Enforcement
A History of Players who Broke the Rules

The enforcement page is designed both to inform and to deter. The IDL has been around for years now, but many of our current players have not. Some of them do not know the history of those who caused us problems in the past, and today's applicants now more than ever need a chance to know what has gone before, to better avoid the same fate. What follows is a chronological listing of players and events, with detailed information on what they were accused of doing, whether they were found guilty, innocent, or not guilty (due to lack of evidence), along with any consequences that were incurred. IDL strongly recommends that all its members read this page at least once.

Spread97
Banned from the IDL - August 97

Spread97 (aka SATAN on Kali) was the first player ever banned from the ladder. This player is highly skilled. The IDL could have benefitted greatly from his talent, and he was in fact a part of the ladder for a while, in IDL's first months when there was only a single tier of competition. Spread97 had a terrible reputation among his peers, stemming from his attitude, his treatment of opponents, and his trash talking. Most IDL members of that earliest era believed he would not be able to garner the needed recomendations to get on the ladder -- but he did. And this caused a tremendous uproar. Numerous players chose to resign in protest rather than even to be on the same ladder as him. Sirian observed him trash-talking in the most rude and offensive ways on numerous occasions, but Spread worked to keep it pretty clean in most of his actual ladder matches. Still, people were unhappy with his presence, and when half the ladder's top-ranked players resigned in one week, Karash made the decision to shut down the IDL and restructure the entire ladder. Spread was not immediately banned. We were actually going to let him stay, and see if he could win support from the original members of the First Tier. But Karash observed him in a very heated and nasty exchange on Kchat and decided enough was enough. Spread97 was banned for life from the IDL by the ladder administrator due to poor sportsmanship and a near-total lack of respect for his peers, particularly anyone who challenged his ego. He was (at the time) an incorrigible repeat offender, and thus the decision to ban him. The IDL is a two-tier system today SOLELY because of trouble this player caused us while we had only a single tier. That system proved inadequate for dealing with trouble makers. The mission of the IDL was to provide a place for the best players in the world to compete with one another, and too many of them just did not care to participate if there was no means of maintaining a professional-quality arena and barring those whose only aim was to spoil the fun. So Karash created the concept of an Upper Tier, a tier of competition placed above the rest of the ladder, where those whom the ladder was created for could have control over the entire ladder and, through self-regulation, prevent this disaster (where players started resigning in a mass exodus) from ever darkening our doorstep again. So far it has worked.

Troop
Banned from the IDL - November 97

Troop was another skilled player with an ego problem. There were times when he lost that he just could not control his temper. He had frequent outbursts and would go off on "I suck" rampages in which he would spread misery to all his opponents, sometimes lasting days. He made quite a few forfeits during a couple of these rampages, drawing a lecture from Karash in one instance. He also quit in a huff multiple times only to reapply -- sometimes within hours, always within days. Troop was not a bad guy most of the time, and we tried to guide him along. His skills were an asset to the ladder. But despite repeated talks with him, and warnings to get himself under control, he could not. And it reached a point where slapping him on the wrist was no longer enough. Members were complaining, and something had to be done. So he was banned by the First Tier in the IDL's first disciplinary Regulate measure. The five players who voted for and passed this measure were: Xciter, Sirian, Manson, kiln, and Jackhammer. To understand this action, you must realize that, at the time, the ladder had only three types of Regulate measures: Promote, Demote, and Ban. A ban really was too harsh, but it was the only option. This event led directly to the creation of the Kick and Probation measures, and Troop is the only player ever banned to be later unbanned after mending his ways, because at the time of his banning there had been limited options. What he actually deserved was a Kick, or perhaps a Kick-45.

69
Banned from the IDL - January 98

69 was the ultimate "Angle Player". He loved gauss and particularly mercs, and he played only about 3 levels, and only in D2. He rose to the #1 rank in the Second Tier and sat on it, pretty much refusing to play except in his three favorite D2 levels, which amounted to his home levels. This case highlights the success of the Two-Tier System, and demonstrates for all to see just why the First Tier has some of the standards it does for highly ranked hopefuls in the Second Tier. If this player had gotten into the First Tier with his incomplete game and angled approach, there would have been chaos. If the ladder had had only one tier, he would have sat near the top, and perhaps even represented the IDL as its champion -- and with his behavior at the time, he would have made a poor role model at best. He was good at the few levels he played, and showed promise at being able to do well in other areas, but he had no desire to do anything other than dominate in his best levels and lord it over his opponents. To the IDL's credit, we did not remove him merely for being an angle player. That is one of the functions of the second tier: to provide a place for those who are, in some way, not ready for First Tier competition to work on their game or their behavior or their willingness to play diverse levels, and perhaps earn their way to an invitation some day. There were many allegations that 69 cheated, some of them from credible sources, some not. We're talking hacked exe here: blatant and deliberate cheating. This sort of accusation is difficult to prove, though, and it did not weigh in his ban at all. To our knowledge, no convincing evidence was ever presented -- only conjecture. 69 got himself banned. He eventually lost patience with the process of nomination to UT, and after losses in other levels to Sirian, Voyager and 69's friend ESP, 69 went completely postal and started reporting non-existant matches to the ladder. He got a total of 19 bogus matches reported before the ladder staff discovered his sabotage and immediately and irrevocably banned him for life on the spot. The ladder was shut down for several hours while donut worked to undo the damage. 69 is Persona Non Grata in IDL territory. He is 100% unwelcome here, for all time.

ESP
Kicked off the IDL - January 98

ESP was 69's friend, but where 69 was a dominator, ESP was the opposite, radiating self-pity in measurable waves. They were, in a way, complimentary. ESP was never blamed for 69's wrongdoing. His troubles were his own. After 69 pulled his sabotage stunt, and was banned, ESP inherited the #1 LT rank via succession. But he would not and did not play again. 69 started ruthlessly and maliciously spamming the IDL forum with pointless, often stupid, flames, intended solely to poison the IDL community and further wreck the fun of our membership. 69's entire ISP was banned, yet he still found ways to post flames. We tracked several of those flames to ESP, and surmised that 69 was posting them from ESP's computer. We posed an ultimatum to ESP: put a halt to this or be removed himself. He declined, and himself started spamming the IDL forum, only unlike 69, his messages were not raging or mocking: they were an endless stream of whine about how bad his life was and why he couldn't do this or that. When this behavior continued, and he also continued to sit on the #1 rank without defending it, the First Tier kicked ESP off the ladder. He actually resigned before the vote was complete, but this counts officially as a Kick. After the kick, ESP joined in with 69 in flaming the IDL on the forum. So perhaps we should have gone ahead and banned him. In any case, he burnt his bridges behind him.

rott
Found Not Guilty of Cheating - January 98

rott was the first member of the Upper Tier to be Regulated. During a match with DrDon, rott called game at a score of 20 17, and Don later asserted he had only 19 deaths. But Don did not question it at the time, did not take screen shots, and neither did rott. Don later started to wonder if rott had lied about the score. Don did not accuse, but he opened a can of worms by asking around if it were possible to "lose your own death packet". One of the players he asked was Baywatch, and Bay was certain that this sort of anomaly did not, could not, exist. So he accused rott of lying, and actually took it further to accuse rott of cheating intentionally via that lie, and started the measure to have rott kicked off the ladder. We will never know for certain what happened that game, but we believe the real score was 19 17 when the game was called. It's been found to be possible, though rare, for a kill to register twice, so the score may have indeed showed 20 17 for rott on his board, with the actual score at 19 17. DrDon's question was a valid one: you cannot show more deaths for yourself than your actual death total. If he had spoken up at the time, he would have been within his rights to demand the game continue from 19 17, regardless of what score rott claimed to show. If he had produced a screen shot showing his 19 deaths, he could have gotten a chance to finish the game later, from that score. But he didn't. The moral of this story is: if you are at all uncertain about the fairness or rightness of a match result, get a screen shot! Without one, you have no case. It becomes a matter of one player's word against another. Another moral: make sure you follow the rule which states that players must agree on the final score of the match. Since both players must submit the results (one reporting, one verifying) all player should make it a habit to agree on the final score before they leave the game, and to be fair-minded and pursue the truth if there is any disagreement.

Baywatch
Found Not Guilty of Abuse of Power - January 98

Because Baywatch started a measure to kick rott off the ladder *solely* on the basis of an accusation by another player, and did so without even talking to rott at all, much less giving rott a chance to defend himself, to tell his version, Bay came under heat in return. The IDL Self-Regulation process is a powerful tool, and there are no restrictions on it other than the threat of consequences from the rest of the First Tier, or from the ladder admin, if that power is abused. Baywatch's actions in the Don/rott affair were found to be inappropriate, but made in good faith. Bay wanted to send a clear message of Zero Tolerance for cheating or dishonesty, and in that the entire First Tier supported him. But the First Tier also felt the need to send the clear message to all members that UTs were not above the law, and that UT powers would not run rampant nor be used hastily nor inappropriately. Enough of the First Tier believed that merely starting the measure for a Probation on Bay sent this message, so the measure did not pass. It was a long time, though, before another such hasty move was made on the Regulate page without investigation -- and when it did finally happen again, it was done by players who were not UT at the time of the Don/rott incident, and knew not its history. The fact that such a mistake was repeated at all, however, led directly to the creation of this Enforcement history. The IDL hopes never to see these infractions occuring again.

ALPHA1
Banned from the IDL - April 98

Alpha1 (aka Alf/DarkJedi/DJ) was a frequent source of disruption on the ladder. He got into disputes with other players on a regular basis, and nothing that went wrong was ever his own fault, in his opinion. This is not good in itself, yet he saw fit to seek "public justice" by repeatedly airing his match dispute grievances on the IDL forum despite repeated warnings against doing this. This sort of behavior is called "slander" and we will not tolerate it. He also got into several flame wars on the forum, again despite warnings. What got him banned was none of these actions. He simply decided to go 69 on us one day, and started posting a string of bogus, non-existent matches. We caught him red-handed in the act, after only four such false reports, and the ladder staff banned him on the spot. Was it not clear enough, somehow, after we banned 69, what the consequences would be for any and all who took this action? Did he think he was being cute? Whatever fit of stupidity possessed him that day, we do not know, but unlike 69, Alpha1 expressed immediate regret for what he did. Not regret that he did it, though -- regret that he got banned for it. For months after that, he whined time and again on the IDL forum over what happened to him because of his deliberate sabotage. Too bad. Once you pull the trigger, you can't recall the bullet. Some mistakes, once done, cannot be undone. If you flip the bird to IDL, don't expect mercy and forgiveness. We are not here to babysit wayward teens or give endless chances and do-overs to those who treat the ladder with disrespect; we are here to play Descent. Just that, and no more.

Troop
Restored to Good Standing - April 98

As stated earlier, Troop was banned in an era when the only Regulate option was a Ban. After months of honoring his ban, and quietly, patiently lobbying for another chance, the First Tier voted to lift his ban and give one final chance. Troop made good on it, for the most part, and became a First Tier member. He still had some of the old temper to deal with though, and ended up forfeiting the final two games of his vendetta with #1 ranked Chipmunk after losing game 1 in overtime. He then quit the ladder. While he is not the penultimate role model, Troop is still in good standing today, and is welcome on the IDL if/when he gets the desire to play again.

SILVERTIP
Accused of Rank Sitting - Spring 98

A player who played D2 only, SilverTip rose to the #1 rank in the Lower Tier and then turned inactive. He defended his spot a couple times, then stopped playing for reasons unknown. When an entire month passed without any defenses whatsoever, yet his profile showed that he was maintaining activity by updating his profile, members of the First Tier contacted him via email with an ultimatum: either start playing, drop himself out of #1, or be kicked off. The kick measure was started when he did not immediately respond, but he chose to rank drop before it passed, and the First Tier backed off of the kick. SilverTip resigned a few days later. The IDL is a laid-back ladder, and we do not relish the need to enforce our rules. We much prefer our players to follow them willingly, even gladly. This is one of the benefits of an invitational ladder: we are not required to put up with bullshit. Membership here is not a right; it's a privilege. As such, we have no direct mechanisms (like some other ladders) to force high-ranking players to play within x days or suffer some penalty. But we DO expect players occupying high ranks, especially top 5, and particularly #1, to play, and to play often. If you don't have time to defend a high rank, then it is your responsibility to your peers to rank drop. You'll only be a win away from regaining your rank, which you can do when you will have enough time to adequately defend that rank. IDL does not want players who angle and stretch and bend the letter of the rules to their own advantage; instead, we want upstanding players who obey the spirit of the rules. In a word: professionals. The SilverTip incident, plus other incidents with rank-sitters (ESP, Suicide, and others) have led to the need for a Rank-Penalty Regulate measure. Now the First Tier can, as they see fit, impose a rank drop on any IDL member. We intend for rank-sitting never to happen again.

Rudy aka Destroyer
Banned from the IDL - Summer 98

Rudy was found guilty by the staff of Cases Ladder of having multiple ladder accounts and using at least one of them to report false matches to another, thus cheating to boost his record. The IDL had no proof one way or another about these allegations, but the First Tier of the IDL decided to send a clear message, once again, of Zero Tolerance for cheating by banning Rudy from the IDL because of what the Cases staff found him guilty of doing on their ladder. Rudy did not, at the time, violate any IDL rules directly, nor was he given a real chance to present a defense against these charges. This was, in retrospect, a bit harsh. And Rudy later cleared his name on Cases Ladder and proved his innocence. Meaning our ban of him was also unjust. Instead of proving his case to the IDL, he simply ignored his ban. First as Goldberg, then later as Destroyer, he reapplied to IDL in secret, thumbing his nose at the IDL and the decision of the First Tier and flaunting his ban instead of attempting to go through channels to seek his justice. As a result, he was removed when caught.

Various Players
Kicked Off for Uncompetitive Play

No one on IDL relishes the occasional necessity of Regulating a player who, over the long haul, is getting consistently manhandled by all his opponents. Most of these players resign on their own, but occasionally one will hang on and keep trying. Some succeed and manage to improve their play, but some continue to struggle. And it becomes necessary from time to time to remove a player who just isn't able to perform competitively at an IDL level. Several players have been kicked off in this way. It's not just a matter of losing, but by how much. We try to give time to those who make it on to IDL -- time to improve. But it is the responsibility of voting members of the Second Tier not to let players on who cannot hold their own in IDL matches. This ladder is, foremost, about skill, and we have standards to maintain: it is important that all IDL players be competitive, and that all wins count for something here. And the First Tier will take corrective measures if a player is completely out of his depth.

THX
Kicked off the IDL - September 98

THX was a source of great curiosity and much speculation. Rare in the extreme is it for a highly skilled player whom nobody on the IDL knows about to just show up at our door one day and lay waste to the Second Tier. This player generated suspicion in some of the First Tier players, who felt certain he had to be a known badass working in disguise. Much investigation was conducted by certain curious parties in pursuit of more information about THX, to try and establish whether he was a genuine newcomer or not, and to check into whether he was entirely on the up and up. The ladder staff was not involved in this pursuit. As it turned out, these players were right to be suspicious. THX was, in fact, one and the same player as Suicide, Jediluke's younger brother, who was ranked #1 on the Second Tier. (Why is it that so many of these stories revolve around the #1 LT rank? Rhetorical question). Having two profiles on the ladder at the same time is against the rules. Suicide/THX, in his defense, did not apply for the second profile. He was nominated by someone else and voted on without his consent. Suicide had a reputation as a whiner and trouble source, and he wanted to get out from under that, so he went inactive on IDL and signed on to Cases with a new nick, and he performed well and started to make a new, untainted name for himself. But then he got put on the IDL, and rather than choose to retire his old Suicide profile and take up the new THX identity, he burned the candle from both ends. He let Suicide sit at number 1 for weeks while he played as THX, then he "transferred" the #1 spot from his old profile to his new one. This is a definite and deliberate crime, and it not only ended his own IDL career, it also dragged down his brother Jediluke, and caused the largest scandal in IDL history. Suicide/THX was kicked off the IDL by the ladder administrator. The *only* reason he was not banned was that this was his first offense, and though it was a monumental lapse in judgement, it was an indiscretion of opportunity rather than a preplanned conspiracy.

Jediluke
Demoted to the Second Tier - September 98

Jediluke actively participated in covering up his brother's rules violations. When suspicion fell on THX, Jediluke became actively and vocally critical of those who were suspicious, and he made one quote in particular on the forum that, in the annals of the IDL, ranks up there with "Read my lips... no new taxes" and "I did NOT have sexual relations with that woman" in terms of degree of hypocrisy. For lying to members of the First Tier and for violating his responsibilities to the ladder, even in defense of a wayward family member, Jediluke was demoted out of the UT by the ladder staff.

Jediluke
Kicked Off for 45 Days - October 98

In addition to the charges of which Jediluke was found guilty, he was also suspected of playing some of his brother's matches for him -- in a word, cheating. A lot of speculation and heavy investigation pursued these charges, and some circumstantial evidence to support them was turned up -- but so was other evidence that contradicted the charges. In the end, he was found not guilty of playing some of his brother's matches due to lack of evidence. After a month-long and often heated debate about this scandal, the First Tier decided that the original demotion was not severe enough. Without proof of further wrongdoing, though, there was not enough call to support a Ban. A new option was needed. So the Kick-45 (a kick off the ladder and a temporary ban for 45 days) was engineered. Jediluke served his time without complaint, and when it was over, he was welcomed back onto the ladder and back into the First Tier.

Humle
Found Innocent of All Wrongdoing - December 98

Remember the Don/rott incident and the heat that Baywatch took for a hasty response? Well, some of the UTs apparently did not. In a measure started by Diablo and supported by other UTs of the class of 98, Humle was kicked off the ladder for a crime he did not commit. For shame, guys. You should have known better. As it turned out, someone impersonated Humle on the IDL forum, and made outrageous posts in his name that suckered some of the UTs into a frenzy. They responded hastily, and incorrectly. As is the way of genuinely innocent parties, Humle came to the IDL Staff seeking justice. His innocence was established and his profile restored.

Z
Accused of Impersonation - December 98

Someone impersonated Humle, and there were only two possible suspects among IDL members. The primary suspect was Z. The impersonator posted from the same ISP that Z used. While Z maintains his innocence to this day, there was enough circumstantial evidence to maintain a strong suspicion of his guilt. A motion was started to kick Z off the ladder, so Z cut a deal, in which he would resign and lay low for several weeks before reapplying. He is considered to have served his time, and his case to have been suspended without a verdict.

Atom!c
Banned from the IDL - March 99

Atom!c had a serious attitude problem. He would whine, rage, and otherwise treat his opponents with the rudest words and attitude he could muster, when he lost. He talked a lot of trash and often lashed out with the most childish insults imaginable, for no reason. Atom!c was kicked off the ladder at first, but he did not take any time off before he chose to reapply, and so he was not given any slack. And when it became clear that he had not mended his ways yet, a ban was passed to protect the IDL membership from this sort of trouble. Atom!c was only age 12, and we tried to guide him along but he was unreceptive. As stated before, the IDL is here to play Descent, and only that. We are not babysitters, mentors, Big Brothers or parents. We do not rush to harsh judgement on children, but we are not obliged to put up with incorrigible brats either. Atom!c recently decided to flaunt his ban and reapply to the IDL. What possessed him to do this, we do not know, but it certainly delays if not erases any hopes of his ban being lifted. Players who do not follow the rules (whether because they can't or just choose not to) will wear out their welcome very quickly.

Ryan-13
Kicked off the IDL - May 99

Ryan13 had been on and off the IDL several times without any serious incidents. Then he got a fast connection, and he got this notion in his head that if there was lag, the match would not count. He played a match with Horizon and lost, and refused to report. He was warned by the UT to make the report, that the rules required him to report the match, even if he was unhappy with the conditions, and he promised to do so but never did. When a second such incident happened, where he refused to report a completed match, this time with a First Tier player (Merl), he needed to be shown that such disrespect is unacceptable. After a brief discussion on the UT mailing list, he was kicked off the IDL with a unanimous vote. The rules are clear. Any player may terminate a match due to (in their opinion) unplayable conditions up to and including scores of 5 points by either player. Once more than 5 points have been scored, a match may only be terminated if BOTH players agree. If your opponent does not agree, and you refuse to continue, you are obliged to forfeit the remainder of the match and report it. It's that simple. And those who do not, or will not, abide by these rules will be removed from the ladder.

Rudy aka Destroyer
Restored to Good Standing - May 99

As stated earlier, Rudy was banned for allegations made against him on another ladder, of which he was initially found guilty. He later established that the charges were false, and he was innocent. But having flaunted his IDL ban, playing under other nicks, he was removed a second time. It is not cool to ignore IDL justice even if you are certain it has failed you; you must work within the system to get the decision reversed, if it was made in error. Rudy finally figured this out, and he did present his case to the First Tier, and his name was cleared of the original charges. He was deemed to have suffered the equivalent of a Kick-45 for the things he did do (taking the law into his own hands) and has now been restored to good standing. We hope he and everyone else can put all this behind us and move on.

Realm
Banned From the IDL - October 2000

Evidence was obtained, via demo during official IDL Matches, proving that Realm was using a hack to cheat in games, reducing the amount of damage taken from opposing weapon fire. This is the worst violation of the ladder rules in IDL History, and more to the point, the worst display of poor sportsmanship by any IDL Member. That Realm was a First Tier player only aggravates the insult of his behavior to the entire ladder and all of its membership, past, present and future. When suspicions first came to light, they were kept quiet to allow for the opportunity to gather the proof. Most such suspicions are themselves displays of flawed sportsmanship: sour grapes, wisps of envy or anger, displays of ill temper from players having trouble accepting a loss. But not this time. This time it was real. A player actually CHEATED on the IDL. The handling of this case was undertaken with extreme care, and the evidence gathered left no room whatsoever for doubt. Once confronted with the proof, Realm admitted to his use of a cheat, erasing whatever shreds of doubt may have been left in the minds of some. Cheating is the lowest display of poor sportsmanship, and it is NOT tolerated on the IDL. Incredible as it may seem, someone cheated anyway, but now he is gone, forever, from our ranks, and we hope that his lesson is not lost on those who might be tempted to follow in his footsteps.

rott
Kicked Off For 45 Days - October 2000

Rott originally made First Tier in 1997. On and off the scene over the years, he was the target of unsubstantiated cheating allegations (by way of lying about a score) that were dropped for lack of evidence. In 2000, he developed some concerns regarding other First Tier players and decided to handle them by conducting a flame war campaign, in chat, on forums, and via email. After repeated warnings to find a better way to address his concerns, within the rules and by way of showing due respect to all his peers, the First Tier decided as a whole, with a unanimous vote, to remove him from the Ladder for 45 days, and let him think it over. No players are above the rule of law, particularly not First Tier players, who are held to a higher standard. Membership in the IDL, and particularly the First Tier, are a privelege, not a right, and part of the responsibility that comes with membership is behaving civilly. Skill alone is not enough, and in the wake of the Realm scandal, the First Tier was not in the mood to continue looking the other way regarding inappropriate behaviors. The First Tier is a sort of family, and family business is generally handled entirely within the family, not played out in public with cheap stunts, rage, foul language, scorn and hostility. After repeated warnings and no change, rott was removed from the IDL. He will be welcome to reapply any time on or after December 9, 2000.

Commentary

Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

Sirian - IDL Staff