The streamer BTCs was long considered the richest player in the MMORPG classic Old School Runescape. Now he has been banned by the developer Jagex. However, he claims that he did nothing wrong.
What is Old School Runescape?
- The MMORPG Runescape was released in 2001 and is set in a medieval fantasy world.
- In 2013, a second variant of the game was released under the name “Old School Runescape” (OSRS). This was based on an old version of the base game from 2007.
- A special feature is the game’s closeness to the community. Players can vote on upcoming changes and follow development in livestreams.
More about Old School Runescape can be seen in our video:
How did the ban come about? With more than one trillion gold, BTCs owned an impressive amount of in-game wealth. If one were to sell this on the black market, it would fetch a proud sum of over €150,000.
The problem: so-called real-world trading is fundamentally prohibited in Runescape. This means that neither items nor gold may be sold for real money.
“Why should I sell it only now?”
In a video, BTCs defends himself. When he crossed the trillion mark in September, he was “closely monitored” by moderators. However, he never behaved suspiciously.
“Obviously, I never sold anything on my way to the trillion,” he explains. The alleged incidents of real-world trading supposedly only occurred in the very recent past.
“This implies that I started selling tiny portions after the trillion… Obviously, I was not banned all the way to that point, which means I sold nothing. But now I start after a trillion?”
BTCs explains the ban as a consequence of a gold giveaway. He hosts these regularly, but with the utmost caution to avoid problems related to real-world trading.
In addition to BTCs’ account itself, at least three other players were banned due to this incident.
Here you can get your own impression of BTCs’ explanation:
But no winners? Just recently, BTCs was accused by some OSRS players of having predetermined the winners of his giveaways beforehand. These alleged “winners” would actually pay secretly for the gold received.
According to further allegations from the community, BTCs also sold ranks for his clan on Discord. A notable incident was another ban earlier this year. However, this was lifted again. In his new ban, however, he seems to have no luck.
Developer says: Ban will not be lifted
This is what the developer says: According to Lead Community Manager Ayiza, the case has been “thoroughly reviewed by our anti-cheating team and the ban will not be lifted.” There are very clear incidents of real-world trading.
“This was not a spontaneous decision,” she continues. She is sure that with the evidence presented, the right decision was made.
What do you think about this? Do you find BTCs’ ban justified? Or should RWT be generally allowed? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Streamer Darth Microtransaction also lost his OSRS account worth several billion gold. In his case, however, the story took a good turn. You can read about how it happened here:
Steam: Twitch streamer loses huge wealth in MMORPG, is totally finished – An email arrives
