Harassment & Community Moderation Update

Date December 19, 2020

Hello everybody,

We’re here again trying to clean up our stance in regards to community moderation. We’ve taken the past few months to get a solid internal policy setup in order to have more consistent handling of cases. We believe to have finalized this setup. While doing so we’ve looked at a handful or reports to use as an attempt at making a baseline. However, we do expect that over time this baseline can shift as we get more experienced in dealing with these types of reports. We want to aim at making this community inviting to new players which has not been possible due to the rampant harassment, racism, toxicity and so forth. It is truly disheartening to see this happening to a community that we love so dearly.

Before we get into the baseline cases that got mentioned above there are a few things we would like to ask of the community.

Firstly, to help us with the growing process of trying to further improve our moderation. While we’ve tried open communication on this topic in the past, the feedback that we received was people just insulting admins which leaves us none the wiser and if anything more distant from the community.

Secondly, we want to ask you to be patient. No platform has a perfect community moderation process and ours will be no different. People make mistakes, this includes both players and admins alike. This is where we hope to gain experience and insight in order to apply fair and balanced punishments. However this will take time to get right. From staff member changes to the difference in both background and views of these staff members as well as cultural differences between the many nations that ETF2L hosts makes it a very difficult task.

For those that read this, I want to thank you and hope that you will be able to support us while we try to grow.

Romania arctic – Threats Towards Staff Members, Antisemitism & Transphobia Within ETF2L Discord, not the first time – 1 Year
Russia smd. – Harassment & Threats Towards a Staff Member on Site – 8 Months
Turkey ELO BANK$$ SWITCH$ – Racism on ETF2L Discord, recruitment posts & scrims – 3 Months

We’ve added a section within the rules that reflects this our updated policy.

1.1.2. Any Form of Harassment/Racism/Toxicity/Etc is Punishable:

ETF2L does not support any form of harassment of its players. People harassing others based on ethnicity, culture, religion or similar will get punished for their actions. We understand that things can get heated within a competitive game and will handle cases with this in mind. We do ask people to keep it civil.

We understand that this ruling is vague which is why we hope to have a constructive communication line with the community. And again a final thank you while we hope to settle in on a more consistent way of handling cases that can be respected by both players and admins alike.

125 Comments

  1. theos: REMOVE said:

    lmao

  2. clean carp said:

    Was about time to punish the “Haha, I said the offensive N word -pinnacle of comedy” crowd a bit. Vague as it is, it’s a good rule.

  3. Igov Драгови said:

    cya next year :)

  4. Endrit: :flag_rs: - CCP said:

    Bye bye !

  5. Sothis: :flag_rs: said:

    THANK YOU BASED ADMINS!

  6. Munky: AEUGH said:

    You are banning someone 3 hours before their playoff final? I have no idea if the guy deserves it but that is a pretty screwed up way of handling it.

  7. JWB: (☞゚ヮ゚)☞ said:

    there is a long way to go for sure but this is a step in the right direction. thank you etf2l.

  8. SirDuck: [MB] said:

    I sense a large banwave coming over the next season

  9. Axio: (League Admin) - ONCE said:

    uh oh

  10. Basil said:

    o7

  11. Sprasty: OSW - wL. said:

    Thank you ETF2L.

  12. MIKE_TAYSON95RUS: ff said:

    #freesmd

  13. JMaxchill: TFTV - PBS said:

    Good to see, no tolerance for harassment & bigotry

  14. laiky: FRENCHGOAT - SDCK! said:

    #freesmd

  15. DCS: (Legend) - notdoggo - Dr. med. said:

    later

  16. TBourdon: SDCK! said:

    ETF2L oppressing gamers…

  17. D4YH: squidgame said:

    ну смд молодчинка вхапвхапавхп

  18. Kumis: DIRECTOR - kz said:

    smd ban
    not fair

  19. marten: TBC said:

    Thank you ETF2L :)

  20. kirai: ff - ZV said:

    #freesmd

  21. Big Papa MattJ: GAETARDS said:

    I’m not as funny as I think I am.

  22. Axio: (League Admin) - ONCE said:

    https://etf2l.org/forum/user/114717/
    https://etf2l.org/forum/user/124830/

    I’d like to report these 2 players for homophobic language in an etf2l sanctioned scrim.

  23. Big Papa MattJ: GAETARDS said:

    note to self : admins are the best and I shall love them forever
    we really do live in a society

  24. sunflower: CH - Gungaginga said:

    artic on top, his only gold ;D

  25. Antibite: дбщ said:

    etf2l=twich

  26. Akio: (League Admin) - bF - SDCK! said:

    nice

  27. Dombasek: :pray: said:

    Good work. No place for it.

  28. Regen: nf. - 9F said:

    Good work ETF2L :)

  29. f4t said:

    good decision ;]

  30. supra: (Webmaster) - GAETARDS said:

    very good decision, these bans were deserved

  31. sintyre: LAW said:

    thanks

  32. misha YB`g said:

    BASED and Red Pilled

  33. Husky: TS said:

    https://youtu.be/TH2Mj3E96dg

  34. uolya: DEPUTAT said:

    I want to do appeal about smd, how can I do that?

  35. uolya: DEPUTAT said:

    This is his 1 problem with law etf2l :/

  36. Rea1ik0 said:

    #FREESMD

  37. schamotte': vibe said:

    #freesmd Ю)

  38. Parallax: kz said:

    And that’s why you’re banning smd for participating in a video, WHICH HE DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN? Just before the finals?

    Just let me revise the sequence of events:
    1) arctic makes his video
    2) etf2l banning smd for this video
    3) it comes out that it wasn’t smd, but it was arctic
    4) etf2l banning arctic as well, without lifting a ban of smd

    Soooo, right thing to do, to ban not 1 russian, but 2 russians. More banned russians – means better for this league.

    And in the meanwhile etf2l preaching about being so rightful, being against toxicity, etc. But everytime we russians have to deal with russophobia, toxicity addressed towards us, etf2l does nothing.
    And again, it does everything against us, not favoring our people.

    In my own experience, how many times I had to deal with a shit addressed to me even from high-skilled players, 2 of those were admins at some point btw. And what could i do u ask? Nothing. Because I saw how admins (majority) deal with issues coming from russian people and russian teams.

    In conclusion: really hypocrite and very russophobic.

    P.S. you see how even in this comments section people are hostile towards russians

  39. elrond69: zomgre said:

    @freesmd

  40. stylish raptor said:

    imagine

    imagine banning a man 2 times for the same one video; etf2l moment

  41. Dj.Motorola said:

    the video was recorded a long time ago and he received his punishment in the form of chat blocking for 3 months, but a few hours before the final games he was given a game ban. Why? what are the stupid ideas you have in your head?

  42. zlot: DIRECTOR - ZV said:

    dead league

  43. Pokoiting: Pikey - AVN said:

    #freesmd

  44. nevoskan: C9 said:

    #freesmd

  45. rubicus said:

    #freesmd

  46. dragon_slayer72: SENS said:

    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/688803421536780403/692117848549490738/LORGE.mp4

    When are REAL gamers going to make a REAL gaming league for this game

    سيارة هوندا سيفيك

  47. Fin said:

    #freesmd

  48. Aoshi: (Legend) - :think: - GRAHAM said:

    @Parallax,

    I’ll give a quick response because a lot of disinformation seems to be going around in regards to the topic.

    Firstly, him not participating in the video and him publicizing the video and promoting it directly on the site are different things. The 2nd one being something that he is guilty of no matter if he is the one speaking in the video. Clear proof of it not being him in the video has not been given yet although we will consider revising the ban duration if it given is to us through a proper appeal.

    Your flow of events that you mentioned doesn’t make sense. Arctic is not banned for making the video at this point in time. The video is after all posted on smd’s channel. Both the toxicity punishments for arctic and smd were applied at exactly the same time. arctic was already banned due to him cheating which is why the ban dates don’t show as the same.

    If people are harassing you based on your nationality feel free to report it in future cases and we’ll review it and try to handle the cases to the best of our ability,

    In regards to the timing of the ban, yes it wasn’t great however it was scheduled prior to them scheduling the final. We didn’t revise the timing of the bans/newspost after this. To people why it took this long is due to us trying to create a more thorough setup and policy for internally handling cases as stated in the newspost.

  49. Jabka: IMBA said:

    WTF? it is normal for u, admins, ban someone for 1 video, if u already ban him on forum, yea? are u retarded, or what? #freesmd

  50. Broly: T6 - MUUMIT said:

    cringe

  51. milkyeu: MILKY said:

    Are you guys looking for moderators? I would like to help in any way I can if it’s possible, proud of you guys, this is a step in the right direction!

  52. WiseGenie: ff - C9 said:

    You have banned one of the most keen players in tf2. you have banned a player who really wants to play this game. What’s wrong with you admins? You already gave him a forum ban for that video, okay. he won’t do it next time. But you give a ban before an important match for him. And also for 8 months in the DEAD LEAGUE. I hope you will do more important things like make this league/game great again, than just give ban players for jokes. Stupid decision of stupid admins. Unban smd or change ban duration, reduce it.

  53. Admiral: SCOOPER - MUUMIT said:

    I’m concerned over the fact that “racism in scrims” is listed as part of the reason for one of the players’ bans, it’s fair that ETF2L can decide what to do about people flaming or being racist in officials, or on the website, but I feel strongly that the league should not punish players for conduct outside of the league, ETF2L doesn’t organise or facilitate people’s scrims. If a player can be punished by ETF2L for things that take place completely outside of the league, then where else do we go with that? To be clear, I’m not complaining about any of these particular bans, I’m specifically just worried about the idea that player conduct outside of the league is being (partially) used as grounds for a ban here. Please don’t let ETF2L become RGL.

  54. lazyluk said:

    I hope thats a copypasta, it does not matter how “keen” you are if you act like a asshat to everyone you do not consider your inner circle. You don’t need to be toxic to be keen.

  55. Noot: Issue? - Issue! said:

    LOL

  56. MasterArt: FT said:

    #freesmd

  57. Citrus: SENS said:

    if only etf2l stuff protected their database the way they protect all races, genetalias and mental ilnesses. If only problem of non-existing schedule for the next 6s and hl season and 6s nc cup bother them as much as problem of player morality. If only they care more about their league then they care about bottom boys. But instead of new hl mappool anouncement we have a new gender pool anouncement. Dear etf2l admins thank you for all the job you doing to make this league better.

  58. Sori666: ZV said:

    #freesmd

  59. juni: 0fo - 0FO said:

    If only ppl wouldnt act like idiots. If only ppl wouldnt threat others. If only ppl wouldnt offend each other. If only ppl wouldnt cheat and use alt accounts to boost their ego. Admins could really do a lot of work on scheduling, mappools and stuff.

  60. stylish raptor said:

    onion milkshake moment

  61. AMPER said:

    Aoshi wrote about timings. So…The video was released on October 19 and smd received ban on December 19. After 2 months and 3 hours before the final. These are strange timings. Looks like Russophobia.

  62. 20grams: traphouse said:

    Article 10 of the Human Rights Act: Freedom of Expression

    Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

    (Leaving the fact of really bad and heavy insults, hope this is not refer to people having their personal THOUGHTS about others, cause if i can’t say to someone words like: sub humans or rats, even if someone is straight, trans or furry or whatever people want to be, then you’re better off disabling chats and comments, cause it would be really retarded).

  63. Pizzi: PHREAK - ceo said:

    the guy got banned for Harassment & Threats and people still find a way to cry about it

  64. Anathon: SUPO said:

    AAAARGH WHY CANT I SAY THE WORD

  65. iPad: K? said:

    I am very sorry, but this is one of the emptiest statements. I’ve heard. You make a joke ruleset for a joke competitive community. I remember so many times of your admins being way to incompetent to find a solution to a problem that was outside of. “They broke the ruleset.” Our teamleader was harassed multiple times infront of an admin, because of the enemy team cheating and us reporting it. So after going through all this trouble getting harassed, the admins decided to give us a one round rematch and not doing anything about the enemy team deeply insulting us and cheating. Not even a minor warning.

  66. helipektiker said:

    league of legends bans you for doing something slightly toxic and its still one of the most toxic games ever this wont do anything at all, youll just remove funny banter from games. if you dont want to see things people say you can always block them.

  67. smrk: 0FO said:

    Banning a toxic player is considered Russophobia now?

  68. HexeLL: Tetose - BIRD said:

    Taking the trash out. Grats admins

  69. supra: (Webmaster) - GAETARDS said:

    > imagine justifying rape threats “hey this dude is super keen and you just ban it!” or being russophobic

    idk maybe it’s normal in Russia that women get threats like these (maybe that’s why russians defend this smd dude so hard no matter what he has done, because they seem to behave like it’s completely OK) but i’m pretty sure it’s not a thing in the Europe and banning this kind of behavior is pretty much natural
    bm is in a every competitive game including normals sports like basketball and banter will happen everywhere, so i guess banter is fine as long as players won’t cross the line when they’re starting to offend/threaten other gamers hard like this

    i think there are two kind of bm in games: one being made because of the sportsmanship clearly and second because of being toxic (racist, x-phobic, whatever), and the point is to ban the second type from happening and admins are on that way which is good in my opinion

    you’re saying “on no, he got banned 3hrs before his final” – yeah but he should get banned much earlier and if that was done, it’s likely that team wouldn’t be even in the playoffs, so at this point you should be happy you got to the finals

  70. lazyluk said:

    Some of you are looking for excuses to be toxic “its my freedom”, what an utterly foolish conclusion.

    Stop acting like a victim and start taking responsibility for your own actions, its as simple as that.

  71. Ignis: SVIFT said:

    russia malding

  72. verkle: bF said:

    good man

  73. messy: HIV+ said:

    i like how its complete no name pissrandoms who are complaining about bans lol
    ive been banned for being toxic before (I WILL NOT DISCLOSE MY OPINION ON MY OWN BAN FOR POSTERITY) and i can tell u that the ppl defending these apes in comments section are very cringe and u will never have success irl! good luck not being killed in street ! srsly guys i really hope nothing bad happens to u irl u deserve the best :)

  74. messy: HIV+ said:

    nah but srsly good bans

  75. Ajax said:

    SO TRUE!

  76. Woona: HIV+ said:

    I am very grateful for these bans & rule changes, everyone who knows me knows that I am VEHEMENTLY opposed to all forms of discrimination and racism and have NOTHING but RESPECT for ALL of God’s children.

  77. Magicbeans said:

    hoes mad

  78. iPad: K? said:

    I can finally watch comp tf2 die for good.

  79. Yonas: ist doof said:

    everyone can win, everyone can lose

  80. res said:

    dont speaking, dont talking

  81. sintyre: LAW said:

    chill the fuck out with the hostility qbown

  82. Fr3unen: (ETF2L Donator) said:

    Thanks for dealing with the harssment issue.

  83. sebben said:

    Wtf are these rape threats you are talking about supra. Are you 15 that you can’t see a difference between a clear joke and real threats from a guy who even theoretically can’t cause any harm to amaterasu(they are both under 18 and they are not German). If you live in a country destroyed by sjw feminism propaganda, that’s not russians problems that you are treating a woman like something that is always harassed and should cry about every internet joke

  84. sebben said:

    By them both I meant arctic and smd

  85. supra: (Webmaster) - GAETARDS said:

    idk but for some reason most people understand that jokes about ‘raping’ aren’t okay because of women actually being raped who suffer for the rest of their lives from that event happening, maybe people in Russia are different but still it is a European league so I think you should adapt to the standards here

    also i don’t recall any normal people joking in that way towards completely unknown person, but that’s a sidenote

  86. sebben said:

    Also, why you are all saying he wanted to rape her, if he said he wanted to fuck her, is wanting to have sex with someone equals rape in *progressive* countrys?

  87. sebben said:

    And about rape jokes, say that bullshit to Jimmy Carr

  88. rulliez said:

    man down

  89. Vclox_: L_? - ONCE said:

    ‘don’t police scrims its outside etf2l’ If your being strait up racist or discriminating against people directly n a scrim and then play on etf2l. You yourself have not changed, you are still a racist POS.

  90. MS: 0fo - 0FO said:

    Let’s all just be nice to each other :) It’s been a rough year for all of us!

  91. Sodium: (Head Admin) - fluffy said:

    Please keep it civil in here. Consider this a warning, there is no reason nor a need to instigate any further conflict, this goes for both sides.

  92. sebben said:

    And btw who is joe rogan???

  93. shinso: EnVyUs - moro said:

    Can’t wait to get banned on etf2l for 1 year for calling someone an idiot in a pub

  94. stylish raptor said:

    I will eat your children.

  95. AMPER said:

    @supra – I do not dispute the reasons for the ban. But the ban timings look disgusting. Logically, the admins should have banned the smd as soon as they found out about the video or after the final. And the ban on the day of the final looks like personal revenge or an action against the Russian team (which was a favorite in the final)

  96. messy: HIV+ said:

    nononononoNOOOOO I REALLY NEED TO CALL THIS BLACK PERSON THE N WORD AND TELL THIS WOMAN I WANT TO SEXUALLY ASSAULT HER I NEED TO ADMINS WTF WHY IS IT AGAINST THE RULES I REALLY JUST HAAAAAVE TO BE A PIECE OF SHIT OR I WILL LITERALLY FUCKING DIE NOOOOO
    i am 15 years of age and have never touched a woman in my life

  97. redlix: cutie - SDCK! said:

    I honestly don’t understand the shitshow here.
    People complaining about the rules, unfair bans, etc…
    Are you guys complaining about the consequences of saying such things like “N****r” or other racial “jokes” or you guys just playing stupid?
    How the hell do you want a community or an organization without rules or guidelines?
    Not everyone here is a grown man/woman/other here. As a player you are an INDIVIDUAL and an EXAMPLE towards others – especially the ones in higher divisions.
    If you allow toxic people into the league without any punishment the staff loses respect and value.
    Without these the league cannot be coordinated nor managed.
    A new rule-set came into picture and everybody loses their minds.
    I feel bad for Staff we have here, since some people just want to provoke and destroy fundamental rules.
    Though if the case with smd is unfair at least a reinvestigation would be preferable from the responsible staff.

  98. Crollikk said:

    #freesmd

  99. TimTum: (ETF2L Donator) - -ƒ$-BLAH said:

    The updated rule/policy is good, but this isn’t the first time the timing of the ban was right on the same day as an (important) official. I agree with AMPER that at some point it can even look like ‘personal revenge’ against an individual or a team.

    It’s deserved for the guy that got banned, but you also affect the five other players on the team who could’ve spend an entire season scrimming and getting a good placement, while they might have nothing to do with the ban. Still they are getting punished a few hours before an official.

  100. Collaide said:

    Maybe You Wouldn’t Get Banned If You Didn’t Harass Admins

  101. Kritler: K? said:

    imagine caring about empty words in chat… Just mute em lol why bother? Dont admins have better things to do?

  102. Axio: (League Admin) - ONCE said:

    This might be the best etf2l salt mine I have found so far

  103. Fr3unen: (ETF2L Donator) said:

    Agree with the ban, but should have at least let him play the final and THEN ban him imo. Still support the rule change though :).

  104. HartzFartz: (ETF2L Donator) - 0fo - 0FO said:

    So unfair for a team to lose one of their racist teammembers.

  105. sheepy dog's hand: (Cutest boy in TF2) - F! - Pander said:

    Thank you for doing this ETF2L, although I do wish the admins had decided to do something a few months ago when I was in a very vulnerable mental state and was repeatedly being called the N-word while continuously being harassed for my nationality and sexuality and was tricked into watching a video of a dog being beaten to death by Shalidar and his friend. All of which I reported, twice, but apparently because it wasn’t on the official ETF2L discord they didn’t do anything. Still at least this is a step in the right direction.

  106. rm said:

    this is so hypocritical lol i cant even believe it
    everyone who supports this is going to ruin this dead league

  107. AMPER said:

    @ HartzFartz …racist teammembers??? So if a Russian schoolboy offered sex to a German girl he became racist?

  108. HartzFartz: (ETF2L Donator) - 0fo - 0FO said:

    “offered sex” you just have a way with words

  109. AMPER said:

    This is not the answer to my question. If you do not know the situation but want to spam in discussions, it looks silly.

  110. Sketis said:

    btw this is the video that they got banned for – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1YBv2mWll0

  111. Josh: WWVC - LEGEND said:

    took etf2l 12 years to add a rule that punishes racism and toxicity. wow so cool!

  112. Axio: (League Admin) - ONCE said:

    here’s the video they got banned for btw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub82Xb1C8os

  113. HartzFartz: (ETF2L Donator) - 0fo - 0FO said:

    https://i.imgur.com/X5261Gi.png

  114. rm said:

    this is a goddamn witchhunt and you realize that, fucking etf2l donator lol

  115. SchmitShot: Fish12 - ONCE said:

    ptdr g pas lu elle est où la médaille pepega
    en même tant je parle pas anglais putain

  116. dududul POPOPOL said:

    g pa lu lol on veut les médailles

  117. Big Papa MattJ: GAETARDS said:

    mdr g pas lu ya des francer ds le forume???

  118. 1TY3: G6 said:

    You all talk something about how bad is nword and licking admin’s asses.But lets talk about HOW MANY TIMES u said nword and shittalked too.Oh no,i hear silence right now.Also bannig some 1 for two times is pretty interesting.Stop acting like 8 yo and stop lying to yourself and crying under mother’s skirt

  119. 1TY3: G6 said:

    This league is about the game not about oH N0 He CallD ME IDiOt in internet!!!and stop compare real life with game

  120. 1TY3: G6 said:

    #freesmd

  121. AMPER said:

    @ HartzFartz for a long time you had an avatar that depicted the beating and expulsion of a Lithuanian from Switzerland. Isn’t this a form of racism? So end your hypocrisy about this question.

  122. Pizzi: PHREAK - ceo said:

    btw this is the video that they got banned for > https://youtu.be/YG4iTGjuoKw?t=58

  123. Ze Man: water123 said:

    https://youtu.be/sXQkXXBqj_U

  124. Cronk: ︻芫═一☺ - Lucrosa said:

    had to login to express my gratitude to you russkies for being so incredibly smart, keep owning these libtards with facts and logic

    potato xD!

  125. AMPER said:

    this is the video that they got banned for > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nqe2TzAZX0