Today there was yet another case of a bug being abused, and the competitive integrity of the tournament being disrupted as a result of that and the admin response. I just made a twitter thread discussing my thoughts on the matter. I will throw in my opinions here as well.
I am once again asking for an updated ruleset regarding bug "abuse" in competitive games. The current system suffers four main problems.
1) What is an exploit?
2) Poor communication of banned actions
3) Inconsistent punishments
4) Untimely reaction speeds
Instead of leaving everything up to admin discretion on the spot (which often ruins the competitive experience and integrity because it takes too long to decide), a more concrete set of rules should be implemented. Even if the rules cause problems, they can be IMPROVED.
1) Define and maintain a list of banned exploits.
This requires effort which might require money, but economically, the fallout from poor handling of situations (there have been plenty) far outweigh hiring someone to maintain/decide on a list of banned actions.
With this, tournament admins can still choose to ban whatever additions they want, pre-event, mid-event, or even mid-map if they notice a bug they want to ban, but only transgressions committed after the ban has been clearly communicated to both teams are eligible for punishment.
2) Communication is key.
Pretty much every major bug scandal has happened because someone didn't know it was a banned exploit.
Even if you think they should have known, the fact that this keeps happening ruins the competitive environment.
It must be made INEXCUSABLE for pro players to not know what is banned.
A central list of all banned exploits applied to all Riot sanctioned events solves this problem.
There is no confusion about what is banned. If a player does not know, it is ON THEM.
3) Inconsistent punishments are inherently unfair for everyone
The arbitrary application of all these punishments: replay maps, part of maps, forfeit rounds, forfeit maps, be DQ'd from tournaments, all contributes to the biggest problem of them all.
If punishments are inconsistent, NO punishment is fair.
Better defining what is and isn't allowed can help define better rules for tournament admins on how to handle situations.
One proposal I have is to classify bugs on the central list where clear and intentional exploits are an instant match forfeit but maybe lesser bugs just incur an initial warning.
If admins catch something before the next round starts, they can replay the round or something like that.
The point is: There is SOME system for punishments applied to EVERYONE.
4) If the admins have some system to follow, they can increase the efficiency of the problem solving many times over.
Games that are delayed 30+ minutes because admins have to FIGURE OUT what to do are ruined.
I don't have all the solutions.
Riot have people writing rulebooks that can do what I said here and make it actually viable.
There will be problems with any ruleset, but making it concrete means that it is EQUITABLE, and that it can be improved with feedback.
The current system is damaging the competitive ecosystem, and certain issues CANNOT be solved without more concrete direction.
As a side note, I have not read the official Riot rulebook, but the current ruleset (its implementation at the very least) clearly displays these significant problems that need to be addressed.
What do you think of this problem? Its not a simple problem, so don't flame anyone
Asking for input from these forums is like sifting through sands to find a diamond, but I know there are some gems here. (Just kidding, I appreciate you all, especially you delusional_potter_fan 😉)
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