It has been reported that a website was created in China to obtain private information about the training of professional Dota 2 teams and players. Valve was informed about the method and eliminated the vulnerability associated with the MOBA API keys.
If anyone remembers, back in 2017 there was a major scandal (Rurugate) when Chinese teams LGD and EHOME could access scrims and other private matches of players using an API key that belonged to Perfect World. Recently, I was shared a website that allowed viewing the exact MMR values of players at any rank, as well as viewing absolutely all matches, even those with closed profiles at low MMR. Moreover, the site was created by a person who in the past was affiliated with Keen (aka EHOME).
As a result, a pseudo-consortium was assembled with all the smart people in Dota and those whom I could trust with such a situation – Boskey, Leamare, sikle, NoraD, Noxville, casual and a couple more people who remained anonymous but helped in gathering information. After discussing all possible technical options for how this could have been done, we realized that there could be no options other than another leak of the API key. For this reason, we wrote a collective letter to Valve, where we outlined the whole situation and expressed concerns about the possible undermining of fair play at the esports level.
A couple of days ago, Valve detected the key and finally closed access to the method. A good reminder to developers that it is worth regularly checking the position and use of their API keys. I do not see the point in accusing anyone or any team, since there can physically be no direct (or even indirect) evidence of using the cheat, and I do not tolerate stupid witch hunts. However, the whole situation raises even greater concerns about the poor health and already dying region. Think about it.
In 2016, the head of the esports organization LGD Gaming, Pan RuRu Jie, was accused of using the Dota 2 API key to obtain private data from the training sessions of other teams. It was assumed that since 2013, the girl had been transferring information about professional teams to her lineups, giving them an unfair advantage over rivals.
