After a Reddit post of one player’s experience with being accused of stream-sniping went viral, the community team behind PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS announced that they will be making improving their ban system according to a forum post from lead community manager Sammie Kang (known as PUBG_poopieQueen on the forum).
The Reddit post in question was written by Novaren_X, whose friend IGN Lotoe was accused of stream-sniping Twitch streamer Shroud. Shroud is a verified Twitch streamer and is a part of Cloud9’s Counter Strike: Global Offense team.
Novaren_X says that a couple players encountered Shroud and another player, Summit, where one player told Summit that he enjoyed his streams. After Summit was killed and Shroud ran away from where the two originally were located, he killed a couple of players before being killed by Lotoe, as shown in this video.
Although it seems that Lotoe just happened to spot Shroud at the perfect moment, Novaren_X accused Shroud’s fans of reporting Lotoe for stream-sniping. Lotoe was banned from the game for seven days as a result.
“Really unfair to my friend as he was banned for killing a popular streamer. We didn’t even know he was in the game until we noticed the names in the killfeed and thought it was pretty cool, but this is just unacceptable,” said Novaren_X in the Reddit post.
Lotoe did reach out to Hawkinz, an administrator for PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, to find out why exactly he was banned from the game according to this screenshot from Discord. Lotoe commented that he doesn’t watch Twitch, and seemed confused about the stream-sniping accusations against him.
Many users on Reddit are agreeing with Novaren_X, saying that Shroud was running around in an open area and that any other player could’ve killed him. They are also saying that it’s not fair that the administrators of the game are possibly banning players based on the reports from Shroud’s fans that likely did not include any evidence.
Due to the popular Reddit post, the community team has stepped up to make a statement about PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS banning system, saying that they are going to improve on it since the rules of the game haven’t been finalized.
“For team-killing and stream sniping, we require evidence to be submitted as with all reports against players. We do not ban players based on what we see on social media or streaming platforms ourselves,” said Kang in the forum post. “We ask players to submit reports with evidence on our forums which is a temporary measure. We take action when the evidence is sufficient to warrant a ban.”
Kang mentions that there is no automated banning system in place as of yet, since the team is currently working on developing one. Since PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS is still an early access title, it’s understandable why a better system for banning is still in the works.
“If a ban has been issued incorrectly, we will admit our mistake and lift the ban. However, it may take some time for us if there is no evidence to prove the banned user’s point. We need to make sure by looking into in-game data,” said Kang in the forum post. “I apologize again if you have been frustrated with recent events or lack of communication. But it is our best interest to improve current systems to create a better environment for everyone and better serve our community.”
Although the game is still in early access, many players are already enjoying PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS before its official release. The game has already hit 4 million copies sold, which is extremely impressive for a game that hasn’t been fully released yet. Hopefully, the community team will be able to create a banning system fair to all players in the future.
Featured image via Flickr/BagoGames.
