Rocket League: Players wanted to be particularly cool, were banned – developers explain what’s so stupid about it
Several freestyle players were temporarily banned from the auto soccer game Rocket League for “unsportsmanlike conduct”. This caused discussions in the community. Psyonix then explained that the banned players were smurfs.
What is freestyling in Rocket League? In freestyling, players compete against each other in friendly matches and try to do particularly creative and cool tricks with their cars.
But freestyling is not only celebrated by the players. There were even freestyle competitions hosted by Rocket League itself. For example a Ford event (via rocketleague.com).
Here you can see a YouTube video with freestyle tricks in Rocket League:
Freestyling is very popular and established in the community, which is why the bans of some players initially caused discussions on social media.
However, the developer behind Rocket League has already commented on the bans and reassured the players. Not the freestyle itself is banned, but only so-called smurfs.
smurfs are players who are actually already advanced in a game, but are playing with new accounts. As a result, they play at low ranks, where they often easily defeat the true novices. This is considered “unsportsmanlike” in some competitive games and is grounds for an account ban.
How does Psyonix comment on the bans? on reddit there was a statement from Psyonix News. In this first the appreciation of the freestyle community in the game was emphasized. However, it also says:
“However, the display of this mechanical prowess must not detract from the Rocket League experience for new or casual players. Deliberately de-ranking an account or creating a “smurf” account with a lower rank in order to compete against new or less experienced players in an online playlist is a violation of the Terms of Service and Code of Conduct.”
We looked at freestylers’ banned accounts for their behavior in casual playlists and noticed that they usually played in higher ranks.
The measures have initially been taken against a small number of players. In the long term, they are currently working on better solutions that should apply to the broader player community.
It also emphasizes, “This is not the end of freestyling. We encourage the freestyling community to test their mechanics against similarly skilled opponents and play in private matches with their friends and other freestylers. […]“ (via reddit.com)
How does the community react to the statement? on reddit many players are happy about the ban on smurfs. On the contrary, they’re angry at the smurfs who use freestyling as an excuse to play at the lower ranks and gain an advantage. Some also write that they are happy for Rocket League’s clarification. Because some players thought at first that the ban would go against freestylers in general.
What do you think of the bans in Rocket League? Write it to us in the comments.
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Reference-mein-mmo.de
