INSIGHT: ESPORTS ABIOS
ISSUES RELATING TO THE INTEGRITY OF ESPORTS
Is there evidence to suggest that match manipulation in esports is on the rise?
As in regular sports, there are instances of match-fixing and cheating in esports on some level. Most recently, Riot Games suspended a coach in VALORANT for violating the VCT rulebook, namely by communicating with his team during unauthorised times.
While high-profile events like this get media attention, it’s important to remember that most integrity-related issues in esports are confined to lower tiers of play. Tey have smaller prize pools and consequently salaries for the players, making the financial incentives to cheat or agree to match-fixing higher. Additionally, match-fixing often occurs when nefarious actors pressure and pose threats against individual players. As many players in esports are quite young, the players might not have the experience or financial stability to tackle these threats efficiently.
With that said, we haven’t seen any evidence for the increase in match manipulation, but recognise that it’s an important issue that needs to be addressed to protect the future of esports. No one wants to watch or place bets on games where the outcome feels dishonestly predetermined.
What can be done to prevent it?
Education needs to be provided for every level of the industry, from tournament organisers to teams, game publishers and players. Te esports ecosystem, in all of its complexity, needs to work together from different angles to combat these activities efficiently.
Some tournament organisers are already taking a harsher approach to combat cheating attempts. Given the magnitude of the CS:GO spectator bug scandal in 2019-2020 (the bug allowed team coaches to see parts of the map they normally would not have access to and gather information about the enemy team) it’s evident Riot Games (the game developer) is seeing it as a cautionary tale for VALORANT. Most recently, a coach was issued a warning for celebrating with his team during unauthorised times of the match, which goes to show the extent to which the tournament organiser aims to combat cheating attempts.
Does match manipulation in esports follow a similar pattern to match-fixing in other more traditional sports?
From what we are able to tell, esports does not differ greatly as compared to regular sports in this sense. Te difference to traditional sports lies in the digitally specific ways that cheating has been detected in esports, but match-fixing in itself is currently detected and handled the same.
P44 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
Anton Janér, CTO and Founder Abios
Abios provides industry esports data and technology for customers all over the globe. It provides data, compliance, odds, and widgets products for the most popular esports titles including CS:GO, League of Legends, VALORANT, and Dota 2. Being part of Kambi, Abios can leverage Kambi’s experience in trading and the betting market to enable for a better offering in esports.
Second Life 2, in-game currency is exchangeable for real-world assets, bringing for hackers who seek financial gain. Lastly, in multiplayer games, there has always been hackers who, in some way or another, want to give themselves advantages in terms of gameplay or in-game assets by hacking into the system or by exploiting bugs.
Could game developers do more to prevent match-fixing as they develop games?
When it comes to match-fixing it’s of utmost importance to ensure that players, teams and coaches are well-aware of the consequences of match-fixing. Tere should be clear and concise rules, as well as procedures for repercussions.
When it comes to cheating, the game developers have the power to make sure any security vulnerabilities are amended as soon as they’re found, as well as to keep proper safeguards against common types of exploits, such as package interception, scripts and so- called “aim-bots”.
What strategies are best for ensuring the integrity of esports going forwards?
“The ever-changing, digital
nature of the esports industry is one of the reasons why it has grown at such a rapid
pace, but it is also its Achilles heel. The industry lacks a
regulatory body, something for example European football sees in UEFA. As such, there aren’t any governing bodies with enough reach to cover these issues on scale.”
Te ever-changing, digital nature of the esports industry is one of the reasons why it has grown at such a rapid pace, but it is also its Achilles heel. Te industry lacks a regulatory body, something, for example, European football sees in UEFA. As such, there aren’t any governing bodies with enough reach to cover these issues on scale.
Te closest resemblance esports has to a governing body is the Esports Integrity Coalition, or ESIC in short, which works with several industry actors to combat integrity- related issues such as match-fixing, cheating and doping. However, given the complexity of the issue, they cannot enforce actions against all attempts, which leaves a fragmented approach to a widespread problem.
Teams, tournament organisers and players benefit largely from education and strict policies, making it harder for nefarious actors to manipulate players to forfeit a match on purpose.
Are any games played professionally more susceptible to manipulation than others?
All video games, competitive or not, are played on computers. Tis makes all of them susceptible to hackers, in one way or another. Tere have been instances of people hacking into both hardware and software in all genres of video games, not only for esports titles.
However, the intent behind the hacks depends largely on the game, its vulnerabilities and its exploiters. In Minecraft, there have been security vulnerabilities that have let nefarious actors take control of the non-suspecting players’ computers. In other games such as
For the tier one esports tournaments, there’s definitely the benefit of a big community that can bring cheating attempts to light, as many fans follow the matches closely and often report suspicious player activity and movement.
As an esports data provider, we work to increase the competitive integrity in esports where we can. It can be everything from providing education when possible, monitoring punter data and looking for irregular player patterns.
For esports to become more mature and to be able to combat these issues efficiently, all stakeholders need to play their part. More importantly, the industry needs to come together to combat these issues at scale. If this is through ESIC, or some other initiative, remains to be seen.
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