This page explains how bans work on FACEIT: what gets you banned, how we decide, and what does not. If you have been actioned and want to understand why, start here.
What is changing in Season 9 on August 05, 2026?
Two things. Bans are getting significantly longer for cheating, smurfing, and stream sniping. Outside the zero-tolerance offences, we now weigh more the context of the match and a player’s history rather than judging on the words alone, so a bad game or a one-off outburst is no longer treated the same as a pattern of abuse.
How do you decide whether to ban someone, and for how long?
Outside a short list of zero-tolerance offences, every case is judged on three things:
- The act: what was done, and how severe is it on its own?
- The environment: what happened in the match? Was the player provoked? Did it happen once, or across every round?
- The history: what does the player's record look like? Is this isolated, or a pattern?
Together these set the severity, and the severity sets the ban duration.
What gets you banned immediately, with no second chance?
We keep a short zero-tolerance list of offences that are actioned on the first instance, at the top of the scale, and where context and history are not weighed:
- Cheating, smurfing, bug abuse, rank manipulation, match fixing, and stream sniping
- Identity attacks and unambiguous slurs
- Objective sexism
- Credible, specific threats of real-world violence
- Promoting Nazi ideology or symbols
- Anything covered by the FACEIT Content Standards, including child exploitation, terrorism, and extreme violence
What are the ban durations for different types of offences?
For the fair play offences, the durations are fixed and public:
| Offence | Ban |
| Cheating | 5 years, and 2 years more for every ban evasion attempt escalating to permanent. |
| Stream sniping | 6 months on a first offence, escalating to permanent |
| Smurfing | 3 months on the main account, escalating to permanent. The smurf account is banned permanently, and its last 100 matches of Elo are reverted |
For griefing and conduct offences, we do not publish fixed durations, because the context of the match and the player's history change the outcome. Penalties scale from a warning, to a cooldown, to a temporary ban, and up to a permanent ban, based on the severity of the behaviour and the player's record. We still recommend stream delays and hidden minimaps as preventative measures against stream sniping.
I was only trash talking, or it was one heated moment. Will I be banned?
Not unless your behaviour is abusive. Competing hard, light trash talk, and frustration after a bad loss are part of the game, and a genuine one-off will not result in a ban. What we act on is a pattern: the same behaviour across multiple rounds or matches, or abuse aimed to harass a person rather than frustration at the play.
What is generally allowed, provided it doesn’t progress into abuse:
- Trash talk, banter, and profanity
- Frustration aimed at the match, not abuse of a person
- Criticism of FACEIT, our servers, or our anti-cheat
- Harmless support for a country, sports team, or a cause
What we act on is anything that targets a person for who they are, or wishes real-world harm on them.
What about political or national statements?
You can support a country or a cause. What crosses the line is using that framing to threaten, dehumanise, or target a person, or spamming it to derail a match.
I got reported for playing badly. Will I be banned?
No. A bad game is not a reportable offence. Missing a clutch, bottom-fragging, or losing a round is not griefing, and a report for a poor performance is not something we action. We place bans when a player is intentionally sabotaging the game, e.g. ghosting, deliberately teamflashing, or running with your knife out to your death.
How do penalties escalate?
Penalties are not always handed out in a fixed order. We weigh severity and history together, so a serious offence can move straight to a long ban with no warning first, while a minor one usually starts with a warning or a short cooldown. Severe offences skip warnings entirely and are actioned on the first offence, and permanent bans are reserved for the most extreme cases and for players who show no sign of changing.
Every ban comes with a probation period. Repeated offences result in progressively longer probation periods, making future violations more severe.
Why was I banned for spam?
Flooding the in-game chat with repeated messages, or spamming binds to derail a match, carries a cooldown or a ban. Keep the chat for communication that actually helps your team.
How do I report someone?
Use the report button on the match page or the player's profile. A report from there arrives with the demo, chat, round, and players involved, so our team has the full context to review the case, and the players reported most often are reviewed first.
Will the ban show on my profile?
Yes, for the length of the ban. Once it ends, it is no longer visible on your account.
I think my ban was a mistake. What can I do?
If you believe a ban was issued in error, you can appeal it through support, and a member of our team will review it.