After investigation over Jay’s first sanction for streamsinping, Hearthstone Esports perma-bans him. Jay also got a 3 months game suspension
Days after Hearthstone Esports’ 4-month ban on Jay for stream sniping, the problematic player receives further sanctions. Upon further investigation, Hearthstone Esports updated Jay’s sanction from competitive play to a perma-ban. Furthermore, Blizzard suspended Jay’s game account for 3 months.
Hearthstone perma-bans Jay
Shortly after Jay's ban from competitive play, Hearthstone imposed new sanctions on the controversial player. In late December, Jay was suspended for stream sniping. The initial sanction banned Jay from competitive Hearthstone events for 4 months.
Upon further investigations, the Hearthstone Esports administration upgraded Jay's sanction to an indefinite suspension from Hearthstone Esports Events. The reasons behind Jay’s perma-ban from the competitive play are the multiple and different violations of Hearthstone’s rules. As stated in a letter from Hearthstone Esports to Jay:
“After issuing our last suspension on your account, we have investigated the chat logs on your account and found evidence for a significant number of player conduct infractions, including stream sniping, win trading, and inducing other players to win trade. As a result of these infractions, your suspension has been upgraded and, effective immediately, you are indefinitely suspended from Hearthstone Esports events.”
The Hearthstone Esports Rules and Policies page's Ineligible Players list reflects this as only a year-long sanction. This is because that will be the time in which Jay could appeal his ban.
Jay’s account suspended
On top of Jay’s ban from competitive play, his Hearthstone account was suspended as well. The same day Jay got his indefinite ban, Blizzard locked him out of his game account. According to the official ruling Esports.gg got access to, this Hearthstone account suspension will last for 3 months.
“After receiving reports and reviewing your account, we have verified that you have been taking actions to intentionally ruin other players’ experience in Hearthstone. (...) If you continue this behavior or participate in other actions that may cause negative impact to the Hearthstone community once you return, your account will be banned.”
Hours before this game account suspension, Jay was mocking the situation again. In a tweet that talked about his year-long ban, Jay replied with a “Stream On” tweet.
EpicMingo’s ban and Jay’s involvement
One final caveat in this story is how Hearthstone Esports’ investigation on Jay lead to more bans. EpicMingo’s story came to light just hours ago when Jay recognized him in the Hearhtson Esports banned player list. EpicMingo was a viewer in Jay’s twitch channel, and according to Jay, he conceded a game in high legend for a VIP in the channel.
“I told him to concede at rank 400 legend for VIP. He won the game, we played it out, and he conceded.”
This behavior falls under win-trading and inducing other players to win-trade, two things for which the player received a ban. Although we didn’t get any confirmation about EpicMingo’s case, all pieces seem to fit.
Time will tell if the Hearthstone Esports banned players’ list will keep growing. Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time in the tavern.