League of Legends goes after cheat providers, wins $10 million settlement

[William Gayde]

Popular eSports games often feel like the wild west in terms of gaming when cheating is involved. Game companies are in a neverending battle against cheating services who always seem to be one step ahead. Whether it's wall hackers in Counter Strike or bots in League of Legends, it seems anti-cheat measures are never good enough to keep up with the elusive developers that sell this kind of service.

In a significant legal victory, Riot Games has just taken a huge cheating service out of the picture. LeagueSharp, a subscription based service that provided cheating bots, has been ordered to pay the creators of LoL a hefty $10 million fine, a permanent ban to play current and future Riot titles, remove their software, and hand over their related websites to Riot Games.

The service charged between $15 and $50 per month, allowing players to execute scripts to alter the game, speed things up to insane speed and ultimately level up League characters more quickly. The service shut down back in January, but the final details in the lawsuit have just recently been learned.

Everyone hates cheaters, but finding any tangible way to stop them is tricky. There will always be those looking for an unfair advantage over legitimate players. When there's money involved, there will certainly be a steady stream of providers looking to cash in. Riot Games decided to attack LeagueSharp on copyright grounds by filing a DMCA suit which stated LeagueSharp violated LoL's Terms of Use and profited from it. While nothing can stop cheaters permanently, this is a big win for the industry and will hopefully make other cheating services think twice before going into murky business.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/68410-league-legends-goes-after-cheat-providers-wins-10.html

 

[Burty117]

I was playing Overwatch the other day and one of the enemy team's heroes clearly had an Aim Bot. Because everyone hates cheaters, the guys on the other team were actually helping us knock him off the map and ultimately throw the match. I love the spirit of legit players like that, happy to lose a match just to get rid of cheaters.

What I don't understand though, what do cheater really get out of it? It can't be any fun because the game is essentially playing itself and if you do go up the ranks, more and more eyes are going to be on you and notice the cheating and then get banned.

 

[MonsterZero]

I was playing Overwatch the other day and one of the enemy team's heroes clearly had an Aim Bot. Because everyone hates cheaters, the guys on the other team were actually helping us knock him off the map and ultimately throw the match. I love the spirit of legit players like that, happy to lose a match just to get rid of cheaters.

What I don't understand though, what do cheater really get out of it? It can't be any fun because the game is essentially playing itself and if you do go up the ranks, more and more eyes are going to be on you and notice the cheating and then get banned.

It's possible he had eye tracking hardware on the computer, I am still up in the air as to if this is considered cheating on FPS games.

 

[MonsterZero]

Another reason to play Dota2.

 

[JudasSheep]

I was playing Overwatch the other day and one of the enemy team's heroes clearly had an Aim Bot. Because everyone hates cheaters, the guys on the other team were actually helping us knock him off the map and ultimately throw the match. I love the spirit of legit players like that, happy to lose a match just to get rid of cheaters.

What I don't understand though, what do cheater really get out of it? It can't be any fun because the game is essentially playing itself and if you do go up the ranks, more and more eyes are going to be on you and notice the cheating and then get banned.

The industry as a whole needs to do something about cheating. Blizzard banning someones Battle.net account for life is one of the best solutions put forth so far. If all the design studios and publishers got together and made an anti-cheat, it would make playing more enjoyable. If EA had done this with BF3 I would of bought BF4 and maybe BF1. I refuse to buy an EA title because they don't care.

Why people cheat is beyond me. Just wish it wasn't a big deal.

 

[Trillionsin]

Why people cheat is beyond you?

It's rather simple to understand, I think.

There's a few possibilities, but I'll keep it short. They have played the game to the end of their attention span, and have gotten bored. Then they cheat, because they don't care if they are banned, hey at least they had some fun first. Another possibility, is just poor attitude, and sportsmanship, or in Minecraft, griefing. They want to piss you off because they have their own issues or they were treated unfairly to begin with and it's their revenge. There's people who actually pay other people to level their accounts up.... uhmm... lets see, why else... They cheat because they see everyone else cheating.

The most I have experienced this is while playing Call of Duty games. Seems there's always an aimbot waller somewhere. I've also seen a lot of this in GTA5 Online. To be honest the most fun I've had was during a hacked lobby, when everyone has these cheats applied to their character. As well as in GTA, when hackers came in and just did all kinds of random things, placing random objects in random places, ramps, making you invulnerable, as well as your motorcycle, allowing your motorcycle to fly... and the fun ensues...

To clarify, I do not hack. Though I have benefited from friends hacking in GTA, which I dont really even play anymore. I don't like to hack/cheat games personally, at least not online games. I will cheat on games after I've played the story mode through, when I was a kid cheat codes were the sheeeeeeeet! lol

 

[Nobina]

I was playing Overwatch the other day and one of the enemy team's heroes clearly had an Aim Bot. Because everyone hates cheaters, the guys on the other team were actually helping us knock him off the map and ultimately throw the match. I love the spirit of legit players like that, happy to lose a match just to get rid of cheaters.

What I don't understand though, what do cheater really get out of it? It can't be any fun because the game is essentially playing itself and if you do go up the ranks, more and more eyes are going to be on you and notice the cheating and then get banned.

Because they are competitive and want to win and they will do even something like pay for hacks to get an advantage. There are more reasons though like just being bad at the game or mad cause someone is better.

 

[Burty117]

It's possible he had eye tracking hardware on the computer, I am still up in the air as to if this is considered cheating on FPS games.

Na it was definitely an aimbot, you could see it on the replay screen as he immediately aims perfectly on your head and tracks perfectly, even when the enemy team are through buildings it's tracking someone's head.

They have played the game to the end of their attention span, and have gotten bored. Then they cheat, because they don't care if they are banned, hey at least they had some fun first.

Does everyone seriously create separate Origin/Steam/uPlay/Battle.Net accounts for each individual game they buy? Am I in the minority and don't want my account to get banned because I have loads of other games in my account?

Because they are competitive and want to win and they will do even something like pay for hacks to get an advantage.

Changing the rules of the game isn't being competitive, imagine an F1 race and Mercedes built their car to lift off like a harrier jet and fly around the course?

There are more reasons though like just being bad at the game or mad cause someone is better.

This, so much this. as much as it pains me to say. Rather than get gud, get mad seems to be peoples answer. I wonder how many people Overwatch on PC with an Xbox Controller vs Mouse and Keyboard, I also wonder how many people are in the top 500 using an Xbox controller on PC?

 

[Nobina]

Changing the rules of the game isn't being competitive, imagine an F1 race and Mercedes built their car to lift off like a harrier jet and fly around the course?

Being competitive among other things means you want to win, sometimes no matter what and having cheats helps you win cause you have that unfair advantage, you are not necessarily changing the rules of the game, just giving your self an advantage like seeing through walls. Some gaming pros have done it, not because they are bad, they're pros, but because they reall need to win that game.

 

[psycros]

Changing the rules of the game isn't being competitive, imagine an F1 race and Mercedes built their car to lift off like a harrier jet and fly around the course?

If they could get away with it, they would do it. Every sport is rife with doping, some of it state-sponsored. Whenever money and pride are involved (and God forbid both) there will be cheating. If it can't be curtailed then everyone else will take the low road too - its the only way to level the playing field.

Being competitive among other things means you want to win, sometimes no matter what and having cheats helps you win cause you have that unfair advantage, you are not necessarily changing the rules of the game, just giving your self an advantage like seeing through walls. Some gaming pros have done it, not because they are bad, they're pros, but because they reall need to win that game.

Its even more insane than most people know. Most of the top competitive FPS champs have been busted for using Aderall and similar drugs. Yes, even e-sports have been tainted by the dopers.

 

[GhostRyder]

I was playing Overwatch the other day and one of the enemy team's heroes clearly had an Aim Bot. Because everyone hates cheaters, the guys on the other team were actually helping us knock him off the map and ultimately throw the match. I love the spirit of legit players like that, happy to lose a match just to get rid of cheaters.

What I don't understand though, what do cheater really get out of it? It can't be any fun because the game is essentially playing itself and if you do go up the ranks, more and more eyes are going to be on you and notice the cheating and then get banned.

Well in my opinion it depends on the game. In League of Legends for instance, its to give the appearance your really good at the game and get high ranks most of the time as the software they use are not always easily noticed.

On an FPS, its really obvious most of the time and I feel the people do it just to troll others. Heck most on BF1 I see admit it in the chat and just keep insta-wiping the entire team.

At the end though, I think its just for the satisfaction of saying your messing with others or trolling. They think its funny and don't mind having to create another account and bootleg the game (If possible) or are just tired of the game and decide to go out ruining the experience for others.

 

[MerCRaiDeR]

Hardware Id Ban them.. Then they will have to use another computer for sure..for that Game at least.