In what might be the most expensive MMO ban of all time, gambling streamer loses 1 trillion gold valued at over $160,000 (2024)

The richest player in the history of nostalgic MMO Old School RuneScape has been banned for alleged real-world trading, which means a staggering 1 trillion gold has been removed from the game in an instant. Assuming you were able to convert it via illegal gold sellers, 1 trillion OSRS gold could theoretically net you upwards of $160,000 or even $230,000 according to some rates, potentially making this one of the most costly MMO bans of all time.

YouTuber and Twitch streamer BTCs received a permanent ban on October 3, as they affirmed in a recent video calling the ban unjustified, and repeatedly calling the anti-cheat team at OSRS developer Jagex corrupt and dumb. On Twitch, they insisted the whole thing "was a full-on scam." Surprisingly, this has not yet convinced Jagex to change its tune.

In screenshots of Discord conversations now shared online, Jagex community manager Mod Ayiza maintains that the dev team has "thoroughly reviewed" the situation and found "irrefutable" evidence which ensures there's no chance for the ban to be overturned – unlike the last time BTCs was banned, and then unbanned, for alleged real-world trading.

"It was very clear on our end that someone was accessing your account and using it to trade hundreds of millions of GP through it, which was then sold shortly afterward," a message from Ayiza reads. "Ultimately you are responsible for your account and what happens on it. If another player accesses your account and breaks the rules of RuneScape, we will take action against the account."

Technically speaking, multiple accounts were banned - apparently because they were used to store the massive amount of gold that BTCs had primarily gained through high-value deathmatch fights streamed on Twitch. Characters named Gray Gray, 51C, and 344 mileTIME were all banned, with Gray Gray being the primary trillion-gold mule. BTC describes the other characters as "viewer accounts" that "got taken out as well." The original owner of Gray Gray, who also streams on Twitch, released a statement of her own calling the ban unfounded, referring to BTCs' video.

Jagex hasn't discussed details publicly, but the real-world trading accusations against BTC appear to focus on two points. Firstly, players allege that his regular in-game giveaways were rigged, with the ostensibly random winners paying for gold under the table and the giveaways acting as a smokescreen for broader gold selling.

Similarly, authority-granting ranks in BTC's gambling clan chat were reportedly sold via Discord and paid out in-game. Records of the latter accusation date back some time.There's a lot of he said, she said going around, but the sheer volume of gold and the way it was passed around is undeniably similar to the MMO's previous high-profile real-world trading fiascos.

Just under a week after the record-setting ban, BTCs is back on Twitch gambling on another account, 345 mileTIME. Their matchless fortune of gold pieces, higher-value platinum tokens, and rare items was lost in the ban, but they clearly still have access to sizable wealth elsewhere – more than enough to resume deathmatching between rounds of actual, real-world slot machines, which they also stream on Twitch.

The response from the OSRS community has not been sympathetic, with many players standing up for the rules regarding account sharing (and also asking for consistency on how they're enforced). Others are championing any ban for major gamblers, who are generally disliked in the community and seen as a remnant of the Dueling Arena, a combat casino that proved to be such a toxic hive of real-world trading that it was ultimately removed from OSRS. Meanwhile, some players are simply mourning the rare items lost in the ban, especially BTCs' stash of sought-after 3rd Age Pickaxes. Won't somebody think of the pickaxes?

Another OSRS player was recently hacked for 4.8 billion gold after spending $1,000 on the MMO, but ended up getting it back after sharing their plight on YouTube – angering some players calling the whole thing "streamer privilege."

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