I Got Banned! What do I do?

First off, you can pat yourself on the back for (most likely) cheating. We appreciate it. That being said, there is still a path of redemption you can follow to clear your name and get your suspension lifted. That is, depending on the severity of your infraction.

Please ensure you meet the following criteria:

• You do not have repeated infractions for this same suspension reason (ex: getting banned for cheating more than once)
• You know the exact username or email address of the account in question
• You have not been banned a total of 3 times before

Let's go into a bit more detail into each of these points.

You do not have repeated infractions for this same suspension reason - This one is obvious. Your appeal will almost certainly get denied if you try and appeal for cheating after your previous ban for cheating just got lifted. There is something to be said about learning your lesson, if you turn around and do the exact same thing that got you banned, that you are fully aware is not acceptable behavior, then you have no excuse to continue doing so. This also proves you are almost certainly not trustworthy or sincere with your appeal as it becomes a case of the boy who cried wolf. Maybe after your 7th cheating ban, you WILL wake up to your annoying and rude behavior, but by then it will be too late. It's very unlikely you will even get a 7th ban attempt in the first place.

You know the exact username or email address of the account in question - This is another simple one to wrap your head around. If we do decide to lift your suspension, we will need to know which account we are unbanning. Usually we can find this from your forums account, but if we can't we will ask you for this information via private message.

You have not been banned a total of 3 times before - That is correct. If you have been banned 3 times before, you are pretty much out of luck. There is a way to get unbanned even if this is the case - scroll towards the bottom of the page for information on that. But generally, if you have managed to get banned 3 times, you should probably find something else to do with your time aside from dragging your awful attitude to our doorstep and to our players.

Appealing

If you are reading the above and you think you are able to make an appeal, you have two similar ways of going about it. You may either use the traditional method of copying the ban appeal format from the pinned topic in the ban appeals subforum, or you may use the new method which is a dedicated form to help streamline the appeal process.

After submitting your appeal, it will be left open to the public for the community to give their feedback as they see fit. When all is said and done, your appeal will be either approved or denied. If your appeal is denied, you may submit another appeal after 72 hours, with a maximum of 7 appeals within a 90-day period. Further appeals will be automatically denied and you may receive warning points for continued over-appealing.

Appealing Severe Infractions/When Your Appeals are Denied

But let's say you don't meet the criteria listed before. What then? Well, you may use the classic means of appealing for severe infractions - a donation. Your donation will help prove that, on some level, you still have value in Elaztek to some degree. That being said, in extreme cases such as repeat hacking, security breaching, and other serious infractions, no amount of money will get your ban lifted. But look at it this way, if you are reading this article in the first place, you almost certainly haven't done that - as your IP would be blocked from the website in its entirety otherwise.

In these cases, you will be informed that further appealing will be denied and that you will need to contact a staff member directly to get the issue resolved. You will be informed of what you need to do to get your ban lifted.

When You are Wrongly Banned

Sometimes, the stars line up against you and you suffer a ban for something you didn't do. In these cases, you should still make an appeal but do it in the sense that you have not done any wrong. Your appeal will be reviewed and we will generally do as much research as possible on our end. This will take longer than a normal appeal, so be prepared.