The rapid growth of electronic sports has increased financial returns and created an urgent need to combat fraud and maintain the integrity of a growing sector.
In September, a scandal broke over the Counter Strike tournament, a highly popular 20-year-old game in which teams play the role of terrorists or terrorists who have been held hostage or bombed.
In this strategy game, speed and 3D teamwork are very important as participants take part in amazing two-minute missions.
Following the outbreak of the scandal, 37 team coaches were sanctioned by the ESports Integrity Commission (ESIC) after being found out using game bugs to spy on the opposing team’s strategy.
Professional, semi-professional and amateur trainers have been banned for several months to several years.
The suspension shocked the gaming community and a number of teams, including the German Mousesports fixture, who broke up with coach Alan “Rejin” Petersen for cheating. It’s been banned for 20 months.
“I apologize profusely to the opponent who suffered my mistakes. My bad decision may have changed your career and it is something I can never get back and I am very sorry,” said Peterson. Indonesia
- High stakes –
This case, which involves competitions from 2016, is not the first or last in esports rock, a sector that has grown from a specialized hobby to a major hobby in just a few years.
More and more players are banned, banned or even banned for life from competition because of the temptation to win easily.
“The reason for cheating in esports is because the stakes are high,” Desire Koussawo, director of the French branch of ESL, one of the world’s largest esports organizers, told AFP.
“When you discover that you can make millions of dollars winning races today, the team and players may be more tempted to win in circles.”
Prior to last year’s Fortnite World Cup, 1,200 players were banned for fraud.
“There is little empirical or statistical data about the cheating. However, there have been reports from players who have complained about it for several years,” said eSports sociologist Nicolas Besumbs.
- Aimbots and wallhacks –
Cheating is nothing new, even in the brave new world of gaming.
For example, players can purchase “aiming robots” online which enhance their aiming abilities in shooting games. And with a wallhack, players can see through a wall, walk through it, or shoot through it.
“Over the years we have adjusted and increased the level of security on our computers and configurations to avoid things like that,” said Kusavo. “But the people are very resourceful.”
An example of some players’ willingness to cheat was in 2018 when the Peruvian team Thunder Predator was excluded from the qualifying rounds for “The International”, the prestigious Dota 2 multiplayer tournament, because one of its members used a programmable mouse that gave an unfair mouse. Advantage.
Tracking fraud has become a time-consuming and important part of esports development – and ESIC is trying to fulfill that role.
“We believe that in the long term, it is in the best interests of gaming and all esports that integrity violations need to be dealt with head-on,” said ESIC.
“We know that most coaches, players, tournament organizers, publishers and developers, fans, sponsors and TV operators want CS: GO (Counter Strike: Global Offensive) and eSports to be a clean and fair competition.”
