The world's wealthiest RuneScape player has been permanently banned, despite claiming that he'd done nothing wrong.
Old School RuneScape player and streamer, BTCs, is (was?) the richest player on the online fantasy role-playing game, amassing over 1 trillion gold in an account worth $160,000 (£131,000) in real-world money, according to PC Gamer.
However, he has recently seen himself banned from the game due to allegations of real-world trading.
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Real-world trading refers to the act of exchanging anything outside of RuneScape, such as real-world money, for in-game items or services, or vice versa.
Technically nothing in-game has real-world value, however in-game items and services, such as gold, items and skill levels, are often sold via gold-selling markets online.
While BTCs denies allegations, Jagex, the game's creators and owners, have said the ban on his account will not be overturned.
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The streamer took to his channel to plead his innocence, stating that his journey to the 1 trillion mark was 'heavily monitored' by a moderating team.
"Clearly I wasn't selling any gold on the way to one trill," he said in the video.
The player was left confused after Jagex mentioned that the instances of real-world trading were recent.
"They mentioned these instances are recent, implying that I began selling literal bits of it then, after one trill ... Clearly I was not getting banned all the way up there, meaning I didn't sell any gold. But now I'm selling, at one trill?"
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BTCs had received a ban earlier this year, which was later overturned, but this time he's not looking so lucky.
RuneScape lead community manager, Ayiza has since told him that evidence in the matter 'has been thoroughly reviews [sic] by our anti-cheating team to be correct and the ban won't be overturned.'
"There are very clear (and recent) instances of RWT [real-world trading] occurring on our end," Ayiza said in a follow-up message. "This wasn't an overnight decision, and I'm confident the ACT have made the correct call with the evidence they have to hand."
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The streamer suspects the ban may have come about after he ran an in-game gold giveaway, something he has done before and claims he's very careful about to avoid getting caught up in trouble relating to real-world trading.
At least three other accounts were banned as part of the incident for allegedly storing some of BTCs' massive hoard of gold.
BTCs has previously faced allegations that his gold giveaways are fixed, with 'random' winners actually paying for the gold they receive, although this is just speculation.
Bec Oakes