The FACEIT Ban Policy is changing, effective August 05 with the launch of Season 9. Bans are getting longer for cheating, smurfing, stream sniping, and repeated or targeted abuse. We are applying a more contextual approach for occasional offences so the ban more closely matches the offence. There is more room for trash talk, banter, harmless backing of your country or favorite sports team, and some profanity, as long as it doesn't progress into abuse.
Toxicity has long been one of the community's most-raised issues, so we set a high bar and enforced it hard. With the Season 9 policy changes, outside the zero-tolerance cases, we now weigh conduct in more context rather than against a fixed list of words. We look more at the act, the context of the match, and the player's history, so a one-off outburst after a lost round is not treated the same as the same behaviour every round and match.
The goal is to keep our heaviest enforcement on the players who genuinely ruin matches, and treat the heat of competition as part of the game.
The key changes are summarised below, while the full rules are on our support portal, in the updated Code of Conduct and Ban Policy:
| Offence | Previous ban policy | New ban policy (Season 9) |
|---|---|---|
| Cheating | 2 years | 5 years, and 2 years more for every ban evasion attempt escalating to permanent. |
| Stream sniping | 30 days | 6 months, then scaling from 1 year up to permanent |
| Smurfing (placed on the main account, as the smurf account is banned permanently) | 30 days | 3 months, then scaling from 1 year up to permanent |
| Trash talk, banter, harmless backing of countries, sports teams, or a cause, and some profanity | 1st offence: 7 days · 2nd: 1 month · 3rd: 1 year · 4th: Permanent | Generally permitted, provided it doesn't progress into abuse. Where it does, bans start from a minimum of 3 days. |
| High-severity toxicity or griefing (personal attacks on who someone is, such as racist, homophobic, or sexist slurs, plus doxing, threats of physical violence, or deliberately ruining matches. | Zero tolerance. 1st offence: 7 days · 2nd: 1 month · 3rd: 1 year · 4th: Permanent | Zero tolerance stays. The change is that the first offence can now be anywhere between 7 days and higher, depending on the severity. Repeat offenders who continually ruin matches face harsher penalties and faster-scaling bans, up to permanent. |
