As a lot of you already know, the CS community and the WCG committee have face an important issue during the 2007 Grand Final and it eventually cause a real coma in the competition schedule. I am talking about the infamous duck-jump or silent running exploit/bug that occurs when a player simultaneously hit the crouch key repeatedly. Now this doesn’t seem like a problem at first sight, however you have to know that when done properly, this can give an advantage to a player in two different ways.
First off, this method allow a player to move as fast as if he was running, while covering the sound and making it like if the player was running far away. That said, it means that a player, or a group, could make fake rushes towards a bombsite as long as they know they’re not going to get peeked. It also means that a player would be able to get from one point to another, with an unnatural amount of speed for the sound that’s emitted.
On top of the previous problem mentioned above, this technique can allow a player to deliberately mess up the normal hitboxes of the game. That means it will be harder to hit him than usual (for example you would have to aim at a different place that what it normally should be in order to hit his head). In that way, it is no different to using other config “hack” like developer 1, the old (nowadays fixed) ex_interp 1, and so many other things that can alter the game.
For these reasons, and the fact that the WCG Committee has seen this technique as an unfair advantage that wasn’t meant to be one in the game, the use of this exploit has been prohibited in the WCG tournaments for the past few years. In fact, the WCG see this problem just as other exploits like illegal flashing, rail sliding, silent plating, clipping, etc. It was an ethical decision.
First off, this method allow a player to move as fast as if he was running, while covering the sound and making it like if the player was running far away. That said, it means that a player, or a group, could make fake rushes towards a bombsite as long as they know they’re not going to get peeked. It also means that a player would be able to get from one point to another, with an unnatural amount of speed for the sound that’s emitted.
On top of the previous problem mentioned above, this technique can allow a player to deliberately mess up the normal hitboxes of the game. That means it will be harder to hit him than usual (for example you would have to aim at a different place that what it normally should be in order to hit his head). In that way, it is no different to using other config “hack” like developer 1, the old (nowadays fixed) ex_interp 1, and so many other things that can alter the game.
For these reasons, and the fact that the WCG Committee has seen this technique as an unfair advantage that wasn’t meant to be one in the game, the use of this exploit has been prohibited in the WCG tournaments for the past few years. In fact, the WCG see this problem just as other exploits like illegal flashing, rail sliding, silent plating, clipping, etc. It was an ethical decision.
However, some players brought up a whole point of view and the WCG is ready to listen to them. The main argument for them using this was that most players use it and they used to do this combination of moves in order to take the opponent’s off guard. As some leagues (mostly Scandinavians and Asians leagues) allow this, it is not true to state that everyone does it and therefore it should be allowed. This would be a completely different question (whether or not the WCG should allow the silent-running) and in no-way can excuse any player for committing such action. All that said, the WCG Committee is well-aware of the problem that this rule may bring up for the following events and is actually reviewing the possibilities. So far there hasn’t been an absolute answer. The three main possibilities though would be the following:
1- Old rule remains : dispute format gets changed, asking the teams to specify what round they think they could have been confused or disadvantaged by an opponent using this method;
2- Get rid of the rule, therefore allowing the move and play even though it can mess up the hitboxes.
3- (In my opinion the fairest of all 3) Get rid of the rules. Create a WCG Mod for the competition where the third duck-duck combo would have a jump penalty, therefore disallowing a player to move fast AND silent at the same time for a long period of time. At the same time, the players that are use to do this will still be able to do it, but won’t get the hidden advantage of it. This could also allow the WCG committee to fix the silent plant bug and other bug, facilitating the referees’ job and allow them to focus on things like ghosting and dead-speeches.
Players, readers and any other members of the community are welcome to collaborate in finding the best suitable option and are invited to write their comments about this situation or any other CS related subject to thierry@worldcybergames.ca
Cheers,
Thierry “Tee” St-Jacques-Gagnon
WCG Grand Final Chief Referee CS 1.6
1- Old rule remains : dispute format gets changed, asking the teams to specify what round they think they could have been confused or disadvantaged by an opponent using this method;
2- Get rid of the rule, therefore allowing the move and play even though it can mess up the hitboxes.
3- (In my opinion the fairest of all 3) Get rid of the rules. Create a WCG Mod for the competition where the third duck-duck combo would have a jump penalty, therefore disallowing a player to move fast AND silent at the same time for a long period of time. At the same time, the players that are use to do this will still be able to do it, but won’t get the hidden advantage of it. This could also allow the WCG committee to fix the silent plant bug and other bug, facilitating the referees’ job and allow them to focus on things like ghosting and dead-speeches.
Players, readers and any other members of the community are welcome to collaborate in finding the best suitable option and are invited to write their comments about this situation or any other CS related subject to thierry@worldcybergames.ca
Cheers,
Thierry “Tee” St-Jacques-Gagnon
WCG Grand Final Chief Referee CS 1.6
