[La Flama Blanca]

First of all, my decision to post this thread was obviously spurred by a recent ban request. However, this wasn't the first time I expressed a dislike for the teaming rules. Included are two past instances where I expressed such disdain, one yesterday and one over two years ago.

• Ban request on Crab and Lycan 10/12/2020
  
• Unban request for Cons 06/17/2018
  

My views below are substantially similar to what I've previously expressed (and I've done some copying and pasting to save myself time). 

I believe that the punishments for teaming are far in excess of what I think is appropriate. 

Of the three examples provided in the staff guidelines, I really only think one should remain as it is written. That would be the last one, where a traitor purposely lets an innocent into the T room. The other two are far too broad, in my opinion. I really think they should be amended to create a more specific "bad faith" requirement. Instances where defibbing an innocent friend as a traitor or choosing not to immediately kill them despite knowledge of them being a traitor is generally not done in an effort to ruin the game. Rather, it's usually done as a way to make the game more fun for oneself or their friend. And it doesn't necessarily cause a direct interruption to the gameplay. For a traitor defibbing an innocent, I believe that this needs to be accompanied by evidence showing that the revived innocent disrupted the gameplay - evidence of this may include them killing the traitor buddies of the reviving traitor in the middle of the round. Innocents refusing to kill an obvious traitor is just far too open to interpretation, in my opinion, to be sustained as an example of teaming. In fact, it may even encourage RDM. 

Expanding on a point stated above - I believe the teaming rules could be too expansive/broad. This a problem because it not only leads to selective enforcement but also leaves some players without fair notice as to what truly constitutes teaming. 

Some instances that might be construed as teaming might include

• Players using voice chat and "jokingly" ask traitors for traitor equipment.
  
• The server has just a couple players on and the traitor is known. However, the innocents choose not to kill the traitor because they are completing a map objective or just goofing off, like planting a ten minute C4 and playing C4 roulette. 
  
• A player, such as Prince Nicky, intentionally doesn't call out traitors. He may see traitors perform a traitorous act yet he doesn't call them out in voice chat or text chat. He chooses to refrain from doing so in order to get the kill himself so he can increase his score, win the map, and get Top Traitor. Does this help the traitors? It might - Prince Nicky could end up being killed before he has the chance to get the drop on the traitor he witnessed traiting. But is he intentionally trying to help the traitors? No, he is not. 
  

Now I don't think we need a bright line rule on what does and what does not constitute teaming. For the most part, I think it really requires a case-by-case analysis. That analysis could come either post ante (before the ban) such as using one's own professional judgment as a staff member or seeking the advice of administrators. That analysis could also come ex post (after the ban), where the community and staff alike have a chance to review the situation leading to the ban and the administrators can make a decision on an appropriate punishment. 

So there are three things that I would like to emphasize for inclusion in a potential revised rule (This is the TL;DR)

• Separate teaming offenses into those accompanied with "bad faith," or malice and those which are far more innocent. I think this could be done in a similar fashion as we have for ghosting offenses (separated into "severe" ghosting and "moderate" ghosting offenses). 
  
• Ask whether the teaming offense was disruptive to the gameplay. Was the round delayed significantly? Were T buddies killed by an innocent given an advantage? (let in T room, revived, given knife, etc.). If the teaming offense was not disruptive, it should fall into the category of an innocent teaming offense, rather than a severe offense. 
  
• Adjust the punishment scheme to account for innocent versus severe teaming offenses. I believe the innocent teaming offenses should be lesser than what is currently provided in the guidelines. I don't think the current guidelines are inappropriate for severe teaming offenses.