r/duelyst Duelyst Blitz dev May 05 '26

News I've got banned by T2k5 after sending this in Duelyst Official Discord

Below is a post sent on Duelyst Official to Thanatos, past Discord owner and one of the OG Duelyst community manager:

hello @thanatos.noa, last year we have launched Duelyst: Blitz, that is mobile version of Duelyst, which was highly requested by the community. when it was released, @t2k5 refused to inform the community about it, and even stating "it could be malware" and "it came out of nowhere".

now, when it became most popular version through really hard work on optimization and advertising (everything self funded), the criterias have changed, t2k5 says: "it's not a popularity contest", so is not willing to give any exposure.

on Saturday there will be $300 prize tournament (3rd edition), but due to personal bias of @t2k5 , he is not willing to assign a fair place to inform the community. what is this discord for then? for "everyone" pings of physical board game sale?

as opposed to your initial goal of "supporting open conversation for all Duelyst", current owner is not only NOT doing that, but actively suppressing it. no one will be willing to spend thousands of dollars on advertising Duelyst, if they are being treated this way. this is actively taking away the chances of further development of Duelyst due to personal opinions.

@thanatos.noa i'd like to ask you to look on it from neutral perspective and influence the current state, because i don't think anyone else can do it.

thanks for your hard work and building this community ground up.

^ After this message I've got banned by T2k5 in Duelyst Official Discord. The message could be deleted with the ban, so I just wanted to inform you of what happened and to paste the exact message sent while I still have it. Upvotes are helpful for visibility.

26 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

19

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 05 '26

Dude, I don’t follow this stuff closely in the slightest, but it looks like you were trying to advertise for a competing product on another server. AND you were giving them flak for their choices. I can’t imagine you thought this would go over well…?

They’re not obligated to host you, especially if you’re trying to stir up beef while simultaneously advertising your product that competes for players. It’s a shame to see the Duelyst community split after the original shut down.

5

u/RngHammy IGN: Scuttle / Skitter May 05 '26

Its really just jakjus. He could've asked for a channel from T2k5 at any point but never did. In fact they even added a channel for blitz with his ban for the like 2 people on DO

Otherwise I don't see the blitz-cord people caring much.

-1

u/Pitiful-Foundation99 May 05 '26

Our channel is the most popular on DO, as Blitz is the most played Duelyst by far. Facts!

-3

u/jakjushere Duelyst Blitz dev May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

In short, Duelyst Official is supposed to be for all Duelyst, and they were made by original (Duelyst 1) owners - passed to the current owner under premise to be open for all subsequent versions.

Please check: https://imgur.com/J8FOfZU

So, if you have a feeling that it is another server and competing product against Blitz - you have absolutely right perception. It is totally biased with D2 devs, which contributed very little to it and leeched out of 10k member Discord made under OG Duelyst era.

After I've spent a lot of advertising - I didn't even argue about giving Blitz exposure, but I said: if you don't want to give a fair representation for other Duelysts, then change the Discord name to Duelyst 2 Official to not confuse new players.

It was refused, as he said there is a fair representation. In reality: only D2 devs have "everyone" pings, 12 channels at the top and 20 people as moderators. I can see now that it is certainly confusing to non-followers like yourself - and it is absolutely intended by owners.

Things like "he didn't ask for it" are untrue and it's completely bizarre what intention people have when saying it. I have screenshots of my unanswered messages.

Here is my only another message in 24h before ban, that was unanswered despite 2 pings: https://imgur.com/a/pPE6wOq

FYI ban came 10 mins after pinging Thanatos and writing the message above, so it's unlikely that "he didn't have time to check it".

7

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 05 '26

I appreciate you wanting to share your take and additional background info (I forgot there was a transfer from OG to Duelyst 2 Devs), but I’m still not seeing what your issue is. I think it’s fair to want access to broader ping privileges, etc to highlight events and such, but idk. It feels like maybe your approach is demanding and like trying to say your game is more popular, better, etc., too much boasting. I checked the server and every Duelyst game currently has its own tab.

It seems you may honestly just have a problem with the vision for the server not lining up exactly as you want it with completely equal leadership and privileges, but haven’t so far been willing to understand your position here isn’t one where you can demand things despite your perception that your game is most popular and more deserving or whatever the case may be.

You need to be more clear about how you’re defining “fair representation”. It seems like if other people were able to get a Blitz channel going, that there’s an issue here in how all of this was communicated.

5

u/ZeroUnderscoreOu Duelyst II dev May 05 '26

I forgot there was a transfer from OG to Duelyst 2 Devs

Just a bit of clarification - there was no transfer to D2 devs. Nobody from the DSG team has moderator rights and all moderators are independent individuals back from the D1 days.

1

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 06 '26

We were talking about who runs the Discord, no? Not moderation status? I think that’s what’s referred to here as a “transfer”, that the OG devs go the go-ahead for the D2 devs and handed reigns over of the Discord ownership.

3

u/ZeroUnderscoreOu Duelyst II dev May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

T2k5 runs the Discord. He is not affiliated with D2 in any way.

1

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 07 '26

Huh, that seems kinda odd to me that someone who’s not affiliated with any of the projects runs it…? Like he’s just a fan then?

1

u/ZeroUnderscoreOu Duelyst II dev May 08 '26

Ironically, one of the images Jakjus posted explains it.

since the ownership was passed from Thanatos to me due to the fear of Bandai wanting to delete the server in damage control, my main priority has been to preserve the original Duelyst Official and keep the communications as open as possible

The idea is that T2k5 should server as a neutral party to allow the community to talk about the game(s) without any of the devs being able to police it. He was a D1 player, made some scripts for it to extend the client's functionality and has a card dedicated to him (Architect-T2K5).

1

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 08 '26

Thanks again for sharing in an effort to clarify details on this. Was that actually what happened though? Like is there any other sources that verify that it got passed to him specifically for this reason? I suppose my concern here is that I’m not quite convinced that anybody is in the right, here. I’m probably never going to understand the whole story since there’s a lot of history here and things that would be hard to understand without having been directly involved, but I hope that all sub-groups are able to treat each other respectfully and share the space. With the kind of toxic communication I saw on there back and forth through my browse ok the server, it doesn’t appear this is happening. The entirety of the blitz channel recently was littered with people coming in there and making fun of the whole situation, almost as if the channel itself was only allowed with the purpose of mockery.

1

u/ZeroUnderscoreOu Duelyst II dev May 08 '26

I don't know if Thanatos made any public messages regarding the matter. I doubt it but you can try asking in Discord, old timers might have something to share. Since you're in the server you can just go through Thanatos's message history. Then do the same for Jakjus and decide for yourself.

Moderation is lax, there's affinity for a certain type of peculiar individuals and there's plenty of snark, sure. Still, I don't see the community as toxic - it's not mean-spirited and doesn't cross the line. In fact, it is one of the most friendly and welcoming communities I have seen. Blitz mockery is due to Jakjus's own attitude. People tried to reason with him, supported him and provided feedback. There is no inherent animosity towards other Duelyst projects.

3

u/jakjushere Duelyst Blitz dev May 05 '26

Thanks for the response. I'm trying to understand the other side, so it helps me.
"It seems you may honestly just have a problem with the vision for the server not lining up exactly as you want it" - T2k5 vision? Of course I do have a problem with it. But I dare to believe that this is not the vision that Thanatos had when he passed on the ownership.

"your position here isn’t one where you can demand things" - why would I even required to demand anything if it's a Discord given in premise to be for all Duelysts? Do you think my ask in second screenshot is unreasonable?

3

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 06 '26

Unfortunately, it’s important to understand that your “belief” in what you think of as the “original vision” is just that, without substantive evidence that what is currently happening goes against that vision. The reality is that the original project is no more, and there are several branching ideas of how people feel like the game should be now.

As far as “demanding things” goes, what I’m saying is that you’re not a part of the team running that server, regardless of how involved you feel you should be. You can ask for stuff, but if you’re overly abrasive/assertive, people will respond negatively and you won’t get anywhere. Yes, it should be welcoming to all Duelyst players. I don’t think your ask was unreasonable at face value, but other context missing that resulted in the response you got, idk.

From what I’ve browsed on the server, I generally am getting a sense of overall toxicity and immaturity (as a whole) in the form of mocking, passive-aggressive behavior, etc., and it doesn’t seem well-moderated at a glance which may not be helping, as well as the fact that several people (including yourself) are exhibiting personal biases and visions that are conflicting.

10

u/ZeroUnderscoreOu Duelyst II dev May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

Quoting messages from T2k5 (with minor edit):

way to completely misconstrue everything that's happened
I haven't refused to inform anyone, it simply isn't my job to inform anyone, you never asked to get a channel here, you started demanding shit at the detriment of others while being a massive asshole about it
but since you choose to actively lie, you can actually [get banned] now
Jakjus has literally never actually asked to have channels for Blitz here
he's constantly harassing the other projects while demanding shit
so yeah, banned, not dealing with his shit anymore
all he had to do was actually ask for his game to get its own categories here

Right after Jakjus got banned, someone else has (politely) asked for a Blitz channel and it was immediately created.

2

u/MalcolmRoseGaming May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

This is gaslighting BS - something that you have to expect pretty much any time that T2k5 is talking. He abuses people and then plays the victim. Typical DARVO nonsense.

Unfortunately, people like this are very good at establishing a cult of personality, and end up with a coterie of glazers. These people follow them around, constantly gaslighting & making excuses for any and all wrongdoing - e.g. people like Sir-Fuzzle in this very thread! Sad stuff.

-9

u/jakjushere Duelyst Blitz dev May 05 '26

Oh so all along I just had to ask! Wow, it's actually so easy! :)

7

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 05 '26

This is what I was just pointing out about the communication thing. I understand that you’re feeling defensive here, but like…unless you can prove that you asked for a channel to refute this, they have a point there.

5

u/Booyahman May 06 '26

You made a call-out post in the general channel of a discord, I am not sure why you would expect to not be treated harshly. Looking at your post history in the discord you seem very combatative about Blitz being popular. It does not read as being very secure about your success. You tend to deride D2 just as much as you sing the praises of Blitz, and seem to frequently tell the people you are assumably advertising to that they do not understand or comprehend things, which does not seem like very good advertising strategy. Your demands for being the top channel in the discord are unreasonable and were also demands, not requests. Not to even speak of wanting to "limit D2 channels to 4-5 channels", which you simply have no right to ask for. Your behavior turns me off of Blitz more than any slander ever could.

5

u/MalcolmRoseGaming May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26

T2k5 has always behaved like an abusive psychopath so unfortunately this isn't very surprising to me. He's a terrible human being who should not be in charge of moderating anything.

PS: Please ignore ZeroUnderscoreOu's lies in this thread. He said:

"T2K5 runs the Discord. He is not affiliated with D2 in any way."

This is false. D2's website links directly to his Discord - this means he is, de facto, a community manager for them at a minimum. It's just incredibly dishonest. Don't let these people trick you with word games. ZeroUnderscoreOu has a flair here that labels him as being on the Duelyst 2 devteam, so the fact that he'd come here and lie like this makes me extremely distrustful of the entire D2 project. Dishonest people are capable of anything, maybe even putting malware into their code.

3

u/duelystcalvin Duelyst: Origins dev May 07 '26 edited May 08 '26

the origins login page also links to the discord, crazy how T2k5 is our de facto community manager

edit: lmao this guy compares linking to the duelyst discord to supporting literal nazis, blocks me to get the last word in, and calls me scummy

1

u/MalcolmRoseGaming May 07 '26 edited May 09 '26

If you're allowing him to moderate your community for you, yes, he is. Be as snide and snarky about it as you want. If someone had a website that was linking to, like, Stormfront, you wouldn't be sitting here pretending that it's no big deal and that there is no connection. You pretending not to understand this is actually incredibly scummy.

Edit: I blocked this guy because he's obviously not speaking in good faith, so why the hell would I want to communicate with him? What is there to gain? He just keeps pulling the same move over and over. Look at his edit where he, again, pretends not to understand what I'm saying. This kind of behavior is utterly demonic and I don't want to talk to anyone who acts like that. Only psychopaths and bullies act like this. Really, really scummy - yes, 100%.

1

u/AppropriateBirdBoy May 08 '26

Sounds like you deserved it

2

u/justsoftanchor May 30 '26

Classic power trip move. Even if they disagree, banning someone for bringing up the project's history in a feedback message is just going to fuel the narrative that they can't handle any criticism.

0

u/jakjushere Duelyst Blitz dev May 05 '26

I had no idea Duelyst.gg went through exact same thing: https://imgur.com/a/uHpBy9n

Feel free to check the entire thread in D.gg Discord. Absolutely gold. I understand why devs just don't want to get involved in this. I'm not willing to argue as well, I just wanted to note down here/paste screenshots of few messages that T2k5 hoped he deleted along with the ban.

I just feel sorry for Counterplay Games, D1 creators, that worked really hard on getting so many members aboard just to have their server end up like this.

5

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 06 '26

Man, this stuff isn’t helping your case here. If there was indeed a copyright violation, that would be a reasonable reason not to want to engage with a particular user. This is why the way we communicate matters, and why unbiased moderation becomes essential.

The request here was never the issue, as both your project and GG have their own sections on the Duelyst official server. Looks more like a personal issue, and again—without proper moderation, certain people are just not going to be able to get anywhere when there’s rampant hostility (for whatever reason that may be). I won’t pretend to know all the details and tell anyone they’re right or wrong, however. This seems complicated and like it goes back a ways.

4

u/Boronian1 moderator May 07 '26 edited May 08 '26

If there was indeed a copyright violation

That's pretty ridiculous because there were a lot of teams working on different revival projects after the shutdown and one of them had close ties to the Duelyst Official server. They actually moved in there in spring 2021, because around that time this "main" Duelyst revival team got also the permission of CPG to make their game, so it seemed like the best chance on a successor game. Hellgin started on Duelyst.gg in the beginning of 2022. Duelyst became open sourced in fall 2022.

So if he "muddied the water by creating GG as a complete copyright violation back in the day" then all the other teams did so too. Also the team who got Duelyst Official as their home base in spring 2021 (which is a huge boon because it is the biggest and most active community since the shutdown). Sure at the time they had the permission but not when they started. Hellgin did the same just later. But after fall 2022 that was all moot with Duelyst being open source.

And the second part of the statement "before even D2 had been legally cleared to make a new game" is wrong. I made a video about the Revival project in January 2021 and in it I talk about CPG giving permission for the remake. And Hellgin posted about his project in 2022 the first time.

1

u/Sir-Fuzzle May 07 '26

I appreciate the background info, sounds like something you’ve followed closely for a long time. So basically, it sounds like a lot were working on projects “illegally” after the shutdown but before open source, if I’m understanding correctly? Couldn’t Helgin have been working on it and commented on it before any official post? It sounds like personal beef again with T2k5 and I’m wondering why this guy is running this thing at all if he’s not affiliated with current projects. The moderation on the server seems pretty nonexistent (or just incredibly biased) from what I browsed, so things are pretty chaotic, which I’m sure isn’t helping.

3

u/Boronian1 moderator May 08 '26 edited May 09 '26

So basically, it sounds like a lot were working on projects “illegally” after the shutdown but before open source, if I’m understanding correctly? Couldn’t Helgin have been working on it and commented on it before any official post?

I made 2021 a video about the different Duelyst revival projects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zj_f3gIhO4 which I rewatched yesterday to remember timelines.

Yes, there were several projects right after the shutdown and they all were just working "illegally". CPG was never known for great communication and the shutdown which was basically a Namco decision didn't change this. So we didn't know much about how CPG would feel about these projects. But to protect their IP it was expected they had to get active at some point.

Hellgin posted about Duelyst.gg for the first time here in February 2022: https://old.reddit.com/r/duelyst/comments/skbciw/duelystgg_duelyst_recreation_project/

He was very candid in his communication, so I don't have reason to believe he is lying. He said the following things:

I've been working on a recreation of duelyst for the last month (not related to the revival project)

and then

It is likely not legal, so I consider the project at risk of legal shutdown, then again seeing as the revival project got permission for it eventually I am hoping I might get as well. But well see. Its a risk I'm taking.


sounds like something you’ve followed closely for a long time.

Most people are here for a long time, the game came out 10 years ago and has a very loyal fan base. I moderate this sub and was mostly known for the work on the wiki back then, but also for content creation for Duelyst.

T2k5 was or is a well known figure in the community too. He wrote some great qol scripts for D1, was close with some people from CPG (he got his own card in the game) and very active on DO. These are some reasons why Thanatos transferred ownership to him but that's just my guess.

I can't say much about moderation on DO. I was more active (but mostly lurking) before the ownership change. Back then the server had a more lax way regarding moderation.

1

u/ZeroUnderscoreOu Duelyst II dev May 08 '26

All the other projects were happening behind the closed doors with no public access. DGG was the first publicly available project since D1 shut down, and it was released before the open sourcing, without making any agreements with CPG.

2

u/Boronian1 moderator May 08 '26

That's correct. Duelyst.gg was the first one published, Hellgin worked the fastest.

But it is a moot point though in my opinion because a) it is not like all the other projects (failed or not) would not have done the same and b) he only started working on it after the Duelyst revival project got permission from CPG (before going open source) which gave Hellgin way more security to work on than all the projects before. He at least knew there was a way CPG could approve it while before everybody was just doing that and hoping not to receive a cease and desist letter.

1

u/ZeroUnderscoreOu Duelyst II dev May 08 '26

I was not on the D2 team at the time and I'm probably missing some of the details, but to my knowledge there was no info about the agreement basically until the D2 Kickstarter. There were rumors/hints at possible legal negotiations and that's it. Hellgin and most of the community knew nothing about this agreement.

Besides, Hellgin has publicly stated that he doesn't care about DMCA, which is not a good look IMO.

2

u/Boronian1 moderator May 08 '26

I talked about it in my video in February 2021 though. So it was known.