Tabletop games

Hello Reddit, been a little while and wanted to give an update on the situation with my Viih_Sou account closure:

After my last post, I patiently awaited a response from chess.com, and soon after I was sent an email from them asking to video chat and discuss the status of my account.

Excitedly, I had anticipated a productive call and hopefully clarifying things if necessary, and at least a step toward communication/getting my account back.

Well unfortunately, not only did this not occur but rather the opposite. Long story short, I was simply told they had conclusive evidence I had violated their fair play policy, without a shred of a detail.

Of course chess.com cannot reveal their anti-cheating algorithms, as cheaters would then figure out a way to circumvent it. However I wasn’t told which games, moves, when, how, absolutely nothing. And as utterly ridiculous as it sounds, I was continuously asked to discuss their conclusion, asking for my thoughts/a defense or “anything I’d like the fair play team to know”.

Imagine you’re on trial for committing a crime you did not commit, and you are simply told by the prosecutor that they are certain you committed the crime and the judge finds you guilty, without ever telling you where you committed alleged crime, how, why, etc. Then you’re asked to defend yourself on the spot? The complete absurdity of this is clear. All I was able to really reply was that I’m not really sure how to respond when I’m being told they have conclusive evidence of my “cheating” without sharing any details.

I’m also a bit curious as to why they had to schedule a private call to inform me of this as well. An email would suffice, only then I wouldn’t be put on the spot, flabbergasted at the absurdity of the conversation, and perhaps have a reasonable amount of time to reply.

Soon after, I had received an email essentially saying they’re glad we talked, and that in spite of their findings they see my passion for chess, and offered me to rejoin the site on a new account in 12 months if I sign a contract admitting to wrongdoing.

I have so many questions I don’t even know where to begin. I’m trying to be as objective as possible which as you can hopefully understand is difficult in a situation like this when I’m confused and angry, but frankly I don’t see any other way of putting it besides bullying.

I’m first told that they have “conclusive evidence” of a fair play violation without any further details, and then backed into a corner, making me feel like my only way out is to admit to cheating when I didn’t cheat. They get away with this because they have such a monopoly in the online chess sphere, and I personally know quite a few GMs who they have intimidated into an “admission” as well. From their perspective, it makes perfect sense, as admitting their mistake when this has reached such an audience would be absolutely awful for their PR.

So that leaves me here, still with no answers, and it doesn’t seem I’m going to get them any time soon. And while every streamer is making jokes about it and using this for content, I’ve seen a lot of people say is that this is just drama that will blow over. That is the case for you guys, but for me this is a major hit to the growth of my chess career. Being able to play against the very best players in the world is crucial for development, not to mention the countless big prize tournaments that I will be missing out on until this gets resolved.

Finally I want to again thank everyone for the support and the kind messages, I’ve been so flooded I’m sorry if I can’t get to them all, but know that I appreciate every one of you, and it motivates me even more to keep fighting.

Let’s hope that we get some answers soon,

Until next time

I was fleshing out some taverns and I was thinking about that episode of How I Met Your Mother where the bar has a sign that says "No Boogieboarding" and shows the backstory of how such a random rule came about. What would the equivalent be for an oddly-specific spell that a tavern would ban and why would it be banned?