cloy's Surf Timer Mute/Ban Appeal

[cloy 0 / 20]

Steam Name(s): cloy

SteamID: STEAM_0:1:78968255

 

Admin that banned you: I have no idea

What kind of punishment was it (mute/gag, server ban): Permanent server ban

 

Why should you be unbanned?

Somehow I was banned for 'ban evasion' even though I have literally never surfed on another account on CS:GO and I have literally only connected to GFL like 4 times ever

[Dini 243 / 7,132]

Person I know you were suspected of being I have personally banned over 5 times. However, I will be leaving this up to CSGO Division Leader @Infra to do more checks. 

This also will probably not be handled till later as we are busy with tournament stuff.

[cloy 0 / 20]

I can do whatever checks I need to, however I will restate things that have been said over discord here. There are a few factors that separate me from the other user, some of those being:

- That other user has only had a PC since 2018, I have been actively using this account since 2013.
- Vastly different voices (Can verify over a discord call)
- Different age
- Different location
- I have multiple people in the surf community that have been in VCs with both me and the other user at the same time

I'd like to get this handled ASAP because this rumor has been spread for around half a year now and I don't really know what started it.

[Infra 714 / 12,401]

Hi @cloy, sorry to keep you waiting, I've been rather busy with the tournament and a few other things.

 

Seeing as you have already responded and have begun crying in Discord over being banned, I'm sure you need no explanation for who we believe you are. I want to address something before we go any further: you seem to think it is incredibly obvious that you are not the mentioned person and that we are targeting you out of the blue, however I just want to remind you that majority of people think otherwise and we certainly are not targeting you. Ban evasion is taken very seriously, so if you indeed are not the claimed person, I will be more than happy to unban you - this is merely us seeking confirmation. That said, let me make this explicitly clear: with association being so obvious, you need to prove that you are not said person, not the other way around. I hope you understand where we're coming from here.

 

Before I go any further with what has already been mentioned, it is standard procedure for us to double-check evasion bans to see what exactly is going on - this involves taking a look at a player's connection history. One thing that I've noticed is that you connect only via a range of VPNs, may I ask what the reason for this is?

 

I have dealt with countless cases of people using VPNs, and while we don't usually care if they make it into the server with a VPN, I have very rarely encountered a case where someone uses a different VPN in a different region every single time they connect to the server. Very curious to know why you're going through this much effort, seems like quite the waste of time if you have nothing whatsoever to hide. This makes it nearly impossible for me to directly confirm that you are not the mentioned banned player.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 😄

 

[cloy 0 / 20]

I will start this reply in reply to the topic of VPNs, as for a 'different location every time' I use my VPN's auto-connect feature, so that isn't my doing. I connect to most servers with a VPN because I am fairly unwilling to trust people with my IP. I also am confused as to how this would separate me from this player, as that player uses his own VPN, and me providing my true IP wouldn't give you the ability to compare to my knowledge, as he uses his own VPN.

As for proving I am not this person, it's somewhat difficult since I haven't spoken to him in going on a year and a half now. I have multiple known members of the surf community that could verify that they have been in VC with this player and me at the same time (Off the top of my head cinni (formerly known as Taco), ano, pine), and other players that I have provided my evidence of innocence to and could verify that they trust me on it (Again off the top of my head cotey, cry) and I've even gotten one of them to find a clip with both my voice and this player's voice in it, interacting with each other. Dini has claimed he knows what the player sounds like, I believe, so this would lead me to believe that if I went into a discord call with one of you I could speak and show how my voice is indeed vastly different. I would be more than willing to provide this evidence.

As for evidence 'proving I am this player' forcing me to prove innocent over guilty, I'm having trouble finding what evidence I COULD provide, as I am still relatively unclear as to what in general reasons lead you to believe I am this player, as you have never once interacted with me.

What reasons I've seemed to pick up are:

- We surf similarly
- We both use VPNs (Although I've connected with my real IP to GoFree and KSF)
- I changed my alias at one point
- I don't use my mic
- I staffed his (now defunct) server

As for the first reason, I surf similarly to this player because I was extremely inexperienced at surf before meeting him, and he was one of the people that taught me how to surf better. As for VPNs, I simply don't trust many people with my IP. Lots of people use VPNs. I seem to catch this 'changing of my alias' as some sort of evidence, even though my alias change was BEFORE I met this player (Around Autumn 2020). I do not use my mic because I am simply uncomfortable talking, and am more comfortable typing. I am still more than willing to join a voice chat with you and confirm the differences between my and his voices (I can provide examples of his if needed, although I'm sure you know what he sounds like.) And finally, I DID staff his server, however this was VERY late into the server's life cycle, as I only entered that position in November-December and the server closed in February.

I am aware that this player is not a good person and has lots of controversies in the surf community, and I was unaware to these controversies at the time of my friendship with him, as I was not in the surf community, only surfing for fun. 

I do have a few other points I'd like to add to this post, this player is older than me by a considerable margin (almost 3 years.) This player also only got a PC in 2018, I have been actively using my account since 2013 (The one that has been now banned from GFL,) and my previous (now lost) account even longer. I know that technically doesn't prove much since the player could've just bought an account but I thought I should still add it. I again shall restate, as I've said on Discord in some places, that the people that started this rumor have strong motive to try to defame me, and some of them have only interacted with me once. Not once did anyone come to me about any of this, or even try to verify information.

As for 'crying' on discord I am just extremely tired of this rumor, no ill feelings were intent, and I'd rather all conflict be squashed if possible. I was just angry in the moment which I'm sure you can understand, because obviously nobody likes being confused with someone who isn't a good person.

I look forward to your reply, if I need to confirm or pass any other 'tests' I can do that to the best of my ability, and you can contact me quickly at cloy#0001 on Discord if you'd prefer that over a forum setting. (This would also make it easier for you to get in contact with the people that have made an effort, so kindly, to try to help me out of this situation.)

Edited June 28, 2022 by cloy

[Infra 714 / 12,401]

@cloy fully aware it has been over a month, I probably should've handed this appeal over to someone else to be handled much faster, I apologise.

 

All of the reasons you provided are pretty much spot on, and I would like to add on to that: the major reason for people believing you are this person is the fact that you only started becoming known to people after he "disappeared".

 

We have systems that can track connection behavior to catch ban evasion on quite a few levels. This, combined with your first connection to GFL being soon after another of his attempts to evade in 2021, makes you look very, very bad - although, I acknowledge this can very much be a coincidence. The other very large issue here is that you indeed have connected here without a VPN, and the IP traces to a city where said person lives - making you using VPNs from a certain point onwards incredibly suspicious.

 

However, all that said, this could very much be a coincidence. And, there is a giant assumption made here: that you popped up only after he disappeared. Thing is, it looks like he never did, seems to still be around. That alone, to me, makes these cases quite meaningless.

 

Therefore, all this in mind, I will revoke your ban.

 

Unbanned.

If you have any further queries about this, feel free to reach out in our Discord (https://discord.gg/gfl) or dm me - Infra#0001.

I sincerely apologise for how long this took, kinda got super busy and didn't have much free time to get through my giant backlog of stuff to do. 😅