The use of third-party programs is nothing new in the online video game community. Aimbots, wall-hacks, scouting probes — the sheer numbers of these 'tools' are often a pain for most players. Sadly, Hearthstone hasn't been able to avoid this phenomenon, even if a TCG is less likely to be crippled by them.
That being said, Blizzard is known for hunting down cheaters and exploit abusers, and we weren't surprised to learn that some players had been banned for precisely this reason.
Eddetekor was one of the players banned. The day after, he decided to tell his story on Reddit. According to his post, he had spent a month playing SN1P-SN4P Warlock and discovered that he could somehow extend the duration of a turn by playing several SN1P-SN4P and Zillax. While a player should supposedly only be able to play 22–25 cards in a single turn, Eddetekor managed to play around 30 cards in 'three or maybe four games in over 200 games'.
If you want to see for yourself, Eddetekor shared some of his game replays to illustrate what he calls the 'extended time bug.'
He also pointed out an 'extreme example of this bug' by sharing a clip from Hidden Pants' stream. The latter managed to extend his turn to 7 minutes long!
Eddetekor sent a mail to Blizzard support, but their decision seemed final.
However, the situation evolved — in a good way. Thanks to the attention he brought to the issue via his Reddit post, Eddetekor had his case reviewed. One day ago, Blizzard Community Manager Kauza clarified the situation, also through Reddit.
WHAT HAPPENED:
This week we spent time reading this thread [...] and gathering all the details on the situation. For some added context, all of this hinges on a situation where, under some circumstances, a player can end up with a significant amount of extra time on their turn - even over a minute.
SN1P-SN4P is a card that relates to this behavior that we've had a close eye on, as we've noted that it has also been used by cheaters, playing an impossible number of cards in a single turn. Under normal circumstances, a real human player can only play a small number of cards in a turn - it's just a limit of how fast a human can perform those actions. However, when you mix this with the extended time situation, a player could legitimately play far more cards than usual if they've been given additional time in a turn. We recently banned a number of accounts that had been marked as playing an impossible (or so we thought) number of cards in a single turn. We now know that some of these turns were possible under normal play because the turn had been given so much added time.
WHAT WE'RE DOING:
Given the interaction with the extended time issue described above, we are rolling back a large quantity of these bans. We're also updating the procedures that led to these bans to ensure they only catch cheaters.
In the end, it worked out for Eddetekor, who had his account given back to him.
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