Adding to the already sorry story that is the UK Scene this week, epic.LAN have piled on the misery for the three central players involved. This comes in the form of bans of varying lengths being handed out by the Managing Director, Jon “Winbar” Winkle.
The bans are as follows;
- Ben “KRBY” Kirby – 1 Year (Cheating)
- Joseph “Joee” Leigh – 2 Years (Cheating with VAC Ban)
- Charlie “K1NDEADLY” Weber – 2 Years (Drug Use)
This puts in perspective what epic.LAN are set to do with those found to be breaking event rules. Starting with the cheating bans, the difference in lengths of Joee‘s and KRBY‘s bans just makes me wonder of why a flag given by VALVe would make a difference between two people who are busted for cheating. This would appear to match the bans issued by the other tournament organisers in the UK, to provide a parity across all leagues in terms of bans.
On K1NDEADLY‘s ban, it all could’ve been so different if the details of why he was released were not made public by both him and the organisation. However controversial or potentially over the top, it’s the correct decision on a business level from the tournament organiser as if they did nothing, they could be seen to be condoning drug use through inaction – something they sort of need to lid when dealing with contracts over venues.
Jon Winkle later issued the following statement in their announcement post
We must be absolutely clear in our stance when it comes to use of illegal substances at our event, we will not accept it and anyone involved will be removed and banned from future events. If we find that others were involved in this particular incident or any other in the future of a similar nature, the same punishments will apply. In terms of cheating, whether this takes place at our events or at other UK events, cheaters are simply not welcome at epic.LAN and we’re going to follow the good examples set by ESL and Multiplay by applying these bans to our event too.
A full list on what epic.LAN can – and will – issue bans for can be found here.
