KS cleared from maphack issue

A rolling stone went through the community yesterday when KS was officially banned for maphacking from the MYM tournament. However, the decision has been now revised.


What happened?

Suspicious elements have been reported in a game this Monday, and an investigation crew has been formed to look into the matter.


Why the haste?

If a cheat has been reported, it must be investigated immediately. Especially if the team is still participating in the tournament and about to progress to the next or later stages.


What were the suspicious moments?

There were four suspicious moments in the game so far;

1. Selection of a hero in fog after a team fight by a dead player. ( papaxiong )
   
2. Selection of a spectre after he disappeared in fog for the time he was shopping. ( mikebz )
   
3. Selection of a venomancer after he disappeared in fog. ( mikebz )
   
4. A POTM arrow which hit and stunned spectre in woods without any sight, knowledge of direction or any other indicators of the spectre being there. ( mikebz )
   

Were there any other reasons for suspicions?

The admin team was mostly suspicious of mikebz, since he was not playing with the other players from a LAN centre. He was the latest addition to KS roster, and 3 out of 4 suspicions were concerning his actions.


How did you investigate?

The crew has analyzed and watched the replay over and over again ( with the help of fast forwarding tools like gg-game.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=93992 ). The replay and the issues have been looked into so often that admins could even point out the suspicious seconds without looking at the replay.

Replays from followup games have been also analysed, but nothing suspicious was found.People from outside have been involved and asked for their opinion. That being IHCS admins, prior tournament admins, as well as professional and semi-professional DotA players.


What did you find out?

We have found out that there is a bug in WarCraft 3 replays, which keeps a unit selected even after it entered the fog - although the player who had it selected does not see it anymore.


What was the initial verdict?

The verdict was that there was no map-hack present from what we could see or prove.


Why was the initial verdict changed to a ban?

We have gathered new intel from GG-Game Client and Dota-League Anti Cheat developers which led us to believe that we made the wrong decision. The evidence was at that stage overwhelming ( selection while shopping, arrow into exact forest position without prior knowledge, checking up on hero items after hero was out of range ) and the input of people that seemed to be experts in that matter. Already explained evidence, has been rephrased as new in new cases - a mistake which should have never happened.


Issues with the process, which will be changed in the future

• Too many people were involved who had nothing to do with it.
  
• Not enough people were involved who had greater knowledge of the game engine. Particularly the creator of the map and the crew around him were important factors that should have been included in the process beforehand.
  
• The haste. Although 1P kept quiet about this process, the growing number of people involved in the process, and the upcoming matches of the team forced us to make a fast decision.
  
• Communication. Not being able to get in touch with KS based on timezones and them not having time for a longer conversation was unfortunate, especially with the time restraints.
  
• Opinions of "experts", or what we believed would be experts have been taken for granted, while they were undecided or changed their own verdict afterwards.
  
• The venomancer scene has been presented as 100% proof, since there was no view for the other team around that hero at that time ( according to screenshots and video ), that is however wrong as the scourge creep set has been just killed and provided the 'fade out' effect and the selection of a hero within 1 seconds afterwards.

Unnecessary public reactions

Racism - be it one or the other way. Several prides ago the administration was accused of hating Russian people, now it is about hating Asian people. With the next case we will most likely be racist towards a country of the next affected team. For once and for all : the team that is being judged against is seen as neutral, admins do not act upon nationality of teams, and have no agenda in doing so neither. Prime Defending lives from the versatility, of the inter nationality of participants - this was also a reason why Prime Nations was created. There is no point in racist remarks towards admins, and there is absolutely no point in racist accusations towards other people in the community!

Repeating or spamming of unproven facts or rumours to make the verdict invalid immediately. No, not all 5 KS members were playing from the LAN centre, and the red circle-issue also has nothing to do with a or b versions of WarCraft. Admins have been aware of most issues, and tested a lot of things before any verdict went out. This was not the first maphack investigation in the crew, and (unfortunately) won't be the last.

The slandering of KS in public comments and the opposing teams behavior were both unnecessary as it also transferred conversations into racist comments.


What will happen now?

The verdict is changed into "Innocent until proven guilty" - we cannot say anymore with 100% certainty that the players in question have maphacked. We can only raise suspicions. It is in our duty to apologise to the team and the players.

The affected players will be officially cleared and unbanned from both tournaments and KS will be able to proceed in the Prime Defending tournament in the playoffs stage to the next round.

A public apology from the myMYM Prime Defending administration towards KS.