The old MMORPG RuneScape wants to be an eSport title, but somehow can’t get players to follow the rules. For the second time in a row, the winner of a high-stakes tournament was disqualified afterwards.
RuneScape is a relatively old MMORPG from 2001 that constantly evolves and tries to keep up to date. Currently, developer Jagex is working on a mobile version.
However, many RuneScape fans do not like the new version and prefer the old RuneScape. For them, the developers Jagex offer a version of RuneScape that remains at the 2007 level, “Old School RuneScape.”
At the Runefest, their own convention, a tournament is held that operates under “Battle Royale” rules. Thousands start, in the end there are only a few left, and the last one standing wins a huge sum. But somehow Jagex can’t seem to manage it.
2017 – Pacifists and Problems
That year, 2000 players started in “Deadman Mode.” The last 200 were then spread over 4 islands. However, on one island, 7 players worked together. They formed an alliance and refused to fight each other. This blocked the progress of the tournament.
The developers warned them multiple times to stop – but nothing happened. In the end, the “red island” was disqualified. A spark for a conflict – in hindsight, it was said by Jagex that perhaps one of the 7 should have been selected and allowed to go to the finals.
Even the actual winner, who pocketed $20,000, was retroactively disqualified. The prize was revoked. In the official statement, it is said that the account was routinely checked and found to be operating a bot farm.
Rumors of “DDOS” attacks plagued the forums of the game in recent days. There were also claims that a mod was involved and wild accusations made the rounds that the tournament was not conducted properly. However, the developers stated that these allegations could not be proven.
As of now, it is still unclear how Jagex plans to distribute the prize money.
2016 – Exploit and a Generous Mod
The ironic part: A year earlier in 2016, something similar happened.
In that year, the winner of the tournament used an exploit and “healed through” the deadly Battle Royale fog, not participating in the mechanics of the mode at all. While the rest of the players fought each other and ultimately perished, the eventual winner exploited a flaw in the system and sat out the entire tournament next to an NPC healing himself.
The winner was later disqualified and lost his $10,000 prize money. Fans were extremely upset about this, as the winner was seen in their eyes as “just clever” and did not violate any rules.
The legend says that a mod from RuneScape paid the disqualified winner the $10,000 from his own pocket at that time.
In any case, Jagex seems to have significant problems ensuring the proper execution of these high-stakes tournaments – especially in a community that exploits every advantage.
Fans are shouting on social media “Fix your Game” and are apparently very dissatisfied with how the tournament went.
Here is our report from Runefest 2017: RuneScape relies on the past in the future – We were at Runefest 2017
