Hey guys,
I understand the "zoom out" bug became yet another focal point of drama in the recent GameReplays.org EVGA tourney. For starters I'd like to apologize that such a bug exists in our game. When we discovered the reason for this bug, believe me, we were all shaking our heads.
We've fixed this bug for the next patch, so it should not be an issue going forward. And we are working to get this patch out in a timely manner with respect to the start of the Ladder Season now.
That said, the "zoom out" bug is a known game-breaking level exploit and anyone who is caught using it in Ladder Season 3 will have their ladder rank reset. There is no logical reason to use it, if even to avoid lag, that is simply not acceptable in our tournament. I cannot speak for others, but for Ladder Season 3, its not a rule we need to write out clearly, its at our discretion to determine what are "exploits", etc and this is clearly something nobody should be doing.
Banning or resetting ones rank from our Ladder Season is at our discretion based on the situation. In this case, someone who uses the "zoom out" bug, in my opinion, is on the same level as someone who is "smurfing" in the top 100 or 200 with multiple accounts. Both offenses warrant a rank reset, and a ban on at least one of the smurf names so it cannot be used to further advance again. But I do not deem either on the level of a permanent online ban. I think we lay the smack down pretty lethally on a weekly basis either way.
If a player needs to smurf or "zoom out" bug to gain their way to the top, then I presume they will have a significantly harder challenge attaining that status through fair play. Otherwise, why would they?
If we catch players using proper cheat hacks or players who do any of the above a second time, it can warrant a permanent Ladder Season ban and further action if necessary. And certainly as I said, we look at every situation at our own discretion and determine what level of punishment action is necessary.
Frequent disconnecting, use of dramatic game breaking exploits, smurfing, hacks, these all carry ladder rank resets, or ladder season bans, or permanent online ban offenses. Everyone who has had read our rules and played online and is likely reading my forum message here should know this.
I simply cannot understand why anyone tries to get away with this type of play, smurfing, etc when they know we have our extremely knowledgeable and savvy community...and replay files. You can't change the evidence, it is hard coded. =)
Thanks
APOC
-quelle-
