With many physical events being canceled due to the COVID-19 situation, we’ve seen significant growth in virtual e-sports online events replacing them. And, it should be noted, to a pretty popular response from both the sports and gaming community. It seems, however, that there has been a lot of controversy surrounding a recent virtual race.
What could possibly be controversial about this I hear you ask? Well, in a report via Routers it turns out that one of the competitors (professional and actual Formula E Audi driver) Daniel Abt cheated during an E-sports charity event.
During an event (which you can watch in the video below) it was discovered that legitimate professional racing driver Daniel Abt wasn’t actually racing. He, instead, decided to try and be sneaky by replacing himself with Lorenz Hoerzing (a professional e-sports driver).
It seems, however, that suspicions were raised pretty quickly when a fellow virtual racer (and F1 driver) Stoffel Vandoorne suspected right from the first corner that something fishy was going on.
“Really not happy here because that was not Daniel driving the car himself, and he messed up everything. That was ridiculous. I’m questioning if it was really Daniel in the car.”
You might be wondering how Daniel Abt got away with this for as long as he did. Well, it turns out that while a video feed was live for ‘his’ race, his (completely not allowed) substitute, Lorenz Hoerzing, used a headset (or some form of technical equipment) that deliberately obscured his face. It got even dodgier, however, when Daniel Abt wasn’t available for a post-race interview and didn’t answer phone calls from a clearly displeased Stoffel Vandoorne.
It was, subsequently, discovered that he did cheat when the IP address used by Daniel Abt did not match that used during the race.
Following being found out, Daniel Abt has issued an apology. As you might expect, his e-sports result has been completely removed and, in addition, he has also been ordered to pay 10,000 euros to the charity the event was held for.
“I would like to apologize to Formula E, all of the fans, my team and my fellow drivers for having called in outside help during the race on Saturday.
I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. I’m especially sorry about this, because I know how much work has gone into this project on the part of the Formula E organisation. I am aware that my offence has a bitter aftertaste, but it was never meant with any bad intention.”
What about Lorenz Hoerzing I hear you ask? Well, he’s also had his result removed from a different (but coinciding) event and has been disqualified from appearing in the series again. While Daniel Abt hasn’t been outright banned, it’s doubtful he’s going to be asked to participate in any future E-Sport events following this.
Yes, it might technically be a game, but people take e-sports very seriously and, let’s face it, no one likes a cheater!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
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