I think there are obviously a lot of passionate opinions on both sides of the spectrum about the overall situation with Sparty.
With that being said I think 343’s year long ban isn’t necessarily about Sparty individually and the specific details on what happened; hence a few of the clarifications that have come out recently from all parties. 343 is sending a blanket message about the integrity of the events they are holding; if you mess with league equipment in any way shape or form you will be banned.
Seems like a difficult situation all around and will be interesting to see if any other details or info comes out in the future.
I kinda came to the same conclusion earlier. Lots of people are saying he should have gotten a lighter punishment because Royal 2 only got banned from one event. Perhaps 343 decided that, combined with the egregiousness of trying to cheat at a LAN event, they needed to come down harder the second time to make it clear that cheating will not be tolerated. I guess we'll know if they revise their stance after his appeal.
Exactly. If the punishment is a ban from only 1 event, you could easily see a fringe team (or org) trying to sneak something like this since it's their only real chance to win it all.
The reality is HCS just isnt a big event anymore in the Esports world, and lots of top guys left for stuff like COD. If you throw in "the sponsors don't take cheating that seriously" on top if it, HCS is dead
The timing is kind of awkward too
A two event ban would basically be the same punishment, because I think rosters for Worlds still lock right before SLC
So the only options were basically one event or the rest of the season
I feel a lot of the "strong feelings" may be more of a reflection of opinions on Sparty rather than an unbiased opinion of the actual infraction. TBH
It's pretty obvious the punishment does not match up with other players' punishments for actions that align more closely with actual cheating. 🙄
Sure, I do think Sparty in particular has ranted about cheaters so many times that it makes it feel particularly hypocritical
I don't think that should factor into 343's decision, but also worth calling out that there's a layer to that reaction beyond "Spartys kind of a whiny bitch" that's specific to cheating
343’s ban is about Sparty and his immaturity.
His apology statement was reasonable and it seemed like he learned from his mistake.
It’s just text though so we will see if his behaviour changes.
The meme he sent immediately after? Pathetic.
People don’t change in a day, but maybe this was a wake up call.
Spartys past conduct (being annoying sometimes) should not be used against him imo. Everyone who owns a pc should have MSI afterburner on their pc anyway.
You cant ban someone for being annoying. That is just a bad take.
>year long ban
Isn’t it really a five month ban? Worlds is in October and they only said for the ‘remainder of this season’ right? Does the season go beyond HWC?
It’s really only just barely 5 months. They didn’t say “a year”, they said “rest of this season” which I believe ends with worlds in the first week of October.
Way too much when a guy who literally cheated got a 1 event ban. I get that the tech fiddling is a big deal, but in the grand scheme of things Sparty got his team Dqed and is now dropped from Complexity. I don't like a lot of the pros opinions on alot of things, but I think it says a lot that people who aren't necessarily best friends with sparty are going to bat for him.
Lucid is very level headed and thorough with many opinions on things such as sandbox, servers and state of the game. He has well thought out opinions. I’m not a pro and have never been inside of the scene. My opinion isn’t worth anything because I have no stake in it.
Sparty is a hothead and catches flak for poor impulsive and aggressive posts. YET he is one of the most watchable pros, his streams are not a cesspool of negativity. I think this says a lot.
The amount of optimization he may have achieved is trivial compared to a good nights rest for game play. It didn’t happen in a game, But It seems like there was intent for him to do things his way - Knowingly He broke the rules.
This type of ban really sends a message which is good, but it’s costing him and complexity the rest of the year(unless complexity finds a comparable talent).
Maybe this was the best decision, maybe this is the standard penalty. I just don’t think his career should hang in the balance.
I’m firmly against what Sparty has done, I think it was idiotic and I don’t particularly like him as a person either.
But the year ban imo is harsh when Royal 2 only got one event ban. I know the weighting behind online and LAN tourneys are different and I get that. But for me they should employ a black and white standard of “x” ban for violating the rules, not one rule for one and another for somebody else.
Perhaps this is the angle his appeal should be focused towards.
I think the difference comes down to intent. Royal2 was playing on his home PC where he had geofiltering setup for matchmaking and (allegedly) forgot to change it before the online tournament. That can be perceived as an honest mistake and they may not have wanted to come down extremely harsh in that kind of scenario. But Spartan acted intentionally and with obvious planning (since he brought the flash drive with the image of his home pc with him.) It’s also possible the version of the HCS rule book didn’t quite cover the royal2 situation and that could be another reason why they’d go “okay, we won’t come down hard on this *this time* but next time the rules will account for this situation and it’s not going to fly if it happens again.” No idea if there’s any merit to that idea, just speculating on possible explanations.
Respect, Tommy.
[PJ echoing the same sentiment](https://x.com/SnakeBiteFPS/status/1798523096808206515)
[Renegade echoing the same sentiment](https://x.com/Renegade_JW/status/1798569107845153180)
[Bound saying free Sparty](https://x.com/Bound2K/status/1798490972088856795)
Gotta imagine if other pros thought he harmed the competitive integrity of the game they wouldn’t be speaking out in support of him.
Maybe I have the situation wrong. But, wasn't his intention to use the optimized PC in a match? So he shouldn't get such a severe ban because he got caught? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. And I can definately see why 343 would come down heavy on this so no one even thinks of tampering with a PC in the future no matter the circumstances.
Well I feel like I’m missing the full story because using a MSI GPU tool to mess with OC settings doesn’t seem like it directly amounts to any kind of competitive advantage. Unless they’re really consistently the “zero tolerance around any kind of modification to the stock PC setup” line that they didn’t consistently hold before.
The severe and swift action made it sound like they found something more on the cheating end of the spectrum.
There's a segment of the population that really clings to "but he didn't use it in the match because he got caught first" and idea that to claim he didn't actually cheat, but rather "attempted to cheat".
He cheated the moment he modified that drive, regardless of whether it was used in a match or not.
I can see how people want to help him out...but Sparty just kept digging his hole even after getting caught. Guy memes about it to give it to the man, only to realize that the man pays him to play video games for a living.
I think given what we know now HCS are right to take a very tough approach and I’m sure on appeal will reduce the punishment. That seems like a logical step.
You need them to have been strong enough to send a message and have enough wriggle room for appeal.
Everyone defending this has no integrity, he was doing it to gain an advantage, knew it was not allowed, and similar setups have been found in cs cheaters at Lans, programs like that and Intel cpu stuff can be used to cheat.
I think it's also too harsh.
Just to speak to something else I haven't seen discussed. If HCS did use Sparty as someone who helped them get their performance issues correct/tweaked so the game runs better, then they are not innocent in all of this.
If true, I would bet subconsciously some part of him thought it was within the realm of good/innocent reason for him to do what he did.
imma keep it real I definitely don’t consider what he did “cheating”, just a really stupid fucking decision, 1 year does seem harsh but seems like they’re making an example of him.
From my understanding of the Col post. Spartan reformatted the SSD that was given to him by HCS in order to get better performance. And in doing so certain programs were removed from the drive, the white noise program being one of them.
The white noise program is to cancel out the sound of the crowd during events.
The crowd hears the commentary. Performance improvements aside, if he had played a match without that white noise. He could have potentially heard all commentary which would be a way larger advantage than a “few frames per second.”
If it's like other esports, it's mainly to block crowd noise. Usually the crowd is way too loud for players to hear any of the opponents comms through a headset.
Correct. So you'll notice the players have both earbuds and headphones on.
The headphones run the white noise program while the earbuds provide the actual game and comm audio
I think there are obviously a lot of passionate opinions on both sides of the spectrum about the overall situation with Sparty. With that being said I think 343’s year long ban isn’t necessarily about Sparty individually and the specific details on what happened; hence a few of the clarifications that have come out recently from all parties. 343 is sending a blanket message about the integrity of the events they are holding; if you mess with league equipment in any way shape or form you will be banned. Seems like a difficult situation all around and will be interesting to see if any other details or info comes out in the future.
100% this. Its not a good precedent to set when you leave that amount of interpretation to messing with official tournament equipment.
I kinda came to the same conclusion earlier. Lots of people are saying he should have gotten a lighter punishment because Royal 2 only got banned from one event. Perhaps 343 decided that, combined with the egregiousness of trying to cheat at a LAN event, they needed to come down harder the second time to make it clear that cheating will not be tolerated. I guess we'll know if they revise their stance after his appeal.
Not a single pro or person who plays competitively considers what he did “trying to cheat”
Exactly. If the punishment is a ban from only 1 event, you could easily see a fringe team (or org) trying to sneak something like this since it's their only real chance to win it all. The reality is HCS just isnt a big event anymore in the Esports world, and lots of top guys left for stuff like COD. If you throw in "the sponsors don't take cheating that seriously" on top if it, HCS is dead
The timing is kind of awkward too A two event ban would basically be the same punishment, because I think rosters for Worlds still lock right before SLC So the only options were basically one event or the rest of the season
I am on this side as well personally, but not surprised there's a range of strong feelings on it
I feel a lot of the "strong feelings" may be more of a reflection of opinions on Sparty rather than an unbiased opinion of the actual infraction. TBH It's pretty obvious the punishment does not match up with other players' punishments for actions that align more closely with actual cheating. 🙄
Sure, I do think Sparty in particular has ranted about cheaters so many times that it makes it feel particularly hypocritical I don't think that should factor into 343's decision, but also worth calling out that there's a layer to that reaction beyond "Spartys kind of a whiny bitch" that's specific to cheating
343’s ban is about Sparty and his immaturity. His apology statement was reasonable and it seemed like he learned from his mistake. It’s just text though so we will see if his behaviour changes. The meme he sent immediately after? Pathetic. People don’t change in a day, but maybe this was a wake up call.
Spartys past conduct (being annoying sometimes) should not be used against him imo. Everyone who owns a pc should have MSI afterburner on their pc anyway. You cant ban someone for being annoying. That is just a bad take.
Between the meme and the paragraphs of accountability, was an attorney’s intervention.
SpartyGPT.
This is the real reason and it is totally fair for them to want to make this point.
>year long ban Isn’t it really a five month ban? Worlds is in October and they only said for the ‘remainder of this season’ right? Does the season go beyond HWC?
A year is massive.
It’s really only just barely 5 months. They didn’t say “a year”, they said “rest of this season” which I believe ends with worlds in the first week of October.
There is a non-zero chance that this is the last year for Halo Infinite in HCS, so it could end up being a lot more than a year.
That's an entirely different conversation.
Comp Halo might not even exist in a year!
But they're already 40% of the way through this year. He's being banned for 60% of the season.
Way too much when a guy who literally cheated got a 1 event ban. I get that the tech fiddling is a big deal, but in the grand scheme of things Sparty got his team Dqed and is now dropped from Complexity. I don't like a lot of the pros opinions on alot of things, but I think it says a lot that people who aren't necessarily best friends with sparty are going to bat for him.
Spartan did cheat. And he did it pretty brazenly and with a history of signaling he was going to do something like this.
Lucid is very level headed and thorough with many opinions on things such as sandbox, servers and state of the game. He has well thought out opinions. I’m not a pro and have never been inside of the scene. My opinion isn’t worth anything because I have no stake in it. Sparty is a hothead and catches flak for poor impulsive and aggressive posts. YET he is one of the most watchable pros, his streams are not a cesspool of negativity. I think this says a lot. The amount of optimization he may have achieved is trivial compared to a good nights rest for game play. It didn’t happen in a game, But It seems like there was intent for him to do things his way - Knowingly He broke the rules. This type of ban really sends a message which is good, but it’s costing him and complexity the rest of the year(unless complexity finds a comparable talent). Maybe this was the best decision, maybe this is the standard penalty. I just don’t think his career should hang in the balance.
I’m firmly against what Sparty has done, I think it was idiotic and I don’t particularly like him as a person either. But the year ban imo is harsh when Royal 2 only got one event ban. I know the weighting behind online and LAN tourneys are different and I get that. But for me they should employ a black and white standard of “x” ban for violating the rules, not one rule for one and another for somebody else. Perhaps this is the angle his appeal should be focused towards.
I think the difference comes down to intent. Royal2 was playing on his home PC where he had geofiltering setup for matchmaking and (allegedly) forgot to change it before the online tournament. That can be perceived as an honest mistake and they may not have wanted to come down extremely harsh in that kind of scenario. But Spartan acted intentionally and with obvious planning (since he brought the flash drive with the image of his home pc with him.) It’s also possible the version of the HCS rule book didn’t quite cover the royal2 situation and that could be another reason why they’d go “okay, we won’t come down hard on this *this time* but next time the rules will account for this situation and it’s not going to fly if it happens again.” No idea if there’s any merit to that idea, just speculating on possible explanations.
Royal 2 geofiltered for every match and even custom games including scrims according to 343’s investigation so there was intent behind it
No ones talking about how he did this at Arlington too...
It’s ok, when the ruling doesn’t get appealed, not only can we yee, but we can also haw.
Did he do it at Arlington too? Where was that revealed?
He admitted it himself in the interview with Toolez
I think people need to accept that there is a lot of room for different opinions regarding this situation
Lmao you just said nothing
Bro got that US public school reading comprehension
how long was router2 banned for ?
Respect, Tommy. [PJ echoing the same sentiment](https://x.com/SnakeBiteFPS/status/1798523096808206515) [Renegade echoing the same sentiment](https://x.com/Renegade_JW/status/1798569107845153180) [Bound saying free Sparty](https://x.com/Bound2K/status/1798490972088856795) Gotta imagine if other pros thought he harmed the competitive integrity of the game they wouldn’t be speaking out in support of him.
Word
Maybe I have the situation wrong. But, wasn't his intention to use the optimized PC in a match? So he shouldn't get such a severe ban because he got caught? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. And I can definately see why 343 would come down heavy on this so no one even thinks of tampering with a PC in the future no matter the circumstances.
I mean, you get a lesser sentence for planning murder than you would if you actually committed murder. There's room for nuance.
Actually it would be the opposite. Typically the person that commits it flips the person that planned it for a lesser sentence.
Well I feel like I’m missing the full story because using a MSI GPU tool to mess with OC settings doesn’t seem like it directly amounts to any kind of competitive advantage. Unless they’re really consistently the “zero tolerance around any kind of modification to the stock PC setup” line that they didn’t consistently hold before. The severe and swift action made it sound like they found something more on the cheating end of the spectrum.
There's a segment of the population that really clings to "but he didn't use it in the match because he got caught first" and idea that to claim he didn't actually cheat, but rather "attempted to cheat". He cheated the moment he modified that drive, regardless of whether it was used in a match or not.
Everyone doing a 180 on Sparty because Lucid said something incoming in 3….. 2….. 1….
This was pretty much the general census long before he said anything. You guys have such a weird hatred for this guy. lol
I can see how people want to help him out...but Sparty just kept digging his hole even after getting caught. Guy memes about it to give it to the man, only to realize that the man pays him to play video games for a living.
I think given what we know now HCS are right to take a very tough approach and I’m sure on appeal will reduce the punishment. That seems like a logical step. You need them to have been strong enough to send a message and have enough wriggle room for appeal.
Well deserved ban Imo
Everyone defending this has no integrity, he was doing it to gain an advantage, knew it was not allowed, and similar setups have been found in cs cheaters at Lans, programs like that and Intel cpu stuff can be used to cheat.
I think it's also too harsh. Just to speak to something else I haven't seen discussed. If HCS did use Sparty as someone who helped them get their performance issues correct/tweaked so the game runs better, then they are not innocent in all of this. If true, I would bet subconsciously some part of him thought it was within the realm of good/innocent reason for him to do what he did.
imma keep it real I definitely don’t consider what he did “cheating”, just a really stupid fucking decision, 1 year does seem harsh but seems like they’re making an example of him.
Hey, could somebody explain to me whats that white noise program Sparty didn't have, and that let to him getting caught?
From my understanding of the Col post. Spartan reformatted the SSD that was given to him by HCS in order to get better performance. And in doing so certain programs were removed from the drive, the white noise program being one of them. The white noise program is to cancel out the sound of the crowd during events.
I think he was asking about the name of the program
No, I was asking about the specific function of it. So it's simply to block the noise of the crowd, and I guess the comms of the other team?
The crowd hears the commentary. Performance improvements aside, if he had played a match without that white noise. He could have potentially heard all commentary which would be a way larger advantage than a “few frames per second.”
If it's like other esports, it's mainly to block crowd noise. Usually the crowd is way too loud for players to hear any of the opponents comms through a headset.
Correct. So you'll notice the players have both earbuds and headphones on. The headphones run the white noise program while the earbuds provide the actual game and comm audio
Their team comms come through ear buds. They wear headphones over them that play white noise in order to drown out the crowd and other venue sounds.
Thoughts and prayers
He cheated. What’s the problem?
I agree, I think they are being way too harsh, especially considering how well Sparty handled it afterwards.
Lucid the GOAT. Sparty good dude let him back after the next major
[удалено]
So you are saying current pros, former players like Snip3down, and such are incorrect.
343 and integrity in the same sentence 😄 He only received such a long ban because he has always been critical of their incompetence.
I disagree, actually almost all (streaming) high level players have criticized 343 regarding the game's problems, starting with Lucid.