[jr2]

Whenever I try to connect to IRC with HSS Elite enabled, it says I'm banned (even using random nicks).

I guess someone was trying to use HSS Elite to get around their IP-ban?  However, HSS is a VPN service - so, like a proxy, a different IP is used when connecting to sites.  However, that same IP is shared between many users.   

Do I have to shut off HSS whenever I connect to HLP's IRC servers?  Maybe it's an esper.net thing (maybe they have had too many problems from VPN / Proxy users, so they just IP banned the servers?)

[The E]

Do I have to shut off HSS whenever I connect to HLP's IRC servers?

Yes.

[Fury]

HLP does not have IRC servers. #hard-light and many other FS related channels reside in esper.net IRC network, which has nothing to do with HLP other than the channels being there. See esper.net support if you want help with your problem. http://www.esper.net/contact.php

Unless you're using Mibbit, then the problem might be that Mibbit blocks it and not esper.net.