In the currently largest MMORPG on Steam, Lost Ark, a race began on April 20 to see who would be the first to complete the new raid. Within just a few hours, 8 players in Europe had finished. However, their victory was revoked. This happened to other winning teams as well. The problem is that cheating, botting, and real money trading are so widespread in Lost Ark that hardly anyone plays legally.
How did Lost Ark want to find the best players?
- At the launch of the new patch, Amazon held a race in Europe, North and South America.
- The race is called “Theamine The First” in Lost Ark. It began on April 20.
- The first ten 8-player teams to complete the raid at the hardest level receive a spot on the leaderboards and an in-game reward.
After one hour, the raid is done – The mood is bad
These were the winners: Even after just about an hour, the top 8 players were already established; they had completed Theamine. The players’ names were posted on reddit and the run was discussed.
There was a great discontent. The players seemed sure: If the hardest raid in the MMORPG was completed in just an hour, something was not right, but they were not sure what the exact problem was. It was said:
- Surely those who had spent the most money to complete the raid would have won
- Another complained: It must be 8 Koreans who already know the raid from their home country and are ruining the race in the West
- A third grumbled: This is nonsense anyway. People here are “piloting,” which is the term for letting someone else play your account
- A fourth believed: Surely tricks were used, and the biggest cheaters had won
- An optimist said: Maybe this is a trap, a honeypot, for cheaters.
In total, the mood was bad.
Amazon disqualifies almost all winning teams
This is what Amazon says: Amazon has indeed intervened and sanctioned the 8 winners for violating the rules, deleting them from the leaderboards (via mop).
It is said that some teams violated the rules and conditions and were banned.
Amazon states that players could, however, try again in new groups if they had additional accounts.
According to reports from players, at least one player from the first 5-6 winning teams was banned, disqualifying the rest as well.
After 6 days, only 1 “legal” team is officially recognized as the winner
In any case, the names of the 8 original winners have disappeared from the leaderboard and 8 other players emerged the next day.
These now seem to be the “real 8 best players” in Lost Ark. Because in the last 5 days, no other team has succeeded in completing the raid.
However, there are also doubts about the winners on reddit. Perhaps, it is said on reddit, they were just using bots or cheats that Amazon cannot detect.
Cheating is too widespread in Lost Ark
How is this being discussed? The “First Race” has turned out very negatively overall. On reddit , a player says: 5-6 teams managed to complete the raid, but in each team, at least one person used bots or real money purchases.
This is simply “embarrassing.”
This is the background: Amazon has established rules stating what is prohibited in the race, including “illegal programs, apps, real money purchases, and piloting, which is the term for letting someone else play.”
However, all of these things seem to be so prevalent among the top players of Lost Ark that hardly anyone participates in a race that prohibits and sanctions such things.
Therefore, Lost Ark has embarrassed itself in the eyes of players. This is not just a Western issue; similar problems arose in South Korea during the launch of the raid six months ago.
Overall, Lost Ark is considered extremely infested with bots:
