Alexey Khobot: is it possible to believe the victories in e-sports?

ESports is becoming more popular, itsthe audience is growing, and in proportion to the level of interests, the amount of money rotating in this area is increasing. The practice of betting on cyber competitions cannot yet be compared with traditional sports, but the stakes in the literal and figurative senses are increasing - the e-sports audience is currently about 600 million people, reminds professional gamer Alexey Khobot.

Professional player and bettor, programmer Alexey Khobot assessed the risks of cheating in e-sports

Programmer and bettor Alexei Khobot notes that in comparison with 2017, the volume of eSports bets in 2020 has already tripled. According to the forecasts of the Global ESports Market Report, it will be $ 1.5 billion per year.

cybersport - this is a serious market in a number of countrieseSportsman is already considered an official profession, the amount of the average bet is constantly increasing, and the question naturally arises: how much can eSports be considered an honest game?

This is the main question for any bettor in anya betting game, says Alexey Hobot. He believes that the answer to this question can be found. But for this you need to figure out what the result in e-sports depends on, how much the authenticity of this result can be verified, and how widespread fraud (cheating) in this area.

Sport is sport

Doping scandals in traditional sports ariseregularly, as well as contractual matches and other manifestations of foul play, Alexey Khobot recalls. There is an opportunity to discuss the loss in advance and “merge” the game in agreement with the dishonest bookmaker. Esports in this sense is no different: there are attempts to dishonestly earn on the sports excitement of the audience in it, the larger the audience becomes, the more often the news about the disclosure of fraud is heard.

Approximately 20-25% of the international budgetESL eSports Spends on Cheating, says Alexey Hobot. And there is enough reason for such attention. The latest example of high-profile revelations took place at the end of May at the Red Bull tournament as part of ENCE eSports CS: GO. In the decisive qualification match, the jezayyy and woldes team defeated opponents with a score of 3: 1 - which was subsequently recognized as a result of cheating.

The history of cheating in e-sports is enoughit’s great, and it’s difficult to choose the “most-most” scandal, says Alexey Khobot. Although the technologies used by cheaters have remained fairly standard since 2008, when the ESL Pro 2008 in Germany was first widely used, Aimbot software was used, which provides "self-aiming" when shooting, as well as making enemies visible outside Wallhack walls.

Cheat software may be likestereotyped - such a software package can be bought for $ 25-30 - and piece-wise, which will cost a dishonest player several hundred dollars, explains Alexey Khobot. They are struggling with them, anti-cheat technologies are regularly updated, and control measures are becoming more stringent - however, sometimes curious situations associated with the human factor sometimes occur.

In 2012 at the World League of ChampionshipLegends Azubu Frost from South Korea was caught just looking at the large screens above the players, which displayed the position of all the opposing sides. The case ended in a scandal and a fine of $ 30,000.

Can cheating be considered a lack of organization?

This can not even be called a cheat. In my personal opinion, there are more questions for the organizers of the match. If you displayed information about the game on screens available directly to the players during the championship, how can you not look at them ?, Alexey Khobot is surprised.

More money, more temptation.

Most cheatsaccounts for beginners or mid-tier players who need quick wins to upgrade ratings and enter the category of people who can qualify for participation in paid competitions, explains Alexey Khobot. But even the champions came across a dishonest game, for example, Chen Wei Lin, speaking under the nickname "Tom60299". The player absolutely honestly won the Hearthstone World Championship 2017, but his team was disqualified at the level of the World Championship HearthStone Global Games. In violation of the rules, the team used third-party devices and, as already mentioned by Azubu Frost, watched with the help of mobile phones the actions and capabilities of opponents through an online broadcast conducted by the organizers.

But, explains Alexei Khobot, most often all the sameprograms are used, especially in cases when the game is online, without the “live” presence of opponents in the championship. To the already voiced Wallhacks and Aimhack, they use “self-timer” bots that make the shot instantaneous when aiming at a target - its use is difficult to detect, while the bot allows you to get a noticeable advantage. Exotic but still applicable hacks include ESP and Mobility, explains Alexey Khobot: the first one gives complete information about the opponent’s health, ammo, and other resources, and the second literally allows you to fly and pass through walls. However, Alexei Khobot makes a reservation, the second hack is very easy to manifest, and the fraudster is immediately banned.

The most arrogant cheater, believes Alexei Khobot,can be considered a professional player in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Nihil Kumavata (Forsaken) from the team OpTic India who in the fall of 2018 was caught “hot” during the Extremeland Zowie Asia tournament. The supervising administrator decided to check the player’s computer after he began to shoot inhumanly accurately. Kumavat hid the aimbot’a file under the Word.exe tag, after exposing it, tried to delete it, but was stopped and caught. As a result, not only Kumavat suffered, but the whole team - OpTic Gaming decided to dissolve the Indian team.

Honestly or not?

Is eSports fair, can you believethe results of his matches and, accordingly, count on an honest bet? Yes, Alexey Khobot believes, to the same extent as matches in traditional sports. Esportsmen, like ordinary athletes, are people, and among them there will always be a certain percentage of those who seek to win “dirty”.

Ordinary athletes use doping, cybersportsmen use “cyber doping”, cheats. In this sense, everything is extremely logical, emphasizes Alexei Khobot.

Although the options for "cyber doping" are constantlyevolve, methods of dealing with them are also growing, notes Alexei Khobot. Making e-sports absolutely honest is unlikely to be achievable, just like ordinary sports, but it is possible to minimize the problem. For this, says Trunk, in addition to anti-cheats, the rules of tournaments need to be optimized. Ideally, carry them out on equipment installed specifically for tournaments and isolated from players before it is held. Players get used to their mice, keyboards and screens, agrees Aleksey Khobot, but the problem can be solved by issuing equipment completely identical to the one that a particular gamer usually plays on.

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