The Zen Ban: And Why It Should Stand

The topic of the week really seems to be situations involving Rocket League, underage prodigies. Mere days after it was revealed that Team Liquid would receive an exemption into the 3rd event of winter, despite Oski and Atow both being 14 during qualifiers, it has become publicly known that Zen, one of the most highly rated French prodigies, has received a one year ban from RLCS.

To find the reason for this ban, we have to turn back the clock a decent bit to July 30th, where the ‘Space Knights’ roster, with Endpoint superstar Seikoo, was found to be playing against the rules during the third day of the RLCS X event qualifier. The reason behind this was Zen’s age, who was just 13 at the time, well below the required 15, which resulted in heavy bans for the team, with Seikoo banned until the end of RLCS.

Coming back to present day, there was a lot of hype surrounding Zen, who would come if age in time for the upcoming event, and was anticipated to have an immediate impact. But due to a lack of communication from Pysonix, or misunderstanding from Zen, it soon came to light that Zen would instead be receiving a one year ban from all RLCS competition.

The reaction quickly turned from the public, as many pro players expressed the anger at the decision, starting a #FreeZen movement. However, although perhaps not handled in the best way possible, this ban was needed, and was warranted, for a few reasons.

First off, we have seen this type of ban happen before. Atomic was banned between September 2017 until June 2019 after his subbing in for a team in RLCS play ins after being underage, a near identical situation to Zen, and thus provides a situation for the punishment to be based on.

As well as this, an example does not to be made to prevent future issues. If Zen’s ban had already expired, having been used up when he was still underage, then what’s to stop people abusing the system in the future? What’s to stop a 13 year old entering the next qualifier, taking their ban when caught out, and then returning when of age?

Although it is an unbelievably difficult situation, if the ban is lifted, then Zen would have received no punishment for his actions. It would set a bad example, and even though this will be challenging for Zen to overcome, he still hopefully has a long, successful career ahead of him.