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Another 'StarCraft' Cheating Scandal Rocks Korea (playerattack.com)
dotarray writes: "Five years ago, the professional StarCraft community was rocked by a massive cheating scandal – now it looks like history is repeating, as twelve StarCraft II gamers have been arrested in South Korea over charges of match-fixing and illegal betting." From the article: Those arrested include Gerrard (Park Wae-Sik), head coach of pro gaming team PRIME, and one of his team members, YoDa (Choi Byeong-Heon). ... The games in question, according to the prosecutor's investigation, include five professional-level StarCraft II matches, which were played between January and June 2015 including as part of the GSL Season 1 and SKT Proleague Season 1. Pro-gamer YoDa has been accused of receiving money to deliberately lose matches, while Gerrard stands charged with receiving money from brokers, connecting players to brokers, and suggesting to players that they might like to lose a game or two and get paid.
Might as well milk
Video games are just ... games
Isn't game supposed to be fun?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Can only shake my head in amazement.
Hey, folks, *it's just a computer game*! Have you to get justice & police involved in that too?
What next? A little military intervention? A little invasion?
Human masochism knows no limits.
That is the biggest cheating pile of crap ever.
Only old Korean people cheat at StarCraft.
Isn't that how it went?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
If Starcraft cheating can rock all of Korea then Korea has some serious problems that go far beyond Starcraft cheating,
More like they raised an eyebrow in their seats. These players have long since gone past the stage at which their bodies are capable of any physical movement beyond pressing keys and reaching for the drinks can.
I just googled ‘zerg rush’, and forgot all about the google easter egg..
Re. the OP, gambling on the outcome of sports is a deep and dark problem that has plagued humanity since the dawn of betting on sports.. Horseracing, athletics, boxing, football, american football, cricket, baseball - Throwing games of Starcraft was an inevitable, predictable continuation of a long standing activity.
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Paying someone to lose is not cheating? By what definition of cheating?!
Any time gambling gets mixed with sports you have a mechanism where cheating can get you money. Whether it's the 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" or one of these point shavers gambling always has the potential to lead to sports cheating.
--- Often in error; never in doubt!
From one of the linked articles:
As more names are revealed, more eSports identities will be banned for life, (..)
Banned from Starcraft for life, you know how serious that is? I mean you might as well shoot them. Their life would be over. They might as well jump off a bridge after receiving that punishment.
A nuclear explosion rocks Korea. Death of president rock Korea ... but this .... ????
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
Haven't you heard? Fantasy sports isn't gambling, it's a game of skill! *snerk*
Illegal betting is not cheating (although it does encourage cheating), but match-fixing sure as hell is. Just because you haven't subverted the game program doesn't mean you're not cheating.
When money is involved, paying someone to intentionally "throw" the game, so the other side can profit is most definitely abusing the spirit of the game. Gambling is illegal in most places.
-- :-/
Money is like cancer; it tends to eventually corrupts everything it comes in contact with.
also throwing games to so you can play a weaker player in later rounds is also cheating as well.
Now all of our base will belong to them!
I dunno, when I hear that someone is cheating at video games - or really any game - I think cheating like the New England Patriots - cheating to gain an unfair advantage to win.
While technically you (and the article) are right, this is cheating, it's cheating of a different sort, so it seems like it should be called something else. For the headline, I'd go with "Another StarCraft Match Fixing Scandal Rocks Korea" because it's more exact than "cheating" and it makes clear what's happening.
Basically, if you were to see a headline that says "Another NFL Cheating Scandal Rocks US" you'd assume that the Patriots got caught cheating in some new fashion. (Which they already did this season, natch, but that's a different story.) You wouldn't guess that some people were caught throwing matches.
Seriously Korea is a pretty sad society, wouldn't feel too badly if the North & South destroyed each other.
Gambling is stupid. Anyone who gambles is already being ripped off.
It really is simple: if there is money changing hands, or prestige, or pretty much anything else ... then it will be worth it for someone to cheat, take a dive, or otherwise engage in fixing the outcome.
It happens in pretty much any endeavor in which people are betting, getting paid, or pretty much anything else which is a reward.
Why the heck would anybody think video games would be any different?
This is pretty much basic human nature. Getting all breathless that it happens in a video game seems kind of stupid. It has happened in every other endeavor, why the hell not this?
You don't go all weepy after you discover it, you start off and say "I bet some crooked bastard cheats". You pass rules about it. You check it. You monitor it.
But you don't suddenly go "zomg, teh cheaterz" and act like nobody saw it coming. Someone somewhere will always find a way to cheat if there is something to be had out of it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It's gambling with an illusion of having some control over the outcome, like the game of blackjack.
Still dumb to gamble once you figure out the chances of winning and the cost of participating. But you just don't know. Maybe you will luck out.
In reality, yes. But if it's classified as a game of chance, it'd be illegal under the online gambling laws. So the owners claim it's a game of skill. Since nobody's tried shutting it down, apparently the government agrees with them.
Why do you decide what I do with my mind and talents, at the barrel of a gun?
Buyer be ware.
and in WI you can't play skill based tournaments for cash any more. (other then the indian casinos) Hell you can't even give replays on pinball games there.
Have to agree more with the inflammatory OP. To call this cheating would only make sense if you apply the term to the betting part. Nobody cheated at StarCraft, but the book keepers or whoever cheated at betting by fixing the outcome. Article summary is therefore inflammatory. I only clicked because I thought someone was cheating the actual game.
What a pathetic race. No wonder they're so feminine.
No, because literally 99.99% (or more) of people in Korea have literally no clue any of this shit even exists.
Dial the ridiculous headlines down a few notches please.
The skill aspect is more about finding players who are undervaluing by the gambling site's rating system than predicting the future of the actual contests.
A small number of people rake in most of the winnings on these sites, especially since they are allowed into every betting competition on the site.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The summary is extremely misleading at best. The 12 indicted individuals include one team coach and two progamers only, not 12 gamers as claimed.
All of the rest of the 12 are brokers or gangsters who instigated the match fixing. One is currently a fugitive in Korea.
.: Semper Absurda
Arrested? Is this a real crime or something?
Will I be arrested from cheating in Skyrim?
If Starcraft cheating can rock all of Korea then Korea has some serious problems that go far beyond Starcraft cheating,
In America with the current economy, you're lucky if you can get paid to clean toilets. In Korea, you can get paid to play computer games, and do so poorly.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Someone should probably tell the Packers.
The NFL / NBA have good lawyers. Also the players are not betting on them self's and give paid win or lose.
True. However, the real risk is when a player has a trusted acquaintance place bets against himself. It's called point shaving and it happens repeatedly at the college and pro levels.
It isn't me you have to worry about, but all the other people you ripped off that just _might_ have something to say about it.
I have to say...I LOST. Embarrassingly quickly.
Nice guys, though. After the obligatory trash talking, They were really pretty cool.