ParagOnline Update: Umisho

Regarding Umisho:

With the current information available to the public, we have decided to issue a 6-month ban on UMISHO from our online events. The ban is set to expire April 14, 2025. Based on the AWT guidelines, we argue that UMISHO violated the Code of Conduct*:

Personal conduct, whether inside or outside of the Tournament, that reflects or may reflect badly on the Games’ communities or on ASW, including communications on social media.

This ban will be revisited at the end of AWT 2024; if more information comes out between now and then, or there is no improvement or accountability taken from the individual, the ban may be extended indefinitely.

We also urge ArcSystem Works to visit this issue. As it stands, no company should have more authority to deal with an issue this large within their own community than a developer who is actively running a large-scale tour for their players.

ParagOnline GGST Ban Transparency:

ParagOnline Strive began in the middle of the community unrest. We did not participate in the Strive TOcord as we did not have a weekly Strive tournament before the current events. Because there had been no changes from the initial ban placed on RedIamNot, we originally chose to allow either player into our events as there had been, as far as Paragon management was aware, no decision made by major tournament organizers, the developers, or law enforcement who were all more equipped than us to deal with the issues surrounding UMISHO.

We run our tournaments as a free resource for select communities in which we field players Under typical conditions, Paragon generally aligns its bans with the largest entities with a few exceptions: this means large-scale tournaments, their tournament organizers, and the developer of the game. Due to the caliber of our own players, this was a policy created to prevent any biases that may benefit ourselves in a tournament series run by us as well as the fact that we did not want to break what we consider a standard presented by the developer and community figureheads of the game that we support.

For a ban to be placed on UMISHO, we asked ourselves multiple questions: due to our lack of involvement, is it appropriate for a company that did not participate in any original ban to rule on a situation in which we do not have any stake? What is the risk involved? How are our participants impacted? What is the most fair resolution should we decide to get involved?

We believe one of the largest issues that the community currently faces is how the ongoing situation has been handled.

As it stands, the current issues have festered with the hope that they would eventually go away. With action being stalled, the health of the community has suffered. This situation is an issue that does not stay with the individuals involved: it has impacted players, tournament staff, viewers of the game, and practically all GGST community members.

With no guidance provided by ArcSystem Works, we ultimately have decided to do what we believe is the correct action to take and hope others can create a resolution. As stated previously, we did not have any involvement with any initial bans or rulings.

*The Official AWT Rules can be read here: https://www.arcsystemworks.jp/awt2024/assets/pdf/AWT2024rules_ENG.pdf