Meet Xeonir, the man behind the Steam account with over 100 VAC bans

Valve

Xeonir is just a dude. He has a girlfriend, he’s working on getting his bus driver’s license, and he sizzles meat on a grill to bring home the bacon. Like most of us, he likes to wind down after work by booting up Steam and loading up a video game. The difference is, he has no interest in actually playing the games and it isn’t down to choice paralysis. 

I found out about him while scrolling through Twitter. An indie developer making an upcoming RPG called Tides of Revival shared a message in a now-deleted tweet. It was Xeonir. “I don’t want to cheat in your game – could you do me a favor and ban me now?” the message went something like this, but I’m pulling it out of my dusty brain so please forgive any inaccuracies. “I collect Steam bans.” 

You collect Steam bans? As soon as I read it, I knew I had to find him. I had to pick at his brain, peel back his skin, and diagnose his specific affliction. I had to ask him the question we all want answered: why? 

“Collecting bans for me is just a form of entertainment and a type of challenge,” Xeonir told me in our email exchanges. “Apart from ban collecting, I don't play games currently.” 

Valve

I respect it. On the pantheon of strange hobbies, this sits just above train spotting in terms of acceptability. If you think about it, there’s only a small separation between this and Achievement hunting. He’s playing games a certain way to encourage a specific outcome, and it’s only really disruptive in multiplayer games that aren’t protected against cheaters. The lesson for those developers is this: they should be protected against cheaters. 

His ultimate goal is to get 100 VAC bans and 100 game bans. He’s already achieved the former, which are triggered when VAC anti-cheat detects users running Cheat Engine, but game bans are much more difficult, which is why he often reaches out to developers directly and politely asks them to put the ban gun against his temple and pull the trigger. 

“Many developers have been wonderful to me,” he told me. “I've even helped some implement a game ban system and they have thanked me. But, of course, I've met people who either blocked me right away or called me a loser who has a sad life and I should touch grass. I've also met some who didn't understand what I was asking for at all.”

His white whales are Killing Floor 2 and Garry's Mod. He’s cheated extensively in both games for dozens of hours – FPS games are the best for cheats – pleaded with the developers, and caused general mayhem, but nothing so far has resulted in a game ban. 

Tripwire Interactive

“If any dev is reading this interview and would like to add to my collection, you may always contact me on my Steam or Discord,” he topped the message off with a cheeky “lol”. 

Despite that cheekiness, there is a cost to all this, beyond the approximate $3,500 he’s spent on Steam games. What about the players who just want to have a fair match? Does Xeonir feel bad for them? 

“Mostly not,” he explained. No cheeky “lol” this time. “I believe that cheating belongs to the game community and players can just leave the server anytime. I used to have more than 2,487 comments on my profile before I deleted them, and most of them were [derogatory] towards me due to my usage of cheats.”

While the community might be, in Steam terms, mixed on his shenanigans, Xeonir has support at home. She found it unbelievable at first – “it’s pretty much a world record, right?” – but his girlfriend now shares in his excitement when he lands a new ban, and even likes to watch him on occasion. And with the ultimate goal of 100 game bans in sight, they both know it’ll be over soon and Xeonir will be cemented as the most-banned player in all of Steam. He’s free to do anything, including touching grass, but he’ll probably only do that if there are “no touching the grass” signs. 

“I'd love to focus on music making once I'm done as I've already dabbled in it a little bit in the past and found it fun,” he told me when I asked what comes next. “But I'm still searching for something fulfilling.”