Are there maphacks in LotV?

General Discussion
1

Need a little advice here. First off, this is a ZvZ and I am playing on a barcode so my opponent can’t profile me by name. I played against a certain fellow who took a fast third with no zergling speed, no scouting, no baneling nest. He did this despite seeing 8 lings barreling across the map - a strong indication of a 2 base speedling baneling allin which would flat out kill his build. He takes the third anyway. He has no scouting information at all. The only thing he sees are 8 lings and a queen pushing back overlords (extremely common when a ling flood is about to hit - you push the overlord back to allow the ling flood to sneak out).

It turns out I was going gasless. Gasless in ZvZ is very rare and his response is basically the perfect response vs gasless. I watched the replay several times. Absolutely nothing to indicate it. I sent him some messages asking him about how he knew and he flat out lied to my face about his decision making. Said he cancelled zergling speed after seeing my wall - replay proved that to be false. Said he knew I went gasless by the timing of my queens but he’s placing his third before he even sees a queen and that’s a load of baloney.

This may just be a case of a bad player making bad calls that happen to work out in a one-to-one-million odds, but I find that to be very unlikely given his MMR. I’ve played him before and he seems to have really good decision making but now I am thinking it’s a little too good. What are your thoughts?

EDIT - Here is a screenshot of the game right before he cancels zergling speed:

https://i.imgur.com/7WwNHNw.png

Here is the moment after he cancels:

https://i.imgur.com/71i11NR.png

This looks identical to a 2 base speedling baneling allin which means baneling nest ASAP and definitely do not cancel zergling speed! Am I missing something here? From what I can tell this is VERY suspicious although not proof of any sort.

2
  1. There are.
  2. There are less using them than people believe.
  3. In evident cases presented to the public - usually maphack is accompanied by something else, like super-micro-dodge-the-baneling, while the camera is not even there.
2 Likes
3

There are some who do cheat, but very few cases of it actually exist. It’s unlikely for you to run into someone cheating though.

4

I’ve ran into a few over the years. Patchtoss was a good example. It’s hard to emphasize just how bazaar this players decision making was. He knew it was gasless even though everything indicated a speedling flood and that’s strange on its own but he flat out lied about how he knew when questioned about it.

5

Check their match history. If they hard counter every opener with non-standard builds they are obviously hacking, but nothing you can do about it other than playing standard. (Their mmr is same as yours, which means any edge they get from countering non-standard play is offset by terrible macro.)

1 Like
6

Yes there is maphack and I’ve gotta admit that running into maphacking opponents couldn’t happen to a nicer guy

7

If they’re not cheating, then it’s a prime example of why I’d rather be lucky than good.

Not that I’m any good.

…or lucky.

8

That would make sense except there are a lot more ways to get unlucky than to get lucky.