Hellalt was banned because the *first* thing he did when he joined was to start insulting the owner, making jokes about his family and sending him disrespectful private messages. You get a taste here of his attitude.
@jwalters93 Why play variants? Not all of them are big. Webdip has a variant now, and it's pretty big (far from my favourite variant), but a lot of variants are actually smaller than the standard map, and a lot of variants actually use the classical map but with a few minor tweaks. But why play variants? For me, it's diversity, really. Playing the same map over and over, after having tried with all nations, gets a little redundant. Not in what will happen, as that will always change, but in the logic of things. The geography dictates a lot of strategy and diplomacy (people will not want to make alliances that will prevent their expansion). Different maps therefore allow me to play completely different scenarios, forces me to analyze the layout of the land before me and make up strategy on the spot by myself. Forces me to be able to get things right the first time instead of simply playing (with people who play) a thousand times good strategies are understood. Also, the classical map is very limiting in terms of alliances, I find, by the relatively low number of players and number of connections between them.