Shard Chats = cheating

"Graives;c-1579177" wrote:
"Sell, buy, trade or otherwise transfer or offer to transfer your EA Account, any personal access to EA Services, or any EA Content associated with your EA Account, including EA Virtual Currency and other Entitlements, either within an EA Service or on a third party website, or in connection with any out-of-game transaction, unless expressly authorized by EA."

Virtual currency/entitlements = crystals. Third party website = Discord.

Win-trading is against the terms of service on pretty much any game that has a PVP mode, and I believe this is the line item that covers it for EA. The issue with this game is proving it. How does an EA person take someone's word that a screenshot of a Discord chat is not doctored, or a copy/paste of Discord chat is not doctored? Most games would want their own records to research accusations of win-trading. But in this game, the Arena rankings probably look too "normal" to a casual eye, as shard-chatters routinely rotate people in and out of ranks.

It would take a lot of time/effort for EA to investigate. And the people they would be investigating and banning are likely the people that also spend $100s to $1000s on this game, which is more incentive for the game-makers to turn a blind eye.

But other than the technicalities, it's just an unfair practice in this game. When I get in debates on this topic, the shard-chatters usually throw the "but it would make the game harder for you!" at me... as if that would bother me. I don't care how hard the climb is. I would just like for every climber to climb only on their own individual merits.