Hi. Sorry if this gets ramble-y I'm just miffed.

I ran out of space on the title but really it should be "The Issue with RGL's Probation System and Lack of Admin Transparency".

DISCLAIMER: I'm not calling out the individual admins included in screenshots, they all helped me the best they could and I really do appreciate that. They are simply reflecting greater policy put in place by RGL, which is what I am taking issue with. Furthermore, at one point I reference times RGL admins have said slurs, I'm not doing this to say they are bad people but merely use this in reference to Cember's own conduct.

TL:DR: Cember get's banned for saying "ni" in a scrim, admins tell me this is policy. Other people who appear to have said worse things appear to get lesser punishments. Cember is branded as toxic and problematic despite a lack of evidence for this. Admins won't elaborate and just paint him as a bad boy gamer, despite being a really fine guy. Transparency is needed.

So here's the issue, Cember was recently banned in a scrim (https://rgl.gg/Public/PlayerProfile.aspx?p=76561198010924969&r=40). A couple things of note here:

1. The ban ends in 2099, and must be appealed after two weeks if Cember wants to continue to play.
2. Cember will constantly have " consistent behavior issues in the past" listed on his profile.

Here is what caused him to be banned (seen in chat here https://logs.tf/2454051#76561198010924969):

PREDICTABO! the ni you fuckin
PREDICTABO! and that other ni you fuckin

He did not explicitly say a slur, but RGL wants to consider the implication of a slur ban worthy then whatever, that's their business.

Here's where the issue arises. Other players who have been banned for saying slurs

https://rgl.gg/Public/PlayerProfile.aspx?p=76561198087056639
https://rgl.gg/Public/PlayerProfile.aspx?p=76561198864159383
https://rgl.gg/Public/PlayerProfile.aspx?p=76561198211313779

Have not been given a probationary period, they were just given a flat two week ban. Furthermore, they were not described as having "consistent behavior problems" in the past. Ok, sure.

Here is an example of a player that WAS on probation and the ban they recieved:

https://rgl.gg/Public/PlayerProfile.aspx?p=76561198136156676&r=40

They were not described as having problematic behavior in the past, and were only given a flat 2 week ban that did not have to be appealed.

Ok, so this must imply Cember is an incredibly awful n word user who must be punished harsher for just implying a slur, right? Well, about that.

Cember does not have a toxic, problematic history, and has never had an incident that would require being treated like an issue player. I asked the admins multiple times what sort of history warranted Cember being branded as an awful person, here are the main responses I got:

1. https://imgur.com/fDrMqy1
Not much, just got deferred, fair enough.

2. https://imgur.com/oTLdGB2
They WILL NOT tell me, we'll get back to this later.

3. https://imgur.com/BPGHwBb
He hangs out with bad boys. Ok, so this one implies it has NOTHING to do with who he is or how he acts, the ONLY thing that matters is that he plays with Scratchh and Ekh0. If this is the case, then RGL is treating players unfairly, and doesn't actually consider a players actions when handing out punishment. This implies that the teammates you play with is more important than your own actions, which is just kind of bullshit, especially if you have NO history of toxic behavior. Furthermore, consider the fact that his punishment history is "consistent behavior problems", which implies that him hanging out with people is a BEHAVIOR problem, which is just kind of gross tbh. If not that, then the admins are blatantly making something up about his behavior to justify punishing him for the company he keeps. This leads us back to the issue with the second admin response.

They cannot give out context as to why Cember was being treated as a player with behavior problems. This is where the heart of the problem with the RGL Admins lies, the lack of transparency. This is in direct response to me showing them evidence that Cember isn't toxic: https://imgur.com/RpTZpdm

Cember has NO evidence of a problematic history, and when pressed for one, the admins cannot provide one. Either this means
1. The evidence is the 11 times Cember has said slurs in the past. If this is the case, Boxcar, Patrick, and FrickMyNick all need to be on probation as well as they have said slurs an equal to or greater amount of times as Cember. As does everyone who has said slurs 11 or more times. Also, why would you be letting people who have said slurs 64 times be div admins if it's such awful behavior?
2. They have some evidence somewhere that is contrary to everything I found, and what other people know, but are unwilling to let Cember know. This is an issue because it means Cember is unaware of what he has done wrong in the past and cannot fix it, and it means that the admins are being vague about what behaviors are punishable. By not being transparent, it only creates confusion on what is expected. Obviously saying slurs and hate speech is bad, but if I've shown Cember isn't a problem to do anything more than average, what else COULD he be doing that coincides with a ban regarding the usage of slurs?
3. The admins consider hanging out with certain people to be problematic, see above.
4. The admins are lying, and there is no way for them to be held accountable due to lack of transparency.

Both points 1 and 3 point to the big issue: Transparency. In a community run league, the admins need to be held accountable, and the only way this can be done is by transparency with a community. This is a basis of punishment, in the US Court System people have a right to know what they are being accused of, as if not they cannot defend themselves. How is Cember supposed to properly defend himself when he isn't even told what behavior issues he as?

Without transparency, there is little reason to trust that what the admins do is just or right, especially when they wrongfully brand a player who has not had an incident at all since he came onto the competitive scene as toxic player. This leaves too much room for bias against players or teams, and leads to players not being treated fairly. Cember isn't even a member of the Scratchh circle jerk, he literally just plays on a team with them, and because of that he is painted as someone with "consistent behavior problems", and that's just bullshit. A league that cannot be held accountable will never save this dying game.

So yea, that was my TED talk on the problem with RGL using Cember as an example. Thanks for reading.