A while ago, after the "League of Legends" LGD team playing wild Condi was exposed to playing fake matches, some people lamented that "even the top events such as LPL have people playing fake matches, what other games can be avoided?" ” 。
It is true that the current esports circle is not as simple as it was at the beginning, and it is not said that such things as fake matches have become popular, but at least it is certain that there are a few teams or a few people involved in each popular competitive game.
Such a trend does not only exist among professional players, but also in the games of ordinary players, there have long been similar things.
There are many people who lose the game while playing competitive games, and there is always such an idea as "I tried my best in this plate, this segmented teammate is too dish to move!" If only I had a higher score, I wouldn't have met such a stupid X teammate. ”
But if you fight yourself, you are always pit by your teammates and can't fight?
As a result, a profession was born - "substitute training".
As the name suggests, it is the person who collects money to help others play the game and hits a higher score or rank, and the so-called "thug" is a concept, I can't win and call others to fight!
In a way, substitute training is really a profession that many people dream of: you can make money while playing games, you can play whenever you want, and you can rest when you want.
According to a friend of mine who practiced on behalf of others, the income from substitute training is basically determined by two factors: the level of substitute training and the length of time spent in substitute training.
Low-level training, may play a game only 10 yuan, but the powerful training, play a hand has 50, 60 yuan, you can also choose to play, while playing with others while teaching, the price is higher.
As long as you want, you can play for 24 hours in a row, even if it is only 10 yuan, the income can be very high.
In competitive games such as "League of Legends" and "Dota2", the training industry has evolved its own unique system, generally led by a more famous person in a circle, forming a small group and building a QQ group or WeChat group.
Then open a Taobao store, when a customer places an order, it will "distribute" the order in the training group, explain the requirements, and let the agents in the group be interested in taking orders by themselves.
But there is a drawback to doing so: when there are a lot of substitute orders for the same score segment, the substitutes may be matched on both sides of the same game, which means that one of them will have to play at least two more games to ensure a net win.
But there are always more ideas than problems.
In Dota2's game matchmaking mechanic, there is a language preference option where players who choose the same language preference are matched together.
This was originally a mechanism used to prevent players who did not understand each other from matching on the same team to affect the game experience, but this was used by the practitioners to make "their own people" match together and avoid "cannibalism".
So for a while, after receiving the order, the national service practitioners organized themselves, set their language preferences to "small languages" that were not very popular, and then matched them.
Imagine five people who are many people who are higher than this segment and team up to play five "natives" in this segment, is there still suspense in winning or losing? It's as easy as the Chinese national table tennis team to practice against the Thai national team.
Normal players may take thirty or forty minutes to complete a game, during which they have to go through various details such as line-to-line, mid-term operation, and team battles, but in the hands of substitute training, it is often only ten minutes to end with a specific lineup.
A Game of Dota2 with an average duration of half an hour can be won in just over ten minutes in the hands of professional trainers.
Originally, such a substitute training was limited to the middle and low-end bureaus, mainly ordinary masters abusing dishes...
However, due to the fact that there are only a few places in professional clubs, many high-scoring players have no hope of playing professionals, and they only have such a skill in the game, these masters who have almost touched the threshold of professional players have also joined the training industry.
Although the high-segmented training is indeed more profitable, winning a plate or even starting at a hundred dollars, this money is not so easy to take.
Because in the high-level rankings, what can be matched are some "familiar faces", so these high-scoring players often encounter professional players, anchors and so on in the list... The latter also do not eat dry food, and it is often a mutual victory and defeat when fighting.
Pictured here is the LGD Dota2 division in the single Maybe
If it is five high-scoring substitutes to form a team, once you encounter two or three professional players on the opposite side and add high scores to the "aboriginal", if everyone fights seriously, it is definitely the professional player who wins more.
Even if there is no professional player, it is difficult to easily divide the winner and loser because the people in the high segment are of the same level.
Losing and winning means standing still in the ranking score, how can this make money?
So in order to ensure the winning rate, the substitute practitioners thought of a method: arrange a person to play a fake match in the opposing team.
Opposite inner OS
The specific operation is that the six scores of the same substitute practice appointment time, choose the language preference and other settings, and match at the same time, so that there is a high probability that five people will be lined up together, and the remaining one is on the opposite side.
5 hits 5 hits, 6 hits 4 can't always lose, right?
This method is indeed very effective, much easier than the original hard work and serious play, so more and more substitute practitioners choose to "just eat" in this way, which also gives birth to such a thing as a "high-level actor".
In addition, now dota2 updates the ladder matching has one more option to choose their own position, as long as the five substitutes choose their own positions, almost 100% will be on the same side in the case of similar scores, while ordinary high-segment players such as anchors and professional players must belong to one of the four people who are pitted.
Originally, if the substitute practitioners pit people and do not go out silently, no one can see whether anyone in a game is "acting", after all, the substitute practitioners are also going to score points, and every time they change people to go to the opposite side.
But just a few days ago, the well-known Dota2 anchor Bu Yanjun (Pis) posted a whistleblower on his Weibo, saying that he was asked by a group of people to "pay protection fees".
Many players can't figure out why playing a game has to fall to the point of "paying protection fees", is it difficult to have a underworld in the game?
Pis is a top-notch anchor and former pro. Normally, with his level to play ladder matching, he is the one who can win with his teammates, he is superbly skilled, young and famous, and has nearly 1 million followers in Fighting Fish.
However, the last time he broadcast live, he encountered the strange situation of "how can I not win", is it really too good for himself?
After some investigation, he found that almost all the games he played had an "actor" working as an undercover agent on his team to help the opposite side win.
As mentioned earlier, the matching of high-bureau games is often just a few "familiar faces", so it is difficult to avoid these substitutes.
The leader also arrogantly said that in the future, if Pis wants to fight the ladder and wins, he will have to pay a "protection fee", and one mouth is 20,000 yuan a month.
It turned out that those substitute practitioners found that in the high sub-bureau with their own arrangements of "actors", winning the game has never been so easy, whether it is the anchor or the professional player, they have become the underlings of the substitute trainers, they can't help but have a feeling of "the ladder is in my control", no wonder they will clamor to "play them (referring to those who do not pay the protection fee) do not dare to hit the ladder "
I don't know if their "protection fee" claim is serious or a joke, but I can be sure that this means is indeed illegal.
In South Korea, where the e-sports industry is most mature, this kind of behavior has always been based on an attitude of never being tolerated.
Hanbok "League of Legends" has a player named Dopa, his own strength is very strong, the fame is also very large, he ranked first in Hanbok for many years, but he was originally because he had a black history of "substitute training", he was banned from the official account of "League of Legends" for 1000 years, and was not allowed to participate in official related competitions for two years.
You should know that there are often netizens who prove that Dopa plays with Faker in the rankings, and Faker is already a triple crown, if Dopa goes to participate in professional competitions, it will definitely become another star player and promote the development of "League of Legends"...
However, because he had engaged in substitute training, the official directly abandoned him.
Recently, it was reported that the South Korean government issued a law that would result in a two-year prison sentence and a fine of $17,000 for fee-based training.
Looking at the domestic environment, Taobao can see shops everywhere about game training, and the business is extremely hot.
On some live broadcast platforms, there are also some anchors, and live broadcasting helps others practice on their behalf.
Perhaps this is also one of the reasons that promote the "arrogance" of the substitute practitioners.
In recent years, China's Dota2 professional circles rarely see talented newcomers emerge, but a variety of "genius teenagers" emerge in a variety of foreign countries, is it really because we play Dota2 too few people? Isn't it because we don't have genius? Nor is it.
Instead, many people have chosen a way to make money that they think is "more comfortable".
Dota was a battleground that we loved and believed in, but then some people changed.
Without the demand for substitute training, there will be no substitute training market, and there will be no substitute training profession... The problem is still with some players who pay for training.
Out of vanity, they forget the fun of competitive gaming and are content to show off their high-scoring accounts that rely on others
I think most of them may have forgotten the look on their faces when they won the first game.
References, image sources: One of my substitute friends Weibo@YaphetS, Bu Yanjun
"I should respect the winner, but you don't deserve it."