Appeal Approved Ban Appeal: Lil_Onion_Boy

[Lil_Onion_Boy]

In-game Name Lil_Onion_Boy

Have you cheated before? No

What's your side of the story as to why you were banned? Halfway through a game, a team of attack helicopter pilots were going something like 100-2 and 50-2 respectively and the server seemed to agree that some kind of hacking was going on--server was depopulating--so I thought I could help by crashing them a few times (3x) in one round. I understand that breaking a rule in response to a perceived hack, genuine or not, is an unacceptable response, and I apologize for it.

Why should we lift your ban? I've never broken the rules of or been banned from any server before, and would honestly not have broken this rule had there not been an apparent server consensus that the victims of its breaking were hackers (who knows if they are or not, but I know that it doesn't matter). That being said, I know the rules and will never break them again, no matter what's happening in-game. I've been a regular non-rule-breaking player for about a month on the BZ servers since downloading the game, and only violated the TK rule on this one occasion on account of the circumstances described above. I am sorry for the grief caused and for necessitating admin intervention.

Kick reason (from Battlelog) Griefing/TK [perm][-bZ-neonardo1]

I have checked and verified that I am not banned at https://bf4db.com Yes

I have checked and verified that I am not banned at https://battlefield.agency Yes

 

[Lil_Onion_Boy]

I would like to add that although I certainly deserve punishment for this incident, considering its isolation, lack of any warning, and the fact that I thought was genuinely helping the other 61/64 people on the server (I have only played this game for a month and naively believed all the people saying the victims were hackers), I plead for some degree of leniency and its reduction to a temp-ban. I promise to never break any of the rules ever again, regardless of circumstance, if eventually unbanned. Again I apologize for occupying the admins' time.

 

[Lil_Onion_Boy]

Last addition: before messing with who I thought were surely hackers, I quickly found out that both the helicopter players have highly suspect stats, and have each triggered the server anti-cheat before. I say "who knows if they are [hackers] are not" because I suppose you can never be 100% sure (can you be? I would like to find out how to be certain, if possible--I've only owned this game for a month, but what I saw seemed totally impossible to me, way beyond any other in-game and player stats I've seen), but this info--on top of the insane ~100-5 K/D the pilot earned in a rather short round lasting ~30 minutes--practically confirmed to me that they were cheating. That's when I spent part of the round trying to bump into them and annoy them (I found out later that you could in fact kill them with a transport helicopter, but I thought you needed a jet plane to do that), as a sort of crude vigilante justice for the victims of hacking. And just to be clear, I tried to bother them for this reason only--I was not trying to be an indiscriminate, deliberate troll, I was just trying to defend against cheating.

Up until this point, I would never have broken the rules unless it was for the greater good (and never did until then) but at this point, I realize that no matter what, I made a mistake--I should never break the rules for any reason, and simply collect as much evidence as I can regarding cheaters and post here.

Here is the Battle Report from the game in mention:

Battle Report - Battlelog / Battlefield 4

Battlelog is a free social platform that ties into Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 3 and lets you socialize, track stats, plan your next game, and more from your web browser!

battlelog.battlefield.com

Ultimately I know I messed up and demonstrated poor judgement; that these are serious rules to always be followed no matter the situation. Ideally, someday I would just like to play again quietly, without ever even attempting to break the rules a 2nd time. BZ runs the best servers on BattleLog and basically all the vanilla ones, which are the only ones I can play, having no DLC

 

[RogaineFoam]

I'll link this here as this was evidence considered in your ban.

Complaint Handled - Complaint from xileviatan_ about player Lil_Onion_Boy

Who are you reporting? Lil_Onion_Boy Date of incident Jul 20, 2021 Which server were you on? bz3.1 Describe the incident Lil onion try to tk intentionally is hard to see the name but on the chat u can see he says "gootem" https://streamable.com/q5lftl https://streamable.com/ah8413...

banzore.com

To start off with, it is not uncommon for attack chopper gunners to have insanely high KD's on Siege. The map has an insane amount of cover for the pilot to hide behind, while infantry players are largely exposed on the ground. As you can see in the third clip, at least one of them is using FLIR to allow for easy target acquisition. With a decent pilot, it is simple neuron activation of clicking near white dots.

Why did you feel as if you are qualified to decide that a vehicle player is a cheater without spectator footage? More so, if you even had solid evidence that they were in fact cheating, we would still be mostly opposed to you taking actions yourself towards others in the manner that you did. Vigilante justice, as you referred to it, is not tolerated on our servers. We have a forum/reporting system in place to avoid these issues, and take the "Punishment" responsibility out of the hands of the player base to allow for fair and consistent actions based on solid evidence.

If we were to consider reducing the permanent ban to a temporary one, how would your actions going forward align with bZ policy and reporting structure?

 

[Lil_Onion_Boy]

I'll link this here as this was evidence considered in your ban.

Complaint Handled - Complaint from xileviatan_ about player Lil_Onion_Boy

Who are you reporting? Lil_Onion_Boy Date of incident Jul 20, 2021 Which server were you on? bz3.1 Describe the incident Lil onion try to tk intentionally is hard to see the name but on the chat u can see he says "gootem" https://streamable.com/q5lftl https://streamable.com/ah8413...

banzore.com

To start off with, it is not uncommon for attack chopper gunners to have insanely high KD's on Siege. The map has an insane amount of cover for the pilot to hide behind, while infantry players are largely exposed on the ground. As you can see in the third clip, at least one of them is using FLIR to allow for easy target acquisition. With a decent pilot, it is simple neuron activation of clicking near white dots.

Why did you feel as if you are qualified to decide that a vehicle player is a cheater without spectator footage? More so, if you even had solid evidence that they were in fact cheating, we would still be mostly opposed to you taking actions yourself towards others in the manner that you did. Vigilante justice, as you referred to it, is not tolerated on our servers. We have a forum/reporting system in place to avoid these issues, and take the "Punishment" responsibility out of the hands of the player base to allow for fair and consistent actions based on solid evidence.

If we were to consider reducing the permanent ban to a temporary one, how would your actions going forward align with bZ policy and reporting structure?

Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal.

I appreciate your explanation of how their KD's could get so high, again I'm very new to this game (~140 hours) but I can see how it's possible.
I made a sincere mistake by being overconfident and feeling qualified to decide that somebody was cheating, and after reflecting on it, I recognize that suspicious stats and other peoples' word is insufficient in identifying a cheater. I've never used the spectator mode, but I'll be sure to use that to identify cheaters with 100% certainty from now on on any server. Furthermore I realize now that regardless of what's happening in game, taking matters into my own hands is wrong and there is no circumstance in which I ever should. I only wish that I had received a warning--a single one would have been enough to set me straight--so I could have immediately stopped my rule breaking and never done it again. Having not received one, I have unfortunately had no opportunity to prove my ability to receive reprimand and reform my conduct. I've never had problems with my in-game behavior on any server in any game before, but I assure you that even though this ban is a first experience for me, I do have the capacity to learn from it and to follow the rules prudently going forward. I am eager to demonstrate this capacity.

In the future, if I suspect or even have 100% proof of any rule violation/cheating, I will simply collect the relevant evidence and use your forum to make a report--not a thing more. No rule-breaking of any kind for any reason, including vigilantism. If allowed back on your servers, I can promise that you won't have a problem with me ever again. I would fully expect a permanent ban with no appeal if you did hear from me again, but you have my word that you won't. I will keep this incident in mind each time I play on your servers.

 

[neonardo1]

Appeal approved. No more TKing or griefing.

 

[Lil_Onion_Boy]

Thank you both so much for spending the time to evaluate my appeal, and for offering to understand my position. I graciously appreciate your leniency here. I understand the seriousness and wrongness of my mistake, and in the future I'll never again violate the server rules--for any reason. You will never receive a complaint about me or my conduct again.
I promise to be a good onion