EPTEDIT #2: It's been confirmed that "Zack" will no longer be competing at WCS. He withdrew from the competition. No word on whether or not he will be banned... but most importantly, as long as he's not competing we should still be a bit happy.
What does he receive? A free ticket + hotel reservation (Thursday morning until Monday morning...) that's covered at MLG Anaheim. So the question is... why is Blizzard inviting someone who uses a maphack? What does this say about their ability to prevent cheaters/hackers from running rampant from online tournaments with prize pools?
Please read everything before commenting something silly like, "omg! not another of these threads" or, "innocent until proven guilty". We'll get to that.
List of the 64 invited/qualified players for WCS USA: http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/competitions/36#event_91_usa-nationals-of-the-wcs
He is #54, "Zack". The Protoss player whom qualified through ladder.
HRGZack qualified through "ladder", though nobody knows the specifics exactly on what that means (he was GM last season and this season, however).
Link to account via battle.net: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/3190392/1/HRGzack/
Link to account via sc2ranks: http://sc2ranks.com/us/3190392/HRGzack
He is the only HRGZack, no other accounts are seen anywhere.
The two replays we will examine can be downloaded here:
Replay #1 - http://drop.sc/178076
Replay #2 - http://drop.sc/187414
While both replays are quite resourceful in proving he hacks, replay #2 proves beyond a doubt he is using the multi-feature maphack.
I have recorded/uploaded two videos on youtube:
Replay #1 - + Show Spoiler +
Replay #2 - + Show Spoiler +
* Disclaimer: I am not a professional caster, nor did I spend time writing/thinking out what to say. I simply watched the replays one time, and then recorded my thoughts on the games and key parts where I thought indicated suspicious play/obvious maphacking parts.
...but really, all you need to do is watch the replays and you should be able to see why.
Seriously, just watch the replays.
The two opponents he played in both replays are also NA accounts:
Replay #1 - WhosTheSmuRf
http://sc2ranks.com/us/3569877/WhosTheSmuRf - cannot find battle.net link, he probably name changed, so I don't know what it is now
Replay #2 - WatanabeMayu
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/1232347/1/WatanabeMayu/
The things you should notice:
-Build openers
-Blind countering builds
-Re-positioning of units to intercept particular units/armies in both games
-Camera stays on his base the majority of the game, and also "locked' for a particular time frame in certain areas
-HUGE lack of scouting
But if that's not enough to prove it... how about:
-APM Skyrocketing to 550~ish in battles. Please show me replays of all the high level pros in SC2 that get this high.
Or better yet, 20~ish stalkers all selected, yet one by one they are blinked back individually (apm goes above 350+++). For this example, refer to Replay #2 @ around 20 or so minutes when the Zerg tries to counter the 3rd while HRGZack is killing his bases off.
Now why is this a big deal? Well, for those of you saying, "who cares, he'll be knocked out first round", or, "well if there was anyone else who didn't qualify that is "deserving" it's not like they deserve to be there since they'll probably just lose first round"--- that's not the point. The point is someone cheating the system is getting freebies to an event plenty of other players work hard to attend. Believe me, there are still plenty of players who did not qualify who do honestly probably deserve to go. Players who worked hard to attain GM/High Masters+.
Worst of all, Blizzard is paying for his expenses.
Also, a little added extra:
Hotkey/APM comparisons of HRGZack and other known maphackers.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=340614¤tpage=27#522
A TL search with content of HRGZack (for those of you lazy
!): http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/search.php?q=hrgzack&t=c&f=-1&u=&gb=date&d=
