Massive internet accelerator ban in China

Background:
There has never been a server in china for the "global" version of the game, Chinese player base had been hoping to get one for years, but the bad news came when they announced POE CHINA with Tencent (Which is a horrible P2W version of the game btw). Fine, so there is not gonna be a Chinese server.


In order to play the game, Chinese players have to use something called an [Internet/Connection accelerator]. All is does is boost your connection and reduce ping to a normal amount. We usually have to pay for a subscription for these kind of services, but it has become a standard way of playing games for almost all foreign games.

This is what it looks like with accelerator:



This is what it looks like without:



This week however starting Monday/Tuesday, we are no longer able to use these services, even though it still shows that the ping is reduced, there is no way to log into the game. Message as following is showed:



Shortly after this, all major acceleration service provider has removed POE as an option. When asked upon, their customer service all replies that GGG has banned their ip address so they can no longer provide service.

What this means to me is that now if i want to play the game i have the following options:
1. Play the game with at least 300-500 Ping
2. Play the Tencent P2W version and get gauged on stash tabs. Give up all my MTX/tabs bought in global server.
3. Wait for the PS4 version, hope it has a good connection speed (Although i doubt it will), and buy all stash tabs again.

Now i have send an email to support and techsuport @ggg.com but is has been more than 24 hour and i haven't got a response. I also messaged Chris on reddit.

I do understand that is the start of league, there are probably thousands of email right now, and Chris as a CEO is incredibly busy.

But i still would like an official responds as to what the hell is going on?
What happened? Did this happen during a ban wave for bots? Cheater? Was Tencent behind this because they want to force us into their horrible server?

Why are average players getting punished? Is there something you guys can do to reverse this?

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Was Tencent behind this because they want to force us into their horrible server? [...] Give up all my MTX/tabs bought in global server.

If this is a corporate decision (Tencent/GGG) from higher up to have all China players in one place (Tencent China client), then I would email Chris at grindinggear.com and demand at a minimum that all the MTX and Tabs I bought get transferred (or the equal amount of points packs) to my China Tencent client account.

Especially because there was no warning or information beforehand and Tencent/GGG banned the use of the accelerator provider, not the other way around when I read that correctly.

#badmanners Tencent/GGG

PS: I am aware the TOS (Terms of Service) one agreed to, do not cover that. But the TOS also DO NOT SAY YOU CAN NOT USE, OR THAT IT IS PROHIBITED, OR THAT IT IS NOT ALLOWED, TO USE THE GLOBAL CLIENT FROM CHINA.

https://www.pathofexile.com/legal/terms-of-use-and-privacy-policy

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Edit/Update: Please see "Disputes:" in the Terms Of Servies (link above).

GGG has the chance to resolve your Dispute within 14 business days.

Edit/Update #2: And "Cancellation of Membership:" does not apply, because you were not in breach of the TOS, because the TOS do not state that you are not permitted to use the Global Client from China via an 'internet accelerator/VPN'.

I'm an expat in China. $200 MTX to play this game in the new league, less than a week later, it's totally unplayable. Cannot believe that TenCent have nothing to do with this seeing that every GPN company I know has had POE delisted and restricted.

I play from china , and I am getting screwed by this, I love this game and spend a bunch of money on it. Would love some official response so at least we can know whats going on

Out of curiosity, can you check your client.txt file, which you can find in the PoE programs file\logs folder, for the IP address of the instance server being connected to. Also run a ping against tok.speedtest.pathofexile.com and see what latency you have.

The reason I ask, is that for some bizarre reason GGG decided to use google cloud for server overload this league and it completely fucked connections from Eastern Russia to Tokyo too.

Can play the TW server(https://web.poe.garena.tw/). The player base is smaller yet essential goods are still fetchable on the market...

Another (harder) approach is to build personal VPN server(best destination is Japan or Singapore). Technically this is a once-and-all solution to any regional discriminations...

Hey guys,

I also play from China and have found a solution, I kinda don't wanna post it here in fear of getting it banned.
You're welcome to add me in-game to chat (that's if you're able to login~ if not, send me a message here)

IGN: Wank

My bet on no reaction from ggg on this one.

You can thank all the bots for the IP ban. Fact is that most bots (and DDOS attacks actually) originate from China IPs. Blocking China IPs just makes sense in this case to keep global servers safe, especially when China has its own version.

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WakeZero wrote:

You can thank all the bots for the IP ban. Fact is that most bots (and DDOS attacks actually) originate from China IPs. Blocking China IPs just makes sense in this case to keep global servers safe, especially when China has its own version.

So much this, I'm glad they've stopped it. It's unfortunate you guys can't play but at the same time, the economy of leagues aren't going to suffer as badly.