Proposal on cancering

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i would like some reform to be done on the cancering rules. namely i would like the following changes to be implemented:

1. make cancering an automatic 1 year tournament ban, or at the very least a 1 year team tournament ban, in addition to being banned from the current and next iterations of the tournament one cancered in.
2. provide an out for those who find themselves in unequivocally toxic team environments.

regarding point 1:

the current cancering rules do not act as a strong enough deterrent. five people cancered this last SPL, and all of them are still able to sign up for every other tournament on the site. given the way tournaments never stop on this site, missing out on one is really not the end of the world for many people. i don't understand why for the life of me people who cancered on their SPL teams are still eligible to sign up for snake, for example. now that these people are known cancers, managers will be more wary of purchasing them, which could very easily lead to collusion scenarios where they are only getting drafted by their good friends who they won't cancer on. we just had rules implemented this last SPL to avoid certain collusion scenarios, but this is a very obvious one missing in my mind.

cancering is a huge blight on the team. speaking from experience, i witnessed two teammates cancer during SPL on two separate teams. it is very frustrating and difficult to deal with, especially for managers, given how much time goes into planning a draft and all.

speaking on WCoP, right now, there is virtually no disincentive to cancering on your team. i know this happens less in WCoP, but given the changes to the rules lately, teams are more likely to find themselves with newer players who they need to take chances on to be competitive, and these players are obviously less reliable than those who have been loyal to a team for years. as it stands right now, you can cancer in WCoP and... just be banned from next WCoP?? you are literally locked into one team, so what the hell does this accomplish?

regarding point 2:

unfortunately, there has been a handful team environments rife with bigotry and extreme toxicity, and given the recent cultural shifts on our website, it would be extremely unfortunate to force players to have to stay in such environments. furthermore, having a rule on this helps to create a disincentive for both players and managers: players who just want to play will have a stronger fire lit under their ass to not engage in such shitty behavior, and managers will have less of a reason to purchase known pieces of shit, like cased in SPL X.

i want to be clear though: this rule i am proposing would have to be so clear cut beyond belief in order to avoid people just calling any team environment they are on toxic. i think the TD team has proven they know the line between "just jokes" and genuinely awful behavior. this is not calling for people to be allowed to cancer on a team known to be loud... this is calling to give people a clear out when they find themselves on a team with genuinely hateful members and their managers are not doing enough to stop those hateful members.

 

[Boat]

In principle, I can get behind stronger punishments for cancers. In practice, I see a few issues that I would want addressed before I fully throw in my support. Side note: the second part about escaping toxic team environments absolutely should happen regardless of the rest.

1. I'm concerned that a proper tourban, especially a year long one, is really harsh. While most cancering cases are certainly that; cancering, I don't want people in genuinely unfortunate IRL circumstances to get smacked with a year long ban more or less outside of their control (hell, we're mid-pandemic right now, its not even hard to imagine). I think a team tour ban would be more appropriate.

2. If you're going to attach stronger punishments, there also needs to be more strictly defined quantitative rules as to what constitutes cancering. Various forms of cheating have less than a year tourban, and those are very clearly defined. Establishing quantitative rules about stuff like Discord line count is a possible idea, although I'm not sure how feasible it is. I just think that if you're going to issue long tourbans, you better be 110% sure it's cancering. Also it would probably be used outside of trophy team tours, so having quantitative rules would help non-TD hosts make that call.

If this came off ramble-y, it's cause its 8am. Might edit this to make more sense when I wake up

 

[Kink]

In principle, I can get behind stronger punishments for cancers. In practice, I see a few issues that I would want addressed before I fully throw in my support. Side note: the second part about escaping toxic team environments absolutely should happen regardless of the rest.

1. I'm concerned that a proper tourban, especially a year long one, is really harsh. While most cancering cases are certainly that; cancering, I don't want people in genuinely unfortunate IRL circumstances to get smacked with a year long ban more or less outside of their control (hell, we're mid-pandemic right now, its not even hard to imagine). I think a team tour ban would be more appropriate.

2. If you're going to attach stronger punishments, there also needs to be more strictly defined quantitative rules as to what constitutes cancering. Various forms of cheating have less than a year tourban, and those are very clearly defined. Establishing quantitative rules about stuff like Discord line count is a possible idea, although I'm not sure how feasible it is. I just think that if you're going to issue long tourbans, you better be 110% sure it's cancering. Also it would probably be used outside of trophy team tours, so having quantitative rules would help non-TD hosts make that call.

If this came off ramble-y, it's cause its 8am. Might edit this to make more sense when I wake up

The reason it's not harsh is because tours like SPL only function at the high-level that they do because of social understanding between users that this is a high-level tour that demands high-level play. You are asked if you are unavailable early on, and in most cases teams will try to work within your schedule. No one will give you real shit if you have to miss a week or two due to irl stuff. This is not what OP is addressing, he's talking about individuals that go out of their way to make an experience worse for others, sabotage a team's chances for success, and/or ruin the integrity of the tour. As a tour community, we have to look at those that mock the system as people who aren't healthy for the growth of competition. It's not about elitism, it's about having the best play at the top level and if something interferes with that, it needs to be removed. Yes, for a year.

Clear markers for cancer are typically pretty easy to iron out. All of the generic tournament rules would automatically apply, and there are previous conditions that we can add or slightly tweak in order to to have clear, demonstrable markers as to what cancering is and what the subsequent punishment is.

In my view, anything that pushes the integrity of Smogon forward is a right move regardless of how many individuals it annoys. Whether we want to believe it or not, Smogon has become an institution that demands cultural vigilance when it comes to competitive access for elite tours. The second we let shit slide is the second tours like SPL no longer matter.

 

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