- lagging isn't cheating and it will always happen
- there are less people using VPNs than you can count on one hand, so I wouldn't consider it a substantial enough issue
- same story for speed hackers: not a very significant issue lately, so it isn't a huge problem
- using alternate accounts is legal and it's not even problematic due to the way the leaderboard functions
- preventing people with over a ping over 90 is a terrible idea, especially when you consider that the entire server has a ping over 90 when 2900+ are online (go to the arena and try sparring tomorrow at 4 PM EST when 3400+ are online if you don't believe me)
didn't read this thread, but I'm sure there's no decent argument to be made based on these simple facts
thread solved
here's what is actually wrong with sparring:
- it's impossible to experience smooth spars when 2900+ are online
- the spar community is filled with a bunch of babies and ragers
- sparring isn't being incentivized and people are getting bored of it and sparring less because it's been around for 5 years (more for many), there's less to achieve individually, etc. (example: take away hats from towers and see how the tower community shrinks by at least half)
so, if the server could be improved to handle the amount of players and if admins could pitch in a little to help encourage players to go back to spars (or PKing, or BKing, or any activity really), that'd help
as far as the community goes, that can't be changed and it's the players' faults (not the admins) for being ignorant, pessimistic, whiney, hateful, angry, etc.
I suspect a majority of the negativity is a direct result of getting beaten in spars for years and having to constantly rely on excuses - I can understand your angst, but you're still the only ones to blame, sorry
reminds me of the "elo hell" excuse in League of Legends: "I'm actually a really good player, but my teammates always make me lose and I can never climb" - so explain why there are people who can create new accounts and go from unranked to top 10
"I'm really good at sparring, but laggers and cheaters always make me lose" - so explain why there are sparrers like Dante, Kevin, Junior, Shiden, etc. (good sparrers who you basically never see making excuses)