Written by Bhavya Singh
A. Introduction
E-sports has grown rapidly from the esoteric pastime it once was into a big, billion-dollar industry with organized competitions, firm sponsorships with companies, and multitudes of fans within every corner of the earth. Superstars in the field compete, and major industries become aware of how much it brings home and plunge heavily in terms of investment towards tournaments, but this explosion comes with certain ethical controversies that challenge its integrity and honesty.
Unlike traditional sports, e-sports lacks a typical governance framework that would hinder the proliferation of cheating, e-doping, match-fixing, and identity fraud. Aimbots and wall hacks are among the most popular software cheats that offer an unfair advantage for players. Practices like account sharing compromise competitive fairness. All these breaches can potentially undermine trust among fans, sponsors, and stakeholders that fuel the industry.
It has addressed the most pressing ethical issues related to e-sport, legal issues of regulation, and suggestions for improving integrity. This would bring it into fair competition and back healthy growth in the sport.
B. Types of Ethical Breaches in E-Sports
B.1. Software Cheating and Hardware Exploits
Software cheating and hardware exploits play a huge role in competitive e-sports, taking away the ground of fairness from players. Software cheats are generally types of software that automate what would be an action that requires high skill and precision. Some of these include aimbots that make players aim at any point they want and wall hacks, which enable the user to see a place where their opponent or opponents would not be because they are behind walls. These cheats distort the balance of e-sports contests, putting at a disadvantage earnest players who rely on experience and effort.
Hardware exploitations, though rare are also not integrity-enjoying cheats. Such mudded controllers or hardware apparatuses could automate a group of actions or allow gamers to have a much finer reaction time than their friends. These software and hardware cheats deviate from the root of competitive gaming and a player should be given utmost importance on the success measurement.
B.2. Case Study: The Forsaken Incident
An example of what had happened directly because of cheating in the field of e-sports was the Forsaken case in which the player Nikhil "Forsaken" Kumawat of the India team OpTic used a lot of aimbot cheat programs during a game at the Extremesland Asia Final event. Such was this incident that not only gave the reputation of OpTic India a dent, but also brought forward its non-serious approach with stricter measures against cheating players. The results were indeed severe: Kumawat got five years ban, while the roster of OpTic India was disbanded along with reputational losses all over the world.(Kaspersky & Carnevali, 2024)
Such ethical breaches can be combated with the use of strong regulatory and legal frameworks. Of course, there is one major player that takes matters of fairness in e-sports into its own hands- the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC). A governing body is there to look into cases where cheating occurs and impose sanctions. However, as the case of CS, on the coach bug, Mateusz Witkowski puts it, the success of ESIC depends entirely on tournament organizers following its rules and strictly enforcing them in every event. ESL-type events tend to abide by decisions handed down from ESIC, while most others do not, opening the door for uneven enforcement that deters little. (Witkowski, 2022).
According to Schöber and Stadtmann, (Schöber & Stadtmann, 2022), countermeasures are also necessary for the prevention of cheating, because it does not only damage the reputation of teams and sponsors but also the fans' reputation. An analysis made by Witkowski on "Cheating in e-sports" further shows the necessity of uniform rules and regulations and their application at every tournament level for ensuring integrity.
B.3. E-Doping and Performance-Enhancing Drugs (PEDs)
The problem in e-sports, of course, is a different one: e-doping, which refers to the use of cognitive-enhancing drugs. It's very different from traditional doping in physical sports because while traditional doping tends to focus on strength and endurance in the body, e-doping targets mental agility—focusing on reaction times and cognitive endurance for competitive gaming. It began to receive attention in 2015 after a professional Counter-Strike player named Kory "Semphis" Friesen of Cloud9, confessed that the night before a significant game, he consumed Adderall. It unveiled a terrible, unseen problem to the community; against such a revelation, opinions were received regarding an organized regime of anti-doping policy among teams.
In response, the ESL collaborated with WADA to introduce drug testing for certain tournaments. Still, without an industry-wide framework, enforcement remains spotty, and there are vast regulatory gaps. T. L. Taylor, in Watch Me Play (2018), addresses how accountability in e-doping becomes complex in live-streamed environments. (Taylor, 2018) A deeper study by Michał Jasny also reveals the surprising acceptance of cognitive enhancers by the e-sports community, where many players and fans find it necessary to compete at an elite level.
Friesen's case and the research by Jasny highlighted how e-sports require unified, industry-wide harmonized anti-doping policies, which would assure the same quality of play throughout any given tournament. Then all players' trust, along with that of the fans and all stakeholders in this sphere of activity, would be held in high esteem since regulation through uniform testing will secure its integrity. (Jasny, 2020)
By employing a model using game theory, one finds that between two teams decisions involving doping result in a prisoner's dilemma: whereas both teams derive higher payoffs through doping, thus making doping the dominant strategy even though neither team would have been any worse off for playing cleanly, if the two teams don't dope, they expect a fair payoff of US$750. However, if one team dope, then its probability of winning increases to 90%, increasing its expected payoff to US$950 while the fair-playing team's payoff falls to US$150. If both teams dope, the advantage disappears, and each is expected to earn only US$350 after doping costs and penalties.
This incentive can be countered by increasing the cost of doping. Organizers can increase the detection probability or fines to counter this incentive. For example, increasing the detection rate to 17% or the fine to more than US$5000 would nearly balance the payoffs between fair play and doping, thus discouraging the latter. The introduction of cohesive, industry-wide anti-doping policies with consistent testing would help maintain fair play, preserve the integrity of e-sports, and reinforce trust among players and fans. (Schöber & Stadtmann, 2022)
C. Match-fixing and Gambling Influences in E-sports
Match-fixing is when a team or a player deliberately loses a match in order to receive some premiums for betting. Recently, this has been a very common issue within the e-sports business mainly due to the incentives it brings in the forms of gambling. In 2020, the e-sports betting market reached a size of about $13 billion, which is multiple times more than the total amount of prize money awarded last year, which was around $122 million. This means the betting volume is about 107 times greater than that of the prize pool; hence, players and teams may find more rewarding sources in match-fixing than in the competition itself. (Holden & Ehrlich, 2017).
This trend is probed through criminological approaches from routine activities theory and drift theory by Zohn and Bleakley in their article for the Journal of Gambling Issues, pointing to how skin-betting-the gambling game where the gamers wager their in-game items whose monetary value is taken from the real world-gives fertile grounds for organized crime activities. In the absence of rules on skin-betting, this activity allows for too much outcome manipulation. It also creates space for illegal operators to take advantage of the weakness in the regulatory environment. This specific structure of e-sports betting is unique and allows participants to make bets with high anonymity. (Zohn & Bleakley, 2023)
INTERPOL's 2012 Global Experts Meeting also focused on the growing dimension of match-fixing among conventional and e-sports and proposed educational initiatives to safeguard youngsters and stakeholders in the sector from match-fixing dangers. The meeting held in Singapore demanded certification courses and academic modules that assist prevent match-fixing and integrity promotion in sports with tools that can resist criminal influence.
Another example is that of Riot Games punishing 29 players and staff in the Vietnamese Championship Series for match-fixing, which gives an idea of the scale of gambling-related corruption in e-sports. Such incidents show how a lack of centralized oversight in e-sports amplifies vulnerabilities to manipulation through gambling, demanding greater regulatory attention and industry vigilance to address these issues.
D. Identity Fraud and Unauthorized Collaboration in E-sports
In e-sports, identity fraud and unauthorized collaboration are risks significant to proper and fair competition and team integrity, especially in the case of online qualifiers. Last year, an Overwatch account ban for sharing accounts revealed limitations in the verification processes adopted in e-sport when players can share a multiplicity of accounts while other accounts are used immediately.
Player accounts should be guarded against identity fraud. This includes activation of 2FA for gaming, streaming, and social media accounts; using unique, complex passwords; and monitoring activities that might point to access breaches at an early stage. This simple security measure secures the account from illegal entry and ensures the strength of the competition.
Verified and formalized partnerships also matter. Deals not formally sanctioned by teams will spoil the reputation of the team and may even lead to penalties if they contravene the rules of a tournament. Teams must have proper management involvement and verification before dealing with any sponsor or external partnership through official channels. Formal agreements will only ensure clarity and protection from exploitation by external parties.
Finally, education on security awareness further mitigates risk through social engineering and phishing scams. It is in this way that educating team members to detect suspicious messages will significantly lead to prevention in the unauthorized gaining of sensitive information. Continuous updating of protocols, as well as sharing best practices on account security, encourages vigilance.
There are legal issues to deal with. Smith emphasizes policy-specific guidelines to counter cheaters and identity thieves in e-sports. (Smith, M, 2020) For the latter, one is bound to understand that a well-designed rulebook can jeopardize the integrity of the business without a carefully formulated policy. Last but not least, the protection of training sessions. Controlling entry into practice sessions and making secure communication tools can mitigate the possibility of strategy theft. Proactive measures in the security of accounts, verification of partners, and training of teams greatly prevent identity fraud and unauthorized collaboration in e-sports.
E. Governance Challenges in E-Sports
E.1. Current Governance Landscape
The governance landscape in the esports industry is significantly fractured, mainly because it has a decentralized nature and there is no unified governing body. The traditional sports often have a developed federation overseeing rules and standards across leagues and regions; in the case of esports, this is greatly determined by the individual game publishers enforcing their own rules. Companies like Riot Games (League of Legends) and Valve (Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) control the rules and tournament structures along with disciplining participants within their games. This exclusivity translates to a different set of criteria being applied to each game by these companies, which then varies the broader esports landscape.
For example, Riot Games is very tight in its rules on conduct of players and team management of the League of Legends Championship Series, while Valve is very lenient, letting third-party organizations control most of its tournaments with minimal intervention. It, therefore poses a challenge for the participants across multiple games as the standards of the teams, together with the timetable, differ.
This effort through the Esports Integrity Commission brings some level of standardization in the industry to handle match-fixing, doping, and cheating issues. ESIC does not have the force of law and thus relies on the cooperation of game publishers and organizers running the tournaments. In reality, ESIC guidelines may often be watered down because of the absence of central governance in titles related to esports. (Esports Integrity Commission, n.d.).
The structure is extremely fragmented, which will make it difficult to introduce one framework that encompasses welfare to the players, fair competition, and ethical practice for the whole sector. Expectations are that with the increased growth of esports further, entering mainstream media, a demand for cohesive governance would rise even higher, thus challenging the players to build cooperation with other stakeholders towards finding lasting solutions for problems that have persisted for some time in the industry. (Scholz, T. M, 2019)
E.2. Regulatory Failures and Potential Solutions
E.2.1. Fragmented Governance: Unlike traditional sports, the e-sports sector doesn't have a unified authority. Instead, it operates through private companies such as Riot Games and Valve and enforces rules individually, which leads to inconsistency within standards. It then brings about gaps where cheating, match-fixing, and doping can go unpunished across different games and tournaments. (Holden & Ehrlich, 2017)
E.2.2. Unified Regulating Body: This independent body, with the backing of the law, will help in unifying rules throughout titles. Support should come from key stakeholders most recognized publishers, organizers, and sponsors imposing penalties and fair play.
E.2.3. Anti-Cheating and Doping Programs: Anti-cheating and anti-doping policies would become a strict component in e-sports as with conventional sports, testing and observation will be the measures for deterrence of malpractice. The uniform and definite consequences of any wrongdoing shall provide further legitimacy.
E.2.4. Data-Driven Monitoring: Advanced AI and data analytics can enable standardized and real-time monitoring for purposes of cheating and match-fixing and also to achieve homogeneity in all the games and tournaments.
E.2.5. Agreements between Major Publishers: These agreements would enforce common rules among titles, such that a violation in one game would affect participation in others. This would close regulatory loopholes and increase accountability for players and teams.
E.2.6. Education and Awareness: Educating players and teams on ethics, fair play, and the consequences of violations could foster a professional culture within the e-sports community.
This would make the governance of e-sports more credible and consistent to traditional sports standards while offering integrity throughout the industry if the regulatory gaps were approached with a unified framework for e-sports. (Schöber & Stadtmann, 2022)
F. Legal Perspectives on Ethical Breaches
F. 1. Intellectual Property (IP) Law as a Tool Against Cheating
Cheating in electronic games usually involves modifying game software or exploiting its shortcomings; it is usually sheltered under intellectual property, law. Kaufman and Spinelli argue that IP law is a good deterrent due to the fact that in a court of law, these people or organizations can actually sue the game developers when modifying or tampering with the proprietary software. These lawsuits can include copyright infringement proceedings or even breach of the software licensing agreement. (Kaufman & Spinelli, 2021)
Nonetheless, IP law is not unlimited. Cheat developers are continually refining and updating their tools in an effort to avoid the radar, which sets up a "cat-and-mouse" cycle that may be impossible for IP laws to follow along. Advanced cheating techniques, such as auto-aiming or wallhacks, play on loopholes in game code in ways that perhaps do not even fit the common sense definition of IP. Effective cure of cheating will demand supplementing IP law with more measures such as sophisticated anti-cheat software, time-to-time monitoring, and industry-wide cooperation for one cohesive front against changing cheating methods. This approach will double efforts to safeguard fair play and competitive integrity in the e-sports sphere.
F. 2. Cybersecurity Measures and Legal Liability
Since digital manipulation is mostly used in cheating e-sports, effective cybersecurity is crucial in avoiding the incident of ethical breaches. As Chao puts it, "Game developers and tournament organizers need to be legally liable when cybersecurity lapses allow cheating to occur."(Chao, 2023). Through this legislation, cybersecurity standards may make anti-cheat software and regular security audits part of the e-sports. Such standards would make organizations accountable for the integrity of their platforms, thus reducing cheating.
Legal liability for cybersecurity failures would also push e-sports companies to invest in stronger anti-cheat mechanisms and infrastructure. In this context, legislation would be able to provide a clearer framework for protecting competitive integrity, and assigning responsibility to industry stakeholders.
F. 3. Jurisdictional Challenges and the Need for International Collaboration
Generally speaking, the global reach of e-sports causes extreme complications in jurisdictional problems cheating across borders will still be a problem, Smith says that in various countries, intellectual property differs, and so with respect to cybercrime or fraud legislation. Similarly, it is hard to determine when someone imposes penalties on offenders located in other regions causing hindrances to fair play from other players. An international framework could therefore help to smoothen out the inconsistency in dealing with ethical breaches from one region to another and give a harmonized system that can ensure fair play. (Smith, 2020)
Therefore, cooperation at the international level to harmonize the laws of different regions regarding this matter, as well as agreement on procedures to prosecute the offenses, would be called for. It would enable uniform enforcement and remove the jurisdictional hurdles which hitherto had hindered prosecution of offenders and deter future offenders. Such international cooperation would thus establish clear standards for fair play and ethical behaviour across borders, helping the integrity of e-sport, providing a level platform, and reducing jurisdictional complexity.
G. Ethical and Moral Ramifications
G. 1. Impact on Players, Teams, and Fans
E-sports has also been marred by various unethical breaches such as cheating, match-fixing, and e-doping which have far-reaching implications for the core stakeholders in this industry. For the player, such unethical conduct has the potential to result in grave repercussions on their career through suspensions, bans, and denting personal reputation. Such consequences do not only come immediately or shortly but have long-lasting impacts on professional credibility in the community. Teams also incur extreme financial and emotional losses when players engage in ethical violations. Such activities may result in fines, loss of sponsors, and decreased team spirit and create spillover effects on the organizations as a whole.
Critical sponsors determine their grounds for funding e-sports and don't wish anything to surface that can malign the brand image. Unfair conduct scares off potential sponsors, shrinks funds, and ultimately stunts the growth of teams and tournaments. For this reason, fan trust in the sport is substantially rattled whenever cheating or unfair play happens. There has been an emotional investment made on the part of fans, which can easily get hurt by ethical breaches; indeed, when such ethical breaches get exposed, disillusionment decreases viewership and a general loss of engagement ensues. Without trust and interest from the fans, there is a risk that cultural and financial momentum would come to a grinding halt in this industry, making its sustainability and reputation questionable.
G. 2. Broader Societal Impact
Beyond the immediate sphere of e-sports culture, ethical violations in the game may affect wider public perceptions of fairness and competitiveness. According to Earp et al., such breaches may influence the behaviour and social identities of players as well as young viewership. For many young supporters, e-sports participants are role models and positive and negative behaviours by such role models set social and ethical standards. (Earp, Persico, Dagnino, & Passarelli, 2018) When cheating and other forms of unethical behaviour are considered common or acceptable in competitive gaming, it threatens to normalize such behaviours in real-world settings. Such normalization can influence young audiences' views on fairness and may impact their moral development and attitudes toward competition.
Such a behaviour pattern, if very widespread and not checked upon, will eventually lead to the whole community accepting cheating and shortcutting in their games, and in turn, probably in life, thus undermining e-sports. By putting a premium on the importance of integrity and fair play, e-sports can secure its own playing field for competition while teaching good morals to its followers and thus the rest of the population. In light of such ethical repercussions, it is important to address these so that there is trust maintained within the context of e-sports as well as promote a culture of integrity and responsibility in the larger picture of gaming.
H. Recommendations for Strengthening Competitive Integrity
H. 1. More Stringent Regulatory Bodies and Governance Models
The absence of a single regulatory framework in e-sports has led to the disparate application of ethical standards between various games and tournaments. Such fragmentation can be addressed through the formation of an international regulatory body solely for e-sports, which could establish a uniform set of rules and disciplinary measures. (Schöber and Stadtmann, 2022) A system has been proposed that mirrors the World Anti-Doping Agency, acting across all sports to enforce regulations, conduct monitoring, and foster moral conduct. A comparable version for e-sports may oversee the sport through overall ethical standards set by them, enforcing prohibition from competitions in case of cheating or doping, and equal penalty distribution. Additionally, they may educate participants about the ethics of competing and teach them the effects of their unethical behaviour. This central authority will ensure accountability in a governance structure that is coherent and more aligned with the classic sports models.
H.2. Cybersecurity and Anti-Cheat Technologies Strengthen
Advanced cybersecurity and anti-cheat technologies are key to protecting the integrity of competitiveness in e-sports, as cheat systems continue growing increasingly sophisticated. According to (Chao, 2023), cooperative efforts must be made among governments, game developers, and organizers of tournaments. The improved anti-cheat software may employ AI detection systems, thus identifying cheating in real-time. Periodic updates will keep the system updated in handling changing cheat methods. It can prevent hackers from changing game servers or using the vulnerabilities of the software for unfair advantage during competitions besides detecting cheats during competitions. Governments can support this through minimum cybersecurity standards for e-sports platforms, holding the developers accountable for secure systems. This will be a collaborative approach that deters unethical practices, making it more difficult for cheaters to thrive in e-sports.
H.3. Education and Awareness Campaigns
Building a culture of fair play in e-sports begins with education and awareness. This would be a way for young players to look at cheating as the way to succeed. They may be encouraged when they see professional players and other influencers cheating, and in fact, they may find this is the only option for them to succeed if it is acceptable by influencers. This can be controlled through education from game developers, tournament organizers, and regulatory bodies. The long-term career risks of cheating, e-doping, etc., would be spelt out in awareness campaigns and other appropriate ways as acts which are against fair play. Workshops and in-game tutorials on sportsmanship and ethical decision-making will provide young players with lessons learned in values of integrity and fair competition. A future incident will thus be averted through this proactive move on the part of an increasingly ethically conscious gaming community.
The e-sports environment is unique compared to other sports, especially with regard to jurisdictional enforcement and the rapidly changing technology of cheating. Thus, it is common to find (Smith, 2020) advocating for new policies involving international cooperation in designing standardized legal guidelines for e-sports. Jurisdictional differences between the countries sometimes act as a hindrance for the courts to take strict action against international players who break the moral codes because different countries follow different legal principles for cybercrime, online fraud, and intellectual property issues. If uniform legislation were present, it could help to effectively implement cross-border enforcement since the country could provide its collaboration to prosecute those offences consistently. It will give a legal basis for e-sports, meaning that all ethics breaches shall be dealt with uniformly in the whole world and contribute to a stable environment for players, teams, and organizers.
I. Conclusion
All these breaches, ranging from cheating and doping to match-fixing, henceforth pose a threat to the sustainability and competitiveness of e-sports. Such challenges, therefore, will thus require multifaceted efforts. To do away with such problems, there is a need for stronger governance, effective cybersecurity, educational efforts, and international legal reform. All this can be addressed when stakeholders in the e-sports industry take up the preservation of the spirit of fair competition that makes e-sports a trusted and respected place for players, teams, and fans around the world.
*The Author is a legal Scholar from Jindal Global Law School, India
(The Image used here is for representative purposes only)
References:
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