thats pretty damned good for an online tourney!
im not sure if there are enough preventative measures in any game at the moment tho for this to not have suspicions about players.

You could say the same thing about any sport. In fact, it's probably easier to tell in a video game when someone is cheating. Like, a corked bat is easy to spot... but an aimbot is easier. A wallhack is slightly more difficult, but easier to detect than say... steroids. I think the biggest problem with cheating would be when you're dealing with ringers. Someone could easily go to another person's house and play the game for them (using their cdkey and their ip). The truth is, there really are not that many ways to cheat in a video game and most of them are easy to spot (except ringers).

To fight online cheating, the first and possibly the best line of defense would simply be GTV. The more people you have on GTV, the more likely you are to detect cheating. And the less likely someone would be to attempt cheating. On top of that you could have pro's who specialize in determining whether a player was cheating or not (through careful demo inspection). You could slap fines on them, strip them of their cash prizes, take every necessary precaution and deterrant measure, etc. etc..

Most of the system's in normal sports work fine for e-sports.

Like ZeRo4 did for Gator there for a bit.

they cheated??????? suxxxxxxx!!!!!!!

well, zero4 played for gator for a bit in an official game again random.
untill then random was slapping gator all around the map, and then suddenly starts getting hit from everywhere.
i think most of the people remember/have seen the infamous "hi z4!" rail
z4 got banned from the tourney for that.

i know a few people that were able to cheat without being noticed. also triggerbots are very hard to spot.

GTV would do nothing to stop someone who wants to cheat. Ben Johnson knew the world was watching when he cheated in the Olympics.

Unless there is specific evidence of someone cheating then the best we can do online is have suspicions.
We are subject to peoples opinions on demos etc rather than a definitive result for cheating.

The difference is nobody really cares. And no, you can't tell when someone is cheating if they don't want you to. Too bad 99.9% of cheaters are fucking stupid script kiddies who just got a computer last week.
By the way, Ben Johnson had his shit revoked. And I really, really want a solid answer to this, which I don't feel you can give, but I'll pose it anyway:

The nature of Quake III is a dynamic pile of crap that performs differently on every individual computer, and the whole environment can be turned on its ass just by flipping a few settings in the configuration or mod. This is not good. To what extent is using an aimbot any more cheating than tuning up your configuration so you have an advantage of others? It's not. Q3 will never be able to be played competitively without consistent playing environments. I'm serious. You have to turn up 'picmip' and fool with the lighting, turn down all the flashy stuff and make models bright - all of which are not default settings in Q3, and some of which aren't even available in the default 'mod' system. Explain to me how that is fair, then I'll explain to you how cheating is. 'Big name' gamers have more of an advantage over good-but-not-that-good players because they have lame high dollar systems that their mom bought them after reaping money from the multitude of doctors that she slept with, and moreover they're so clueless and ignorant that they've wasted half their lives fooling with their Quake 3 configuration to make it 'better' and most people don't even have a clue what the difference is. Q3 is not fair to begin with.

I cannot offer an answer for why that is fair, as i agree with you.
Ive always said that for gaming to become a major thing in the world then it needs a stable environment that isnt constantly changing, which isnt user configurable for every individuals personal preference.
Look at major sports, the rules of most games dont change, the actual playing arena doesnt change (weather permitting).
'esports' games are constantly being patched, have so many user preferences that have so many values to be set at, each value making a big effect for the user.
Then you have the issue that players connect to an arena from different locations (even on a LAN) rather than directly in the arena itself, meaning the central server has to be configurable etc etc etc.

I agree fully that only a small amount of variables should be available for user configuration. CPL / Epic tried this with a ut200x tourney gui, as much as people whined it was a good decision.

Ben Johnson had his shit revoked due to technology being available to prove that he cheated. The equivalent is not available currently in esports.

Late reply but let me state a few facts : you're not talking about cheating here daryl, just about fairness.
Cheating is breaking the rules, period. As long as picmip and such settings, brightskins, etc, are allowed by the rules, then you aren't cheating when you use them.

There are such examples in recognized sports : Formula 1, or sprint, for instance.
Sprinters use special shoes, run on special grounds, have excellent training facilities, and beginners will not always have access to such stuff.
I even remember those special dynamic grounds which were later forbidden due to the higher injury risks on them. :)
There also are the wind conditions which can be more or less favorable outdoor (although records are only validated if there is less than 2m/s of favorable wind I believe).

But as long as all of that is authorized, even if it's not fair to amateurs/beginners (cause records are measured with no weighting of those additional parameters), it is not cheating.

I believe it is the same in Quake3 : if you are to play at the best level, you should also be able to tune your equipment within the authorized boundaries, ie rules.

It is breaking the rules. It's breaking the rules of societal standards. The difference between regulated sports and gaming is that recognized sports figures don't compete in low level pick-up events in random neighborhoods with guys who want to be like them.

I don't really agree with you but you have a point in stating the societal standard as rules.
Whether the societal standards really ban such tweaking is debatable though. :)

I have uploaded the demos of ufx vs kfc from GTV POV. The second one is a little laggy, sorry.
You can get them here:

UFX vs KFC ztn3dm1 (game 1)
UFX vs KFC pro-q3dm6 (game 2)

hmm, isn't customization something like greene having shoes that just fit him better/give him something extra ?
i don't think you really should enforce standard client environment. what works well for someone can be so much irritating for someone else.
and the server settings ( analogous to the game rules of the physical (:P) sports ) are pretty much standard ( except for some tinkerin in rather small scale tourneys, much like they are tinkering with cricket and the new shorter football thingy ).
players with better systems do perform well, but people who have a full time commitment to sports with solid sponsorships will always outrun/outpunch/outhit the other "amateur"
imho, the time for debate on professional esports is long gone. it's already been done, and done well at that.
and doing an all out lan event is just not feasible unless you can match the scale of wcg or eswc.
and 'bout cheating, it's something that just has to be worked out, not something to cancel a tourney over.