Cheaters

[LondoJowo]

@binh Sorry to hear that, you may want to report this to Rovio tech support.

On the other hand I wish this would happen to LiusZ.

[Thumper316]

found a cheater in the curse of the necromancer. MaxiEmre went from nothing to 19325 in an hour. So cheating has migrated out of the arena. Didnt know if anyone else has had this problem, this game is starting to really piss me off.

[LondoJowo]

I suspect these cheaters have rooted phones or tablets that give them access to files that they modify and result in these large scores one step.

[LondoJowo]

Even though I was cheated out of 1st place I made it to the Diamond league in the least amount of games (6). 1st season it took 10 games and last season 8 games, in both seasons cheaters prevented me and other honest players from advancing. Though it did tick me off a cheater appeared this past week, the person I feel sorry for is the player that was in 3rd place that had their advancement to Diamond stolen from them by the cheater.

[LondoJowo]

I just noticed the person who was bumped to 4th by the cheater is in my Diamond league this week Unless this player has two level 45 teams with diamond league frames using the same name/photo, it’s the same person.

The thing that scares me about this week is there are 7 players who have not posted a score yet.

[jandersonepic]

I was going to wait until the last minute to start this week but for some reason I got thrown in the leader board right after I got my prize for last week now I’m stuck with a bunch of over achievers for another week game isn’t worth spending every second grinding

[Sir4o]

Another cheeky cheater…
http://snag.gy/Y0XUb.jpg
I have doubts for the second guy also as he jumped with 15k quite fast.

[Bubbley]

@sir40 isn’t this the same guy @londojowo had to contend with last week. If so since he has been reported Rovio should have removed him. I hope you have reported him.

[LondoJowo]

@bubbley @sir4o Yep, LiusZ is the one that scored 99,881,405 on day 6 last week. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Why would LiusZ still being Platinum after last week. I did not get the 1st place prize. Ruben is in Diamond but finished 4th last week.

YD is my diamond league with the same 22,445 score. Why would one player be in two leagues at the same time.

I’m beginning to think Rovio is manipulating the leagues.

[KerrAvon]

@londojowo If you have 6 or so players on your leaderboard with scores of 0, you may have a leaderboard full of ghosts.

This season I have had 2 leaderboards like this. And in the current week, after moving up to level 21 over the weekend, the players on my current leaderboard are at levels 32-37 and mostly with wooden frames (i.e. Probably not active in the arena). Only 1 other player on my leaderboard has a score.

My leaderboard usually has players in the range levels 18-25. I am not sure why increasing my level to 21 has moved me to this leaderboard pool. But there has been no real change in my opponents in the arena.

And BTW, I do tend to start the arena week 12 h after the start time. This is mostly because I am hoping to get these “ghost” leaderboards, so that I don’t have to put in much effort for the week.

[MVNLA2]

@sir4o @londojowo @bubbley — More evidence that there are still ghosts.It’s interesting that it least in one case, the person in 4th got promoted. However, it appears that you don’t get the achievement for being first if you are second behind a ghost.

[LondoJowo]

@kerravon LiusZ was a 0 score until day 6 last week

[Sir4o]

Yeah, I reported him. Almost sure it is pointless though…

[Bubbley]

@mvnla @sir4o @londojowo yes and ghosts who cheat. I finally had a reply from Rovio about the cup cake trap problem. They said they knew there were cheats in the Arena and that they were sorry they were spoiling the game.

[bikerdood]

Last week I was in third place until a few hours before the end. Then some magically moved to first place from nowhere and I got bumped to 4th and did not advance. Time and effort wasted. An interesting study in human narcissistic behavior to screw someone so blatantly for personal gain. I just want to get higher hit points on my banner, and I need to advance to get better awards. It is a good incentive to keep playing, but there’s no incentive for playing a game that itself can be gamed.

[MVNLA2]

@bikerdood — Do you have any screenshots that you can send to Rovio? Not sure how much good it does, but the more complaints they get, the more likely they are to do something. I hope I’m not deluding myself. : ( There is supposed to be an update for Epic coming soon (a Rovio soon, most likely). Maybe it will fix some of the problems with cheaters and ghosts.

[Bubbley]

@mvnla2 since Rovio planted the ghosts do you really believe they will remove them? What is LuisZ? Certainly something that cheats. Certainly something that didn’t advance from @londojowo league since the player in fourth place did. What prevented his advance? It can either have been Rovio but then they could have removed/demoted/blocked. Or he was a ghost when playing with @londojowo and a cheat in someone else league presumably gold so he advanced to platinum to play with @sir4o. We must assume then that he only recently learned how to cheat or he would not have been in gold at that point in the season. Rovio must know of him from several sources.

I would be interested to know if cheats we can identify and report continue to appear. Do you keep a record? I do.

I still run into SKY-SPY, sadly he is in my small group of opponents, @tigerussell posted about him a few months ago.

[Sir4o]

just got a copy-pasted annoying answer from Rovio support:

Eleanor, Jul 23, 07:21:
Hello there,

and thanks for your message!

We are sorry to hear that you have encountered cheaters in the Arena Leagues. We are aware of the issue, and are working hard to block the cheaters and hackers as soon as possible! We understand that the cheaters take the fun out of the game and are unfair to the honest players who have spent time and maybe even money to advance in the game.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope that you can still enjoy Epic while we are trying to get rid of the dishonest players!

Best regards,

Eleanor
Rovio Support Team

Well, unfortunately Rovio, your regrets don’t help us and there is no point to have such kind of support!

[KerrAvon]

@mvnla2 and @bubbley I am pretty sure the arena system still generates a leaderboard full of ghosts if they can’t put you onto an existing leaderboard.

To me it seems like @londojowo is on one of these “ghost” leaderboards this week. He mentioned he had 7 players on a score of zero, which is highly unlikely in Diamond. It also explains the presence of Rubén and Y.D. on his current leaderboard.

@bubbley It is good that you have compiled a list of cheaters. I did have a list compiled from info posted in this thread. But, as these cheaters are not relevant to me (I have only encountered one cheater with my low level team), and most were from early on when cheating was rife, I didn’t keep it updated and threw it out.

[MVNLA2]

@bubbley — Rovio has certainly been told quite forcefully multiple times that a lot of players consider Rovio’s creation of ghosts to be cheating by Rovio. It remains to be seen if they pay any attention to what dedicated fans say about their games.
Obviously, their current procedure for creating ghosts does not prevent cheaters from being chosen to be ghosts.
I think Rovio is working to eliminate cheaters, and I think the next update “coming soon” will eliminate more. Remains to be seen whether the ghost situation improves.
Rovio — As far as the ghosts are concerned, even if you block a ghost from being promoted if they are in the top 3, you have distorted the leaderboard below the 3rd position. When people see players in the top 3 positions with impossible scores, many of them stop trying to advance and just try to stay in the same league.

[Bubbley]

@kerravon I think @londojowo posted that on Monday UK time so probably only after 2 objectives. It does happen in Diamond but not frequently. Like @londojowo I worry when it does because that usually means on Thursday, today, the cheats declare themselves.

I do agree that Rovio is using ghosts to fill leagues. As @mvnla2 says whatever position they hold distorts the league and even if they not posting outrageous scores when they occupy one or more of the top three positions surely some players become discouraged. Others just become annoyed or disillusioned.

[LondoJowo]

@sir4o I got the same exact reply from Rovio today.

@bubbley There are three 0 point players in my league, one of which has a Diamond frame. That’s the one that scares me the most, if he’s made it to Diamond before why is he not playing now???

[MVNLA2]

I just got proof that Rovio has not eliminated all cheaters from the leagues, at least not this week. I’m not sure how / why a cheating method that works today (Sat) with the new update is going to stop working next week. Although I suppose they could have not installed the update.
Anyway Koyou was at 0 all week, including at 6:45 AM this morning, at 1:54 PM he was at 21,999,345.
I wonder what bugs Rovio thinks they fixed?
I will report Koyou to Rovio.
Rovio has promised to get back to us early next week about the problems with the update. I hope they have bothered to read enough to realize the magnitude and scope of the problems.

[LondoJowo]

So far no cheaters have appeared in my Diamond league. Still have three players with 0 point scores. I have a 27k lead over 2nd and they’ve averaged 8k per day.

[LondoJowo]

@sir4o What place is YD in your league. He’s in 2nd place with 67,900 in my league and I’m 17k ahead in first. Unless a cheater appears I should have 1st place locked up.

Had that cheater not showed up last week I would have had a clean sweep of the leagues the season.