Is there cheating going on? 90 min tourney exploit??

Hi there. Just saw something v wrong a lightning round at 1pm GMT on 7 nov.

I'm waiting for even to start and I enter event at exact moment it starts. Everyone has zero points apart from a user blackheart007 who started with 174 points already. How is this possible? Would take about 6 matches to get this amount, but not with 1 sec of event start.

Please look into this

Thanks

Apologies if all aboveboard ....

Comments

  • Hi you're not the only one. I noticed a couple users who had more than a 100 points at 1h29m.
  • yeah, i also got some screenshots of people with almost 200 points one minute into the tournament. It could be that they changed the time on their phone so that the tournament shows up sooner, so they get a headstart since I the tournaments all seem to be time-based regarding when they open up
  • Shuino
    Shuino Posts: 164 Tile Toppler
    Well just tried this out for myself since I noticed this as well.

    The current lightning round was 15 minutes to start so I moved my clock forward 15 and I was able to jump right into the tournament. I was easily able to climb to 250 points in those 15 min and as soon as the tournament started server side I got all my rewards.

    This sure needs changes / fixed....
  • You got all your rewards from the tournament you moved the clock forward 15 minutes to get into? It's not a difficult fix. The problem is not present before when the lightning tournaments are not available on the screen before the tournament actually started.
  • Shuino
    Shuino Posts: 164 Tile Toppler
    You got all your rewards from the tournament you moved the clock forward 15 minutes to get into? It's not a difficult fix. The problem is not present before when the lightning tournaments are not available on the screen before the tournament actually started.

    Yes as soon as the lightning round started server side all my rewards came in together. I disagree with you not having them appear grayed out as it is nice to know when the next one is starting, they need some other solution.
  • wait let me get this right, since u were basically very few ppl in that tournament cuz of your time moving escapades, you probably placed top 10 and therefore got the top 10 reward? (when the previous tournament ended), or just the progression rewards?
  • Shuino
    Shuino Posts: 164 Tile Toppler
    forgrim wrote:
    wait let me get this right, since u were basically very few ppl in that tournament cuz of your time moving escapades, you probably placed top 10 and therefore got the top 10 reward? (when the previous tournament ended), or just the progression rewards?

    No I didn't place anywhere as the tournament still has not finished. I'm only talking about the points rewards not rank. You cannot cheat the rank rewards by touching your time that is all handled server side.
  • ah ok, then it doesn't bother me since u just handicap urself for the rewards but still something to look at
  • Shuino
    Shuino Posts: 164 Tile Toppler
    forgrim wrote:
    ah ok, then it doesn't bother me since u just handicap urself for the rewards but still something to look at

    Not a handicap at all since you get a 250 point head start.
  • Shuino wrote:
    forgrim wrote:
    ah ok, then it doesn't bother me since u just handicap urself for the rewards but still something to look at

    Not a handicap at all since you get a 250 point head start.

    But your phone will probably stop you from playing for the last 15 minutes, which is the crucial time.
  • but if you change back the time, all ur characters get downed....which now that i think about it, isn't an issue with 30 minute health packs and only two characters to heal HMM
  • Shuino
    Shuino Posts: 164 Tile Toppler
    forgrim wrote:
    but if you change back the time, all ur characters get downed....which now that i think about it, isn't an issue with 30 minute health packs and only two characters to heal HMM

    Yeah but only moving 10 min ahead isn't really hurting anything, I could then at night just go back to normal time and when I wake up in the morning be fine.
  • To me it's more like giving Bolt a 10 second head start on a 100m race. Unfair exploit to those ignorant of the issue
  • Shuino
    Shuino Posts: 164 Tile Toppler
    Darklondon wrote:
    To me it's more like giving Bolt a 10 second head start on a 100m race. Unfair exploit to those ignorant of the issue

    Yep I agree with you 100% and something should be done about it.
  • shouldn't it be pushed out server side? That sounds like an awful exploit/bug if that is the case. Ice....help?
  • IceIX
    IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,312 Site Admin
    We're aware of this and do definitely consider it an exploit. We're looking into a hotfix for it but aren't sure if that would wreck stability of the remaining Lightning Rounds. I would highly advise not making further use of this tactic in any current or future Tournaments.
  • Is there a particular reason why the game doesn't either always use the server clock for time events or checks local time vs server time and screams bloody murder if they're off by more than a few minutes (really should be a few seconds, but it's better to be a bit generous in this regard)?

    Given how chatty the client and server are I was surprised this wasn't in there already. The only issue I can see is dev/QA problems for testing, but as a dev myself I can say this is hardly an insurmountable issue.