Three of us (ueyuey, schnapoon, haflblue) are suspected of running bots that win trade with each other, and were refused to continue playing in ZenSports Cup.
ueyuey：https://twitter.com/uey_uesama
schnapoon: https://twitter.com/schnapoon
haflblue: https://twitter.com/Halfblue13
■Here is a chronological summary of what happened ...
- Ueyuey and Schnapoon have been at the top of Silver LB for quite some time since last year.
- Some players in the community get upset that we are running bots and win trading.
- They go out of their way to find the battle history between the two of us, compulsively take screenshots, and post them in the community discord.
- We initially took it lightly, we were like “Who on earth are going to believe that?” and so we did not make a big fuss about it.
- Zensports recently started to hold more tournaments.
- Three of us (ueyuey, schnapoon, haflblue) started to finish at the top in those tournaments.
- Yet another Zensports tournament (ZenSports Cup) is held, and we made it through to the main round.
- We were informed by the Zensports admin that we are now banned from competing further in the main round and all future Zensports tournaments, due to suspected cheating.
■We were banned from the tournament
I (ueyuey), schnapoon and halfblue participated in the ZenSports Cup Quallflerni, and all of us made it through. Just as we were about to start the main tournament, we were suddenly banned from the tournament, and also from joining any future ZenSports Cup tournaments.
ZenSports admin says that this was because I made a registration error, and, was running a bot to illegally go up the ladder.
The registration error per se was simply our fault for not fully grasping the procedure partly because of our language barrier (English is not our first language), and I do think that part is fair.
But “running a bot!?!?” Seriously.
Let’s see what admin said -
Zensports：
Hey guys,
I would like to preface this by saying it is unfortunate that we have come to this, and I am grateful that you have played in past events of ours and enjoyed them.
Unfortunately, due to both the egregious evidence of bot usage in the Splinterlands ranked ladder, the backlash we receive from having you play in our events, and the fact that none of you filled out the ZenSportsia WL application form (necessary for playing in the ZenSportsia Cup), I have removed you from the event this weekend.
I hope you understand the decision is not a personal one, but rather one for our community as a whole, as we receive tons of complaints about having you play in our tournaments.
I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the decision. This was not an easy one for me to make, but a necessary one for the overall integrity of our events.
Schnapoon：
Hey, thanks for getting back to me.
"the egregious evidence of bot usage in the Splinterlands ranked ladder".
What does that mean?
We couldn't help but understand the ZenSportsia WL application case, but if the bot evidence proves to be wrong, we would like to see this case resolved as well.
Zensports：
I understand, but I have been sent quite a few messages, from multiple members of the community with screenshots of games where one player surrendered to one of your accounts. The backlash I get is currently not worth it, but if there is a way to prove no cheating has been going on to us and the community, I would most definetly allow you all in future events.
So the question comes - are we really bots?
NO. WE ARE NOT BOTS.
We also see that recently, people around us who have nothing to do with us have fallen victim to the false accusation as well. With much love for Splinterlands, we want to say this kind of behaviour is very detrimental to the development of the community and also towards new players.
The alleged “proof” of us being malicious bots and win trading are mere screenshots of surrenders in ranked battles and the fact that some of the decks submitted by losing sides being a bit weird (Monsters with no attacks placed in back line etc.).
Let us ask you this - Have you ever wanted to surrender when your opponent has extremely higher CP than you do or when you cannot use your favourite splinters under a specific rule? Take a look at the battle history of top players in LB. You can often see that losing sides surrendering or submitting decks that don’t really make sense.
Some just instantly give up on battles against players with much higher CP, or for others it might even be a strategic act to avoid showing their battle history to other opponents.
Those of you who have ever done this, does that make you a win trading bot? Definitely no.
Our Background
I (ueyuey) started playing Splinterlands back in August 2021. And I immediately fell in love with this game. I played for a few months and spent a great time studying cards, strategically not going up to the Gold Leagues, but focusing on the Silver. I put a lot of time into this game and gained a great deal of experience. Thanks to that, I started to win tournaments in Silver around November. Even to this day, I have still been researching strategies and studying cards day by day.
I also post the strategies I discover in the course of my daily research on Twitter. Here is an explanation of the countermeasures against Lamacron, for example (Please use Google Translate for Japanese):
~~~ embed:1464742522765262851?s=20&t=gmvTi40jDhMP3mr57i0REQ twitter metadata:dWV5X3Vlc2FtYXx8aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS91ZXlfdWVzYW1hL3N0YXR1cy8xNDY0NzQyNTIyNzY1MjYyODUxfA== ~~~
Schnapoon and Halfblue, they are Japanese players like myself and we met online in a Japanese Splinterlands community. Though we never personally met with each other, one thing I am certain is that both Schnapoon and Halfblue’s love for Splinterlands aren’t any smaller than mine and they continue to study every day as well.
They stream their battles on Youtube, by the way. ( I do it sometimes too) Link below.
Ueyuey：
Schnapoon：
Halfblue：
We also have daily discussions together on battle strategies.
Sometimes we even train with each other in Challenge mode. Not only the three of us, but the Japanese community is also very active in discussing battle strategies on a daily basis.
Thanks to those daily hard work, the three of us can often finish at the top of the LB/tournaments.
So nothing has been more absurd than hearing stuff like “Oh Schnapoon and Halfblue are ueyuey’s bots”.
Are all good players bots?
Do you guys know how long professional Esports players practice in their games? They practice 10+ hours daily, they discuss and train with their teammates every single day.
We do think that even what we are doing currently is nowhere near as the true professional players’ efforts, and so we believe there will be a great deal of professional players who are better than us in the future. When that happens, would the community keep complaining and casting stones at those professional players like they are doing to us now?
So many times have I been addressed terribly, insulted in various ways in discord for a long time. I haven't particularly argued against them because I simply did not care if the hate was just on me. However, I am utterly disappointed with the recent attacks on other players around me and it eventually even started to have an impact on the official Zensports events, and it was about time that I finally type this out.
Splinterlands is a great game and will keep growing as an Esports, no one can argue against that. However, I just want everyone to know that this kind of community behaviour really hinders the growth of the game, and the long term sustainability of the community.
Thank you for reading, have a great day!
Our ban has been revoked. （2022/5/1 Postscript）
We received an apology from zensports for the three of us. And we will be able to participate in the tournament from now on.
Thanks to the cooperation of many people. We are very grateful.
Hey @ueyuey , I read your post and the replies. None of us that aren't in your league will be able to determine the truth without having an investigation.
While I hear your point that you and your friends didn't cheat (and of course think its terrible if you didn't but got labelled as such), I also would want you to think carefully if you really want this investigated.
The reason I think you should carefully consider this is because if you are innocent then that might mean a restriction is lifted. But if you are guilty (as many have been in the past), then a full investigation would lead to even worse consequences. The point is that I'm sure we can get people to assemble an unbiased team to assess the situation, but if its clear that you did win-trade, then that would be doubly worse because it would mean you not only cheated but then you lied about it.
I honestly don't now any of the facts around this and whether or not you want to pursue your innocense. If you do then I will help to find a group to investigate it, but please realize that this would take people's time so make sure you did not ever do this.
People will help you because they don't want to see you unfairly penalized, so if you are truly without wrongdoing then message me on discord and I will try to help: davemccoy#2479
Look at your own network of thieves, which has been and still is the biggest and most profitable cheating network in the game. Thats where the biggest thieves always live, at the top of every pyramid, just like YOU and your mobster network of protected insiders. While scum like you point the finger at the low level players, you and your high level networks are making boatloads and then getting cover from your bribe network. You are the biggest rorters in this controlled game. There is no better evidence than when it comes from the mouth of the scum in your own rort network of high level insiders.
I believe great players like ueyuey, schnapoon, and haflblue are VERY IMPORTANT to Splinterlands, and accusing them baselessly is destructive and demotivating. All it does is make skilled, passionate players become frustrated with the community. Really hope this gets resolved properly.
I completely agree. This is really harmful!
I am disappointed in zensports. They only listen to one side of the opinion. And what they have heard are false reports. I know that ueyuey, halfblue and schnapoon study daily while competing and share their learning on twitter. I watched them live streaming on youtube and saw them winning with deep thinking. Some who can't beat them are undermining the ueyueyes with false accusations on Discord. This response by zensports is problematic and should be improved.
I know nothing of the drama here, but thanks to this, have discovered your Twitter and followed you 😄.
I look forward to reading more about your insights on Splinterlands strategy. 👍
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This. More people need to see this. I am honestly tired of people in the community who boast they have gathered "proof" that ueyuey etc. are bots, which are nothing but screenshots of players simply giving up on them. If you're at the top of the leagues, people just kinda give up and surrender to you sometimes. If you think the screenshots are enough to prove they are botting, you're deluded and those "proofs" are just feeding your confirmation bias.
Mind if I share this to Facebook? :)
I hope things will be resolve in your favor. I admire your enthusiasm. Please continue playing and keep doing what you do! Cheers!
So many crybabies in the leaderboards, and wasting their time investigating and screenshotting instead of just being better players (get good :P)
Joining tournaments are proof of your skills and denying you of entry is plain stupid.
Do not stay in a higher rank than the player who complains...
Because you will be accused of being a bot and you will not even be able to compete in E-sports tournaments.
Such games are boring!?
Splinterland is very interesting and I will continue to enjoy playing it.
So, I would like to see an end to the culture in which a few people's complaints are considered righteous.
These people will always control the game, because it works on bribes. The more money you have, the more you can cheat in this game. And the biggest cheaters with the most money, bribe each other to accuse those beneath them instead. This is how you hold a monopoly over the game and the rest of the players. They are also friends with the lead developers in the game. Understand how it all works now?
Do not let the accusations from stopping you to play Splinterlands. I do not believe that a player that uses bot can consistently rank top in the tournaments. We need more skillful player like you to grow the game and also to learn from your plays.
It is a pity that you got a technical disqualification in the ZenSport WL tournament, but a rule is a rule and every player must obey it.
!Gif goodluck
Via Tenor
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UH OH. This is NOT HEALTHY.
I would love to see evidence that you really are win-trading or using a bot to win.
The screenshots I've seen so far are not even circumstantial.
The fact that accusations are being believed without solid evidence is very DISTURBING.
If it can happen to one of us, then it can happen to any of us - the accusers included.
Hey these guys are real game lovers, not money lovers. Don't do that to them
you are a liar and a cheat, that you with your antisocial behavior now still turn to the community that you have robbed all the years, is hard to beat in audacity!
You should worry a lot more about the big players, instead of these low level people who are being targeted by the real big cheaters with huge wallets. This is how it really works here. The people at the top of the pyramid have always been the biggest cheaters of all, so they must make sure they keep their monopoly over the rewards system, and other players to keep their domination alive. If they dont, their pyramid will fall apart. But we all know where thr biggest cheating goes on, and thats why it gets left alone. They only go after cheaters in the ranked play, while the biggest rorts go on in tournaments by the insiders of the game.
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