasion, don't evade a ban!


Malicious Activity - 365 day ban & -50 karma, if you have a repeat offense of this, you should just stop coming here.
This is the Cadillac of bans, its supple leather interior guides your buttocks straight out of ESEA for an entire year, and only costs 50 karma (for a limited time, tax and dealer fees not included.) You have to anger the Gods themselves to get this ban, it's the easiest ban to avoid getting, and the only ban where no explanation is given as to how to avoid it. Generally, the people who receive this ban have done something SO WRONG that we dare not speak about it again.



So that's it, it may seem like a lot, but as long as you keep your cool and just play the game you came to play, you'll be all right. These rules are here for everyone, so that ESEA is an enjoyable place for everyone to hang out, play some games, frag some bods, and have fun. Keep your ego in check, don't do anything Mom wouldn't approve of, and respect the rules of the game, and you'll be playing ESEA without fear of any evil white screens that say YOU HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM THE ESEA NETWORK.