Virtual cycling championship bans two riders for cheating

[midian182]

WTF?! The pandemic forced many elements of our lives into the digital realm, including, in some cases, sports. Even competitive cycling has transferred online, but that doesn’t mean cheating has disappeared—it just comes in different forms.

As reported by Defector, Zwift is an online platform that allows cyclists or runners who are stuck indoors to compete against others. You don’t need to buy a special static bike from the company to take part; a standard bicycle works. Users just replace the rear wheel with a ‘smart trainer’ that can alter resistance based on the virtual road, just like in real life. The devices also measure power data, which gets uploaded to Zwift.

Online cycling has joined other esports in offering cash to the winners. While it’s certainly nowhere near the millions on offer from the likes of Dota 2 and Fortnite, the first-ever championship held on Zwift came with a €8,000 (~$9,500) first prize. And where’s there’s cash, there’s often the incentive to cheat.

Following the start of its second racing league season last month, Zwift has announced six-month bans against two of its top riders.

Participants must submit two sources of data when taking part in competitive races. In the case of those banned, the data didn’t match up. One racer’s power increased by nine percent throughout the event, while the other competitor saw a 32 percent increase.

The racer with the larger increase confessed to editing the power data before submitting it to Zwift after initially denying the accusation. The banned rider with the nine percent increase says the discrepancy results from a software issue that forced their team to upload the data through a non-standard platform.

This isn’t the first case of competitors using thoroughly modern means to cheat in a virtual race. German Formula E Audi driver Daniel Abt was disqualified from an esports race last year after getting a professional gamer to compete as him.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/88534-virtual-cycling-championship-bans-two-riders-cheating.html

 

[psycros]

Why only a six month ban? If they cheated once they'll do it again as soon as a less detectable method becomes available.

 

[m3tavision]

Cheaters should have their limbs cut off...

 

[Puiu]

Why only a six month ban? If they cheated once they'll do it again as soon as a less detectable method becomes available.

Most likely first offenders and as a warning to others.

 

[TheBigT42]

I would have hidden an electric motor under the floor. Not sure how I would make it completely hidden.

 

[BadThad]

If it's an online video game, there will be cheaters. It's been that way for over 20 years and it's not going to change. Game cheaters are NO DIFFERENT from any other criminal.

I ran several game servers for Quake3, COD and COD2 back in the day - the ban lists I had contained THOUSANDS of players manually banned by myself and other admins for cheating. By far, the BEST way to keep a server clean and ban cheaters is by having lots of admins playing, observing and making decisions. The automated cheat protection systems are nearly worthless as the programmers figure out ways to cheat the anti-cheat.

CHEATERS SUCK!

 

[Uncle Al]

If it's an online video game, there will be cheaters. It's been that way for over 20 years and it's not going to change. Game cheaters are NO DIFFERENT from any other criminal.

I ran several game servers for Quake3, COD and COD2 back in the day - the ban lists I had contained THOUSANDS of players manually banned by myself and other admins for cheating. By far, the BEST way to keep a server clean and ban cheaters is by having lots of admins playing, observing and making decisions. The automated cheat protection systems are nearly worthless as the programmers figure out ways to cheat the anti-cheat.

CHEATERS SUCK!

Correction ..... 30 years .....

 

[Avro Arrow]

This is why I've never really cared to involve myself in online play regardless of the platform. Cheating has become as much of a science as actually playing the game itself.

 

[Nobina]

Why only a six month ban? If they cheated once they'll do it again as soon as a less detectable method becomes available.

Why would you think that?

Cheaters should have their limbs cut off...

This is a mental take

This is why I've never really cared to involve myself in online play regardless of the platform. Cheating has become as much of a science as actually playing the game itself.

I don't know what games you played, cheating in some games is more prevalent than in others but it's always a minority and people complaining about seeing cheaters all the time are usually lying.

If it's an online video game, there will be cheaters. It's been that way for over 20 years and it's not going to change. Game cheaters are NO DIFFERENT from any other criminal.

I ran several game servers for Quake3, COD and COD2 back in the day - the ban lists I had contained THOUSANDS of players manually banned by myself and other admins for cheating. By far, the BEST way to keep a server clean and ban cheaters is by having lots of admins playing, observing and making decisions. The automated cheat protection systems are nearly worthless as the programmers figure out ways to cheat the anti-cheat.

CHEATERS SUCK!

This guy thinks cheating in video games is as bad as any other crime which can be a million things. Bat **** insane thinking. You probably banned a bunch of innocent people cause you're **** at the game and don't understand that most people play better than you.

 

[0dium]

I don't know what games you played, cheating in some games is more prevalent than in others but it's always a minority and people complaining about seeing cheaters all the time are usually lying.

You clearly don't play cs:go. There are a lot of cheaters. Ofc they are a minority but even if we take for example 5% that's roughly one cheater every 2 games. And those are obvious cheaters. You can't count how many players are using cheats just for a little advantage and therefore can't be convicted in cheating.

 

[Nobina]

You clearly don't play cs:go. There are a lot of cheaters. Ofc they are a minority but even if we take for example 5% that's roughly one cheater every 2 games. And those are obvious cheaters. You can't count how many players are using cheats just for a little advantage and therefore can't be convicted in cheating.

I love that you say that because I've been playing CS for about 10 years and CS:GO has the lowest amount of cheaters of any CS iteration. I've rarely ever encountered a cheater in competitive as I ranked up from Gold to Global, I also played on Faceit premium. I'm absolutely sure that most of these guys complaining about cheaters can't comprehend that they suck as I've been called a cheater many times, I like to screenshot those for giggles.

There is a whole subreddit dedicated to CS cheating, VACsucks, and these people believe in the conspiracy that all pros are cheating and everyone is in on it.

Just to be clear, cheating does exist but it is very rare to encounter unless you have low trust factor or you're just incredibly unlucky but most likely people are just better than you and once you get that in your head and focus on your game (if you're competitive and want to improve) you will have a much better experience.

 

[misor]

Correction ..... 30 years .....

you mean my extra 2 lives for pacman was/is still counted?

 

[Avro Arrow]

I don't know what games you played, cheating in some games is more prevalent than in others but it's always a minority and people complaining about seeing cheaters all the time are usually lying.

That may be true but I am referring to my own experience and I'm not lying. Now to be fair, my experience was limited to Star Wars Galaxies but the number of cheaters in that game was astonishing. Also, I used to DJ in Second Life and when it became "Free-to-Play", the number of griefers that suddenly appeared were so annoying that I ended up not playing it anymore and that was when people were allowed to be anonymous.

In SWG, it was next to impossible to get people banned because that meant they weren't giving SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) any more money. I just got sick of it and left. The years I spent playing SWG taught me that it's just not worth it.