Holy shit! That is like one of my most fucked EQ memories, almost made me quit the game. I had been playing for a few weeks tops, and I was exploring places I shouldn't be, I was just so amazed by everything and wanted to see the world. I was running for my life to zone lines constantly. Anyway, there are some announcements that there's some big tournament, and I have no idea how to get to the place they are saying, but someone in the zone shouts out to go south. I follow a bunch of other players and zone in. I walk in and there are tons of people, super laggy, but I'm walking around trying to figure out what's going on exactly. I get a message from a GM telling me to sit down, this will be my only warning... so I sit down and try to message him back but it acts like that player doesn't exist. To this day I don't know if I was sitting on the stage or what, but all of the sudden I get a loading screen. I appear in Tox, though I had never been there and had no clue where I was. Got a text from a GM saying something like "You have been judged guilty of interfering with a GM event, this is your punishment" and nothing else. Messaged back and got the same "A player with that name doesn't exist" or something. So, I get killed pretty quick, reappear naked in Qeynos, I was so fucked up about it. Pretty sure I cried, I genuinely wasn't trying to cause problems and didn't do anything intentional and I was just basically in shock that I had 0 chance of getting my stuff back and weeks of playing every free minute were just yanked away. I can't even remember the process, but I know I basically put in a ticket explaining the situation and got no help.
After a couple of days of not having a chance of getting my stuff back, not getting help from GM's, and not having luck finding another player to help, I gave up. Eventually my anger/frustration was replaced with still REALLY wanting to play the game, and I decided I would just make a new character and try a different class/starting area. Really could have ended my EQ experience though! Insane to hear it from the GM view 20 years later... and maybe fuck you? haha