Riot Bans – Pro Player ‘Allegedly’ Banned By Riot Games For Watching Rivals Streams During High Stakes Streamer Games The incident has rekindled debate in the gaming community around the significance of competition integrity and the difficulties in identifying cheating and ensuring fairness in online tournaments.
An ex-Riot pro player got banned for stream sniping, showing the danger of information from an opponent’s live stream. In competitive games, knowing where your opponent is, what they’re doing and when they’re doing it can be huge advantages.
Stream sniping continues to be a major competitive problem.
“Stream sniping” is essentially watching another player’s live stream to get information they wouldn’t normally have in the game.
This gives us a good insight into where the players are, what strategies are coming out, what items are being picked and what teams are making plays. Such information could provide an unfair advantage in elite competition and undermine confidence in the competitive environment.
Rules and monitoring systems are introduced by game developers and tournament organisers to help mitigate these risks.
Riot Games takes competitive integrity very seriously:
Riot Games has a fair play policy across all of its esports titles.
The pros have a code of ethics that prohibits cheating, exploiting systems or using unauthorised information. Violations can result in a warning, suspension, fine or permanent ban.
The penalty is generally influenced by the evidence, intent and effect of the breach.
Connectors for High pressure
Competitive streamer events have massive audiences, sponsorships, huge prizes, and reputations on the line.
Guys do stupid things sometimes when they are under pressure to win. But most of the people who run competitions say it is more important to make sure the competition is fair than to make sure someone wins or loses.
One cheating incident can ruin the reputation of a whole event.
Proof for the Enquiry
Penalties for anti-competitive behaviour are not often imposed until an investigation has been completed.
All the footage of the game, the broadcasts, the data on the communications, the tournament systems and the patterns of player behaviour are visible to the organisers. The process decides if the benefit was obtained intentionally.
The important thing here is that false accusations can also ruin players’ careers.
Community Response to Alleged Ban
“The punishment that was announced has been handed out and players and fans have been talking about it.
Other members of the community object to the harsh penalties. They say the professional events have to be strictly enforced.” Some people want more investigation and evidence before they make any judgements about the situation.”
Opinionated: What happens to competitive gaming communities when the big guys move in.
The new eSports challenges are streaming.
“Live streaming has its own security risks, in addition to the advantages it has brought to esports.
In traditional sports it’s not always easy to see your opponents, but in online games there are often public streams. Organisers should have plenty of entertainment and rules in place not to give unfair advantages.
Solutions: delays, limited broadcasts, monitoring tools, rules for each tournament.
Sources
- Riot Games Official News – Competitive Rules & Disciplinary
- League of Legends / Riot Esports – Info & rules for tournaments.
- Tournament Organisers – News and decisions relating to an event.
- Esports Insider – Esports Business News & Analysis
- Dexerto – Gaming and Esports news
- Esports – Advocacy Agency Fair reporting and interpretation of competitions
