243 replies to this topic

[Primus of ComStar]

MechWarriors,


As you've probably heard through the echoes of all HPGs of the Inner Sphere, our latest tournament was hit by dezgra.

Com Guards has already investigated the first five days of The Great Spring Clean ‘Em Up Challenge. Final conclusions to these investigations will be made public on Monday.

Honor on the battlefield is of utmost importance (isn't it the pride of every pilot?), and it is ComStars' duty to preserve it. After Com Guards thorough investigation, we have gathered enough hard evidence to prove that the allegation of deliberate sync dropping is patently false. None of the top participants show any evidence whatsoever of coordinated solo or group launching with the intention to benefit or otherwise influence the battleground outcome.

However, that is not to say that everything went without problems. There is a second allegation, that some groups spontaneously colluded to boost a single individual for one individuals personal gain. This is against the spirit of the tournament, and as such, a number of Pilots guilty of such actions will be ejected from this tournament entirely once the investigation is completed. Whilst many of us may have harvested the loot of a pilotless Mech on assorted missions; requesting the possibility to do so in an official ComStar tournament to get the 1^st place of the leaderboard is a felony that we will not tolerate out of respect for all the truly skilled Pilots and in the honor of the spirit of the tournament.

The Primus of ComStar along with the Com Guards will continue investigation of the final two tournament days. Congratulations for the spirit, fair play and fine piloting abilities displayed by the winners; surely an example for us all.

We would like to thank every pilot who reported suspected actions and encourage all pilots from all Houses, Factions and Clans to always report such dishonorable misconduct.


Primus of ComStar
Lord of Terra
Defender of the Inner Sphere

Edit: Just like in Olympics, investigations are done on the winners as it is very time consuming. We know sync drops are doable. Also, more official and controlled tournaments will be done once the game is fully launched.

[vettie]

wow

[AntharPrime]

So anyone who asked others to let them strip disconnected mechs will be tossed from the tournaments and get no reward. Seems fair.

[ZnSeventeen]

Oh Comstar...

[PropagandaWar]

After my first tournament attempt and finding out about map files and how easy syncing was I decided to pass on this one.

[Tsunamisan]

Didnt know about the farming clause of unpiloted mechs but then again i didnt participate in this event either. Its in the game i dont see why killing it the way you choose is a felony.

The best way to fix it is just to have PGI drop the unpiloted mechs from game after a time out between which the clients link to the server is severed. If a mech is dropped no win/loss gains will be received unles the pilot earned it.

[ManusDei]

I have a lot of respect for the Com Guards and the MWO community. I do not participate in any tournaments but have to disagree with the sync dropping 4 mans outside tournament play. I used to play on two different guilds that still to this day intentionally sync drop two 4 mans. I'm sorry but unless you've played with the guilds I have sync dropping still does occur intentionally to affect the outcome of certain matches. Pilots have discovered where the authentication servers are geographicaly located and understand making one person from each 4 man that has the lowest ping almost guarantees a syncd drop will occur correctly.

Com Guards have requested all pilots to report such dishonorable behavior. I will do so with screenshots proving the talk is not just pilot banter.

[Primus of ComStar]

Please see edit.

[CrashieJ]

The only reason most of us were getting our payment for fielding an empty mech is because we were forced out of it due to faulty drop coding procedures.
---
Log: 13405 "April 23rd, 3050"

Gavilatius: "ok, I'm ready"

Crewman: "battlefield in sight, searching for dropzone"

*drop doors open below*

Gavilatius: "Wait, something is wrong, the docking clamps are taking too long to get in position"

Crewman: "THE COMPUTER CAN'T FIND A DROPZONE, GET OUT OF THERE!"

Gavilatius: "I can't eject, initiating a manual hatch override."

*sounds of docking clamps releasing and the mech tumbling out of the bottom hatch*

Crewman: "are you alright?"

Gavilatius: "yeah, and there drops another one of my mechs. I wanted to be in the fight, but now I have to wait until we can salvage the poor *******."

Crewman: "now what?"

Gavilatius: "no sense in hanging around, restart the client procedures and get ready to drop again... hopefully a successful one with me in it."

Crewman: "we're still getting paid, right?"

Gavilatius: "Not as much as we would, thanks to Comstar's faulty procedure programs."

[Tennex]

why not make DC mechs give no bonus points

[Homeless Bill]

I thoroughly appreciate the time and effort you're putting into verifying the tournament results. Frankly, I'm just happy you're putting on these events, whether or not they have flaws in scoring or execution.

This community whines incessantly about absolutely everything; just know that this is one area where you're doing a great job. The scoring has dramatically improved, the events are fun, and it gets better with every tournament. I look forward to the full report on Monday.

[OvenRude]

I had a lot of fun in this event, thanks for making it happen, and offering a wide range of prizes to many different positions!

[Siriothrax]

Primus of ComStar, on 03 May 2013 - 02:09 PM, said:

Whilst many of us may have harvested the loot of a pilotless Mech on assorted missions; requesting the possibility to do so in an official ComStar tournament to get the 1^st place of the leaderboard is a felony that we will not tolerate out of respect for all the truly skilled Pilots and in the honor of the spirit of the tournament.

Could you clarify this a little? Right now it's still open to interpretation and becoming a slippery slope. You seem to be saying that the crime is "requesting the possibility to do so", specifically to "get the 1st place". Does that mean that shooting an afk/dc is fine as long as you don't ask for the opportunity from teammates? What if it's down to a 1v1 against a DC'd mech, are you just supposed to ignore it? If you are allowed to shoot DCd mechs, where do you draw the line between gaming the system and taking it down fairly? 33 damage to the head and nothing more?

[AnubiteGroove]

This topic is something that needs addressing for the future. I don't now how to rework this myself at the moment, other than having a separate launch for those who have "opted in," with special constraints on score, syncdrop, etc.
_

Another thing I've noticed is exploiting damage for high-score matches. It stems from the fact that XP was reworked for provide more benefits for team support and not kills. The problem lies with a relatively skilled (good to epic) player who decided to half or completely forgo kills, instead opting to damage all parts of the enemy as much as possible. I've recently seen this most effectively exploited with a ppcboat jumpsnipe cataphract. This could also be remedied by the separate "opted in" queue idea and its special constraint options.

[OvenRude]

This contest straight up rewarded kills over damage. To have a match that would stick in your daily score you really needed 4+ kills. It simply wouldn't make any sense to avoid snagging the kill as soon as possible.

[Ryvucz]

I shall be happy enough that allegations are being investigated.

[deforce]

daemur, on 03 May 2013 - 03:24 PM, said:

No sync dropping took place in any of the relevant games by any of the players in the top ranks of the tournament. This has been checked. While I agree that it is still possible to coordinate drops at times, that has not happened here.

A broad range of information is being checked to help ensure the validity of the tournaments and as stated above there is no indication of sync dropping in any of the top ranked matches by any of the top ranked players.

Cheers,
daemur

Im not saying that it DEFINITELY happened in this tournament, but how can you investigate if someone is sync dropping while they would be on a third party program that you may not have access to?

Just some food for thought, at the high/low ends of ELO im guessing the population is pretty tiny and even smaller at off hours because many nights in a 2-3 hour spand of gaming I am playing with the same 30 or so people over and over. So i am not sure how you can state for SURE no one synced, when it is almost impossible NOT to sync.

[CrashieJ]

Needs a Solaris Championship for epic 1v1 tier based battles to the death

no friends
no consumables
pure skill

[Bloody Moon]

deforce, on 03 May 2013 - 05:41 PM, said:

Im not saying that it DEFINITELY happened in this tournament, but how can you investigate if someone is sync dropping while they would be on a third party program that you may not have access to?

Why, counting down from 3 to 1 is not effective anymore?

deforce, on 03 May 2013 - 05:41 PM, said:

Just some food for thought, at the high/low ends of ELO im guessing the population is pretty tiny and even smaller at off hours because many nights in a 2-3 hour spand of gaming I am playing with the same 30 or so people over and over. So i am not sure how you can state for SURE no one synced, when it is almost impossible NOT to sync.

Yeah, this happens quite often, a reasonable concern. It should be very hard to tell who is syncing and who is not.

[Stoicblitzer]

guys, the top players don't sync together. they add each other to friends list and drop when others are in-game so they AVOID at least a few good players. anti-syncing?

Edited by Stoicblitzer, 03 May 2013 - 07:05 PM.