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What is cheating in esports? Is cheating illegal ? What is the responsibility of game publishers and/or tournament organizers?

Cheating in esports goes further than the typical use of “hack” and “cheat” software to increase the players performance (for example the ability to see through walls, auto-aim or increase of damage in shooter games). A wider definition of cheating in esports also consists of decreasing the opponent’s abilities in an unfair way such as a cyber-attack to slow down the opponents’ server, connection or device.  

Maybe less obvious, but cheating in esports also includes “edoping”, which is the use of performance-enhancing drugs while playing at a competitive level.  

Finally, also the phenomenon of match-fixing on competitive esports games, whereby an opponent is to reduce its performances or to lose intentionally at a price, can be included under a wide definition of cheating.

What is cheating in esports?

With the exception of some countries, there are not many national jurisdictions that explicitly prohibit cheating in esports or the development of cheating software. That does not mean that cheating would not be illegal. Belgian legislation, for instance, implemented (already in 2001) a new title in the criminal code, qualifying “hacking” as a criminal conduct. Hacking itself is defined rather limited in the sense that only the unauthorized access to someone’s IT-devices is covered and qualified as a criminal offence. However, this movement in Belgian legislation is part of the increased importance to prevent all sorts of cybercrime, such as fraud on the internet, spamming, sabotage of IT-devices, online racism, etc. Also, under Belgian law, a number of “hotlines”, such as for example the “[Federal Cyber Emergency Team](https://cert.be/)”, have been set up where people can report online crimes, which can lead to the authorities launching an investigation.  

Unlike fighting cybercrimes, the importance for authorities to regulate the “traditional” forms of cheating (i.e. cheating software to increase one’s abilities) within the environment of a game seems rather low, since: i) this form of cheating happens in a casual context whereby there is no real “monetary damage” incurred by other players; and ii) enforcing the “rules” of a game should mainly be the responsibility of the one setting the rules, in this case the creator of the game, as long as this stays within the gaming environment. Again, this does not mean that this kind of cheating would not be illegal if the specific acts committed qualify as illegal acts under applicable law (e.g. when the cheating includes the unlawful processing of personal data or because cheating software violates IP rights of the creator). Some of the forms of cheating that are mentioned under [see, “What is cheating in esports?”] can be under the scope of criminal law as criminal offences that at first sight seem not necessarily linked with esports. For example, it is prohibited to possess and use certain drugs, the stealing of someone’s personal data or credit card information can be qualified as (identity) theft, gaining unauthorized access to someone’s information is a criminal offence,  

etc. The public prosecutor will therefore investigate whether it is possible to qualify cheating under the “traditional criminal offences”, in case there is no particular article in the criminal code which criminalizes cheating.  

The creators of a game / organizer of a tournament also have legal grounds against the cheater and the developers of the cheating software. Indeed, the players will almost always have to accept terms and conditions, stipulating that they will not violate the rules, will not cheat, etc., before entering the game lobbies. The “sanction” for violating these terms and conditions is typically the contractually provided sanction mechanism, often resulting in a ban to continue playing the game, a setback of ranks, etc. Also, the developer could lodge a criminal complaint (with the authorities) to report the forms of cheating that would violate applicable (criminal) law. Against the creator of the cheating software, a game developer will have a claim based on civil law (mainly for violating the developer’s intellectual property). Many developers (such as Activision) have been able to successfully enforce creators of cheating software to seize their activities via a lawsuit.  

Is cheating illegal?

Even when “soft forms” of cheating (such as the improving of one’s abilities in the environment of the game) may not always be illegal, one might question the responsibility of the developer of the game in this regard. Players of a game do pay a certain amount of money to play a game on a fair playing field, without unfair advantages for certain players.  

In general, there is no responsibility for the developer of the game to provide a level playing field for its players. However, if a player incurs damage due to cheaters, he or she may have legal grounds for a civil law claim for indemnification against the creator who failed to respond adequately to cheaters on its platform and to reasonably enforce its own “rules”. In addition, when the cheating by the third party could be qualified as a criminal offence and the creator does not respond in stopping this, such omittance could in principle lead to criminal responsibility of the creator, since this might qualify as “aiding of”, or complicity to the criminal offences of the cheaters.  

From a procedural aspect, the claims that gamers might have against the developer are often subject to the end user licence agreement, which the player will have to agree before starting the game. Sometimes the possibility to claim damages is waived by a player and it will often be agreed upon that all claims should be brought before an arbitrational panel or that a foreign court will be competent to handle complaints and claims of damage. Under imperative Belgian law (Code on Economic law and the Judicial Code), these clauses are not necessarily valid and thus even when “agreed” with the end user licence agreement, a casual player (who will qualify as a consumer) will be able to invoke Belgian law and start proceedings before Belgian courts. Due to the high costs and long duration of proceeding, claimants may however not be incentivized to start a procedure, merely for having their gaming experience being ruined by cheaters.

Responsibility of the creator of the game?

However, when the stakes are higher than a “casual game with friends”, there is also a higher necessity to organize a fair competitive setting and to ban all sorts of cheating. Therefore, the organizers of an esports

tournament will feel strong pressure to impose and enforce a strict (contractual) set of rules that ensure an environment without cheating.

In practice, we see that organizers of esports tournaments do take this responsibility seriously. For example, [ESL](https://esl.com/), formerly Electronic Sports League, world’s largest organizer of e-sports events and competitions of games (such as Dota2, CS:GO, etc.) has its anti-drug policy. All participants to their tournament will be tested for the use of prohibited performance-enhancing substances. ESL also collaborates with different companies that radar for potential match-fixing on esports. On a more “soft-law” level, the [Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC)](https://esic.gg/), formerly the Esports Integrity Coalition, was founded in 2016 in order to create different codes of conduct on fair competitive behavior between all stakeholders of competitive gaming. According to their mission statement, ESIC is a not-for-profit members’ association that helps tournament organizers, game developers, esports leagues, or betting operators offering esports, to improve the integrity of esports.

Finally, also the BESF has a workstream that is focused on Ethics & Integrity work. See [LINK] for more information.

Prevention of cheating in esports – Who is responsible?

What is cheating in esports?

Is cheating illegal?

Responsibility of the creator of the game?

What about the organizer of an esports tournament?

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