WG’s Automated Banning System is Ineffective

Hello,

The T-22 sr. rigging saga continues…but before I proceed, I want to give a big thanks to Rolfwar who upon my request has generously authorized me to use his content and also PMed me with the screenshots necessary to prove the veracity of the situation that I am about to show, so lets start!

I came across Rolfwar on the EU forums, he was complaining and rightfully so;

He was trying to get his x3 XP completed with vehicles that he doesn’t take into random battles and got the unfortunate luck to meet riggers, in his own words:

“I suggest you watch the replay, as I think this is the first case of evidence beyond reasonable of doubt of minor clans involved in rigging that are rarely mentioned when speaking of the T-22 gate. Of course, there’s also the same old clans we all know.”

I recorded and uploaded the replay on youtube and decided to hide the clan tags/nicknames but I do give you my word on Rolfwar‘s quote that indeed clans, big and small, are rigging in this replay. First, I don’t want to start a witch hunt on these players/clans, because although I completely disagree with their actions, I’m writing this article for a different reason that I want you to focus on.  Second, if I don’t hide, it falls under “naming and shaming” by anything that is regulated by Wargaming which will increase the chances that they will erase your topics when you share this around the forums. And besides… you don’t have to be a Sherlock to find the replay.

Rolfwar wrote the match activities by timestamp:

  • Monday, around 2 am, I was playing some Domination and there was some rather suspicious activity under way during the match.In the early phase of the battle, you can see that everything seems to be normal, apart from some sketchy stuff happening around the flag (two very good players in Batchats acting in a weird manner, but still).
  • Then, as I am moving towards the south-western part of the map, some abnormal activity can be observed: at around 8:17 (2 minutes into the game), two Batchats can be seen just standing in front of each other. Maybe they are reloading? It might be. But why are there no evasive manoeuvres? Why is the enemy Batchat with only a few hitpoints left not retreating to a repair zone? There is one just behind his lines, safely controlled by his team. Quite suspicious.
  • As I try to kill the enemy Batchat, you can see the Batchat that his closer to me making some very strange movements. Is he attempting to shield the enemy Batchat, trying to cover my line of fire so that he will not be killed?
  • I kill the Batchat, and turn towards one of our capzones at 7:46, noticing that an enemy Obj 907 is dangerously close to it and might get the flag in. Still, he is not even trying to do so, as you can clearly see at 7:37. Also, why are my allies pointing their guns towards me, instead of trying to kill an enemy that is dangerously close to getting a flag into the cap zone? Why is a player driving an Obj 140 getting between me and the enemy, while not even aiming at the Obj 907? This is something that can happen without any rigging involved, but it is indeed very suspicious, given the situation (Enemy very close to cap circle).
  • At 7:16, the situation evolves further: a T95E6 can be clearly seen shielding the enemy Obj 907 from an STB-1 on our team. He is not even trying to hide it, as his turret his turned towards the ally, rather than the enemy. At the same time, one Obj 140 and one Obj 907 on my team are attempting to shield the enemy Obj 907 from another Obj 140, which can be clearly seen attempting to kill the enemy. The STB-1 eventually succeeds in killing the enemy.
  • At 7:02, something else can be observed: the allied T95E6 and an Obj 430 can be clearly seen blocking the STB-1. Are they trying to anger him because he has killed one of their (alleged) accomplices…?
  • At 6:58, the ALLIED Obj 430 shoots at the STB-1, bouncing a shot on his upper plate, while the ALLIED Obj 907 shoots the STB-1 in the back, DAMAGING him(you need to activate the free camera mod to see it). Why? They just killed a very dangerous enemy, and there would be no reason for that. However, it is now obvious that something else is going on here.The STB-1 keeps getting team damaged by the Obj 140 and a newly arrived AMX 30B behind me (free camera needed to see him shooting), while also one of the (alleged) riggers gets shot (playfully…?)
  • At this point, it is already very clear to me what is going on here, and I decide to shield the STB-1 from getting shot any longer; I do this at 6:37 by getting in front of the Obj 140 (who seems to be the most trigger-happy in the rigging ring), and I get team damaged myself at 6:27. Meanwhile, all the other (alleged) riggers have clearly stopped even trying to look like legitimate players, and start unloading on the STB-1. At the same time as I am getting team damaged(6:27), you can see an enemy Obj 140 rushing in our direction (notice that it is the same player that was driving the Batchat that I killed). Why is no one interested in him? As always, it is something that can happen without rigging involved, but to even prefer team damaging an ally instead of shooting an enemy?
  • The enemy Obj 140 deals the killing blow on the STB-1, and here something else can be observed: the T95E6, one of those that I allege are part of this rigging ring, picks up the flag from the dead STB-1 on his team. At 6:18, he starts getting shot by the enemy Obj 140, apparently without attempting any resistance while he gets killed. Was he not “supposed” to do that…? Was the flag “reserved” for the enemy Obj 140…?
  • While this is happening, from 6:27 onwards, you can see that I am the ONLY players on my team shooting at the Obj 907, out of 6(SIX) allied players that are in the immediate vicinity of the enemy; …furthermore, you can see the Obj 907 on my team blatantly attempting to shield the enemy tank from my shots (at 6:12), while the Obj 140 on my team (the one previously involved in team damaging the STB-1) shoots at my track.
  • Another (alleged) rigger driving an M46 KR intervenes on the scene, coming straight for me (free camera needed to see him). Why would he rush mindlessly like that with so many enemy tanks ready to destroy him? Why does he go straight for me, ramming me? Fair enough, I am at this point one shot away from dying, but why does he not attempt to shoot his enemies at all? Why does he seem to move in synergy with them, instead?
  • At 5:51, I get killed by the enemy Obj 140. At this point, the (alleged) riggers seem to be content with what their unknown objective was, and start shooting around haphazard (they do not seem to mind shooting each other even though they are in the same team).
  • Unfortunately, I cannot reach the scene again after respawning in order to further investigate the events, and the battle ends.

 

Now, I checked every rigger’s account involved in this match and out of nine, four managed to get the T-22, please bear this in mind…

 

After the battle, Rolfwar sent a ticket to Wargaming, 16 February:

“I would like to inform you that we have implemented an automated system that is now monitoring all battles for such behavior that is against our Gameplay Rules and takes measures against such players automatically. Therefore there is no need for you to report these cases to us any more and please rest assured that any players that acquire the T-22 Medium Tank will receive the appropriate sanction.”

The developers have already found a way to control whether someone is rigging the battle or not”

 

Another player, Brownape, who has also authorized me to use the content he posted on the forum, has checked the riggers as well and on February, 23 he submitted a ticket to Wargaming reporting  only half of the riggers nicknames that managed to get the T-22.

CS Staff as usual answered by singing the same “automated system” song. But…

48 hours afterwards, only the half that was reported got banned. What about the other half then?

 

And that’s what caught my attention…

smirk_doctor_who
…WG you cheeky bugger.

I just gave a last check to the reported half, they are still looking like floating fish in a aquarium:

 

The unreported other half, they are out and about with their brand spanking new T-22s, Brownape tracked them on 2 different days:

 

I even gave the benefit of the doubt and waited one more week because such “automated” systems can be slow, you never know. Twenty two days after the match took place, the players are still not banned and enjoying their T-22s.

banned_wm
Larger version

 

My 2 Cents? I don’t want to jump on conclusions and call the company a liar (Truth is, they refuse to disclose information on things like these and is completely understandable why players are starting to doubt them) but if there is truly an Automated System its clear that it doesn’t work, not at least the way it should. It would be nice if WG recognized this and at least stop answering to people to not send reports in, its clear that players who’ve been trying to get the T-22 know that its ineffective and most, as usual, are bypassing the rules once more.

This is another proof that WG Costumer Support needs to be augmented/improved and that the Automated System needs to be monitored and possibly revised.

 

Sources:

T-22: A game of Rigging (Part 2)

Proof WG automated banning system is a lie

WoT-Life

 

 

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WG’s Automated Banning System is Ineffective

95 thoughts on “WG’s Automated Banning System is Ineffective

  1. T22_isnt_OP_Learn_to_aim says:

    I don’t understand why everyone thinks the T-22 is so “OP”. The only thing the tank has going for it is the side armor and half the players who have it are to dumb to know how to use it. and the other half who are the “super purple” just wont play in it. WGing isn’t going to stop rigging it’s the only way they have for people to play that shit of a gamemode. if They wanted it stopped Im sure by now they would have found a way. But they just keep the mode in and 10-20 people play it a night (NA)

    (But by all means it’s not as good of a tank as everyone thinks it is. Or as WGing made it out to be)

    The mode isn’t going anywhere They have put to much money into it to just drop it and never look back. The funny part is WGing is still adding new maps to the mode, But they wont add more maps to the Pubs……. WGing GG

    1. Wargaming gave me a press account with the T-22 and the tank made me feel like I was sealclubbing high tiers. There was little mental exercise to it, I just pressed forward while roflstomping the reds.

      1. The difference is most players don’t even know how to pen the T-22’s in the first place. It’s not a common tank to see, but easier to get than the 260 for obvious reasons. Similar to when the Japanese heavy line came out.. most people couldn’t figure out how to penetrate O-I’s. it was essentially seal clubbing.

  2. darkduke says:

    just go rigging your tank,,,,people rigging t22/sr not lower your chance to get it ,
    this tank is no number limit,everyone can get one ,stop complain and spy ,
    this is not campaign or type59 contest,,,,spend time to complain is no meaning ,,,

  3. Reporting players who rigging T22SR is not an effective way to prevent people from rigging it currently or in the future.
    T22SR is not just the only one reward tank. Similarly, T55A and Obj 260 are also reward tanks with large potential powers. But, why not that many people rig for them? The answer is too hard to do it. The population of random battle mode is still large, players in the same clan do not always match up in the same match easily. But the population of rampage mode is very small. This scenario is even extreme in NA sever. Twenty or thirty players click “battle” bottom at the same time could almost guarantee them to match up in the same battle.
    So the lower population creates a certain condition for rigging. This is the most important thing that Wargaming should be considered. The players have no choices, especially in NA sever. Either they rig for T22 or waiting for 4 mins for a single rampage battle or even longer.
    Even the auto ban system is real, the result would be still the same. Either players take huge risk to do it or less people play it.
    In my opinion, the only solution is to attract people to play this mode. The attraction should not be just T22SR but also contain enough amount of credits and experience, per battle.
    Besides, I do not believe that Wargaming will really remove all T22 from riggers. We have no idea how much Wargaming invested to Rampage mode. Ban all the riggers would result in less population play in this mode which does not fit WG’s best interest. Also, the level of rigging is also a complicated thing to judge. Like a player only rigged the last mission and the player rigged for the entire missions should have the same punishment or not?

  4. Wyattearp says:

    Rigging and other cheating is very commonplace, unfortunately. I’m in a very popular clan in NA and cheating is just accepted. First was use of minimap damage path indicator use in SH/CW, officers said nothing, continued to play and use data. Some pay monthly for WarPack with a variety of ‘helpful mods’. It’s the world we live in.

  5. Kommerzgandalf says:

    Great. If you get asked on stream why you do not talk about the issue of a CCT obviously rigging the missions, you dodge by saying you need evidence. Around 1 week later a thread in the german forums (http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/547944-manuel-moechte-auch-mal-was-sagen-yet-another-rigging-thread/) goes up, listing every single piece of proof you’d need. The thread gets translated to both french and english, you get sent the text by the user coolathlon, even days before he sent it to Armoredpatrol (who nearly immediatly wrote about it). So even with proof that WG was and still is protecting a rigger, with statements like “We checked him and couldn’t proof anything, even if we wanted to” flying around, you write fuckall about it. Thread of 108 pages with not a single reply from WG-staff. But hey, suddenly it becomes popular to flame WG about the way they handle the rigging, so you suddenly grow the balls to take the piss. But pointing out that WG-staff was intentionally lying? No. It is sad to see how you transformed what before was SilentStalker’s great blog of uncovering WG fuckups into a blog screaming populism and propaganda everywhere, with the only criticism coming from you if YOU can’t play the game or if someone doesn’t use YOUR translation for a T1 czech tank nobody gives a fuck about. Just provokes the feeling that you do not give a single shit about the community and more about your personal gain. Luckily, there still are other sources of WoT-related news than this propaganda-spam.

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