A Runescape Tournament Had so Much Cheating That No One Knows the Winner

Runefest 2017 took place last weekend, and part of the festivities included a RuneScape Tournament. A prize $20,000 plus $10,000 for a charity of the winner’s choice was up for grabs, but Jagex, the developer of Runescape and host of the tournament, don’t know who to award it to.

The tournament took place in Old School RuneScape, the branch of the game that keeps the aesthetic and systems from 2007. A competition server was set up, and the top 2,000 competitive players qualified for entry. To win the tournament, players had to level up for one week, then battle it out.

The initial 2,000 that qualified for the tournament eventually dropped down to 200. At that point, Jagex divided them into groups of 50 and placed them on four islands. The first trouble started on Red Island, where seven players wouldn’t fight each other and instead formed an alliance. Jagex ended up having to disqualify them when they refused to disband.

As the tournament continued, multiple players were disconnected at random, and the theory that they had been DDOSed began to surface. This became more relevant when the last one standing was 5PLUS50K12 who is part of a clan with a terrible reputation called Reign of Terror.

It was later confirmed by Jagex that 5PLUS50K12 created a bot farm, which can be used in a DDOS attack. Since this disqualifies him from the prize, Jagex is a bit baffled at what to do with the prize money. The tournament took such a long time to set up and coordinate that a rematch isn’t possible. Jagex’s statement regarding dispersal of prize money is below.

This then raises the question of what to do with the prize money. At the moment we’re discussing what to do with it. A few ideas we have at the moment are another charitable donation, dispersing the money among the finalists, or carrying it over to the next season (or a combination of all of these).

You can check out the full statement on the Old School RuneScape website.

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