[00:04] abuse of a privileged position, and the power that comes with it. Today's story has got all of that stuff and quite a bit more as well. And it's a story that would have stayed completely hidden if not for one unlikely hero, a
[00:18] suspiciously random whistleblower who helped all of this come to light. So today, this is the story of a corrupt Blizzard employee, his friends, and the stupid, stupid way that they all got themselves [music] caught.
[00:35] Like a lot of W's madness, it all begins with a Reddit post. This lurker account, only a year old with a randomly generated Reddit name, claims to have been looking over Mythic Plus logs while at work and found one particularly
[00:48] suspicious looking Nexus Point plus 23 key. It looked a little off. How off though? Well, Warcraft Logs' replay feature can show you exactly how. In this, we see that they messed up their route and that they needed one more mob
[01:03] after Lothraxian to actually kill enough trash to win the key. But they had a problem. Only 30 seconds was left on the timer. And in that 30 seconds, they needed to do 17 million damage. Their combined DPS, of course, a bit tapped
[01:18] out after the boss, was only a few hundred,000, [music] which of course means time the key would be impossible, right? Well, it would be impossible, but that's only until the lingering image mob blew up. And it blew up with only 15
[01:34] million health left. Did someone somehow get the largest crit in history? Well, obviously not. Something was clearly wrong. But it's a good thing that the log actually [music] tracks every single spell cast. And what we see is a
[01:48] character cast area death test. Bit of an odd name for a spell. Not one you'll find in your own hot bar. They cast that and they killed the lingering image when it had 15 million health left. That's bizarre and obviously not something a
[02:01] normal player can do. So clearly someone used a GM kill spell to time the key. used a GM kill spell to time the key. And by pure dumb luck, this poster happened to come across this key and therefore caught this group cheating.
[02:18] And that is what set this whole story off. Now, of course, this isn't the first time players have used game master tools to cheat. In fact, the world first kill on Giwix was actually by a guild called Raov Quality Assurance, and they
[02:33] were able to use an exploit to access internal spells. That was obviously a bit silly looking, but Blizzard soon said that they had patched the problem. But here's the weird thing. This was not actually done by a player. You see, the
[02:47] actually done by a player. You see, the log naturally captured the caster's name and their name is Dai Josie. But what's weird is that that character name is not in the group running the Mythic Plus key. They're not in the party. So, how
[03:00] could they be in the instance but not in the party? Well, only one type of WoW character can do that, and that of course is a game master character. Now, as soon as this post landed, people started digging and digging and digging.
[03:15] And it wasn't long before the character name was connected to this X account, name was connected to this X account, Dai DJ, senior quality assurance on World of Warcraft, was sitting right there on his X profiles bio. And even
[03:28] more funny, he was fresh to the team as well and only moved on to World of Warcraft in May of this year. And even more funnily, there he was happily posting exactly what he could do now that he finally had game master access.
[03:41] He made that post on the 8th of July, 4 days before the cheating occurred. Now, of course, you may be asking, why did this group log their fight and upload that to Warcraft logs if they were cheating? Well, as it turns out, they
[03:57] didn't do that. The log came from the tank and [music] the tank, as it turns out, was a pug. And that tank was logging, which means that this entire thing was basically caught by accident. It's quite naturally the case that
[04:10] without the tank's log, this whole thing would go unnoticed and of course unpunished. Now, thankfully then, we've got proof of the cheat and we've also got a culprit. You'd think that's just the end of the story. Oh, but it is not
[04:23] the end of the story because then came the attempted cover up. And by coverup, I don't just mean him deleting his axe account. With there clearly being more to the story, people just kept digging. Who are
[04:36] these players? Why did this game master cheat for them? Well, the original poster's title alleged that it was for their GM's favorite streamer, but did hedge that assertion in the actual post. Who knows? Maybe they know more than
[04:51] entirely sure if I buy that they just happen to be checking random Mythic Plus logs [music] anyway, like they claim. But what we then found out is that the streamer in [music] question is Yarabite, a quote 1% Mythic Plus title
[05:07] player. But the first widely spread information didn't actually come from came from the devour demon hunter in the group. He gave Growl an interview and revealed exactly what happened. And it goes like this. He asked his game master
[05:22] friend who was in the call with him in Yerabite for a quick favor on that final mob. Now, originally I thought that maybe he was [music] just lying, maybe trying to cover things up. But with the interview's full context, not just the
[05:36] popular clip that's been circling around, it actually reads differently. It seems like they're just trying to defend themselves, but [music] they're doing so in a really, really sloppy way. Like as an example, the demon hunter
[05:49] blatantly downplaying what actually happened. You see, he went for the classic defense of, "It's just a joke, bro." So supposedly, he didn't [music] even expect the game master to do it, and he framed the whole thing as a joke
[06:01] that got out of hand. He admitted fault and then turned it into a little bit of a rant about the struggle of resilient keys and the tanks routing mistakes. He was quite defensive and his story has, well, a few holes. as an example, it was
[06:15] only quote half inest. And what's odd is they didn't even need the key. It might be unfair, but it wouldn't earn them the 0.1% title because they actually already have that title. So, a little weird. Perhaps it was a one-off. And hey, game
[06:32] masters barely even exist anymore these days. He even tries to suggest that the GM actually did it by accident, which is a little weird because that's also the GM that he, you know, asked to do it jokingly. But what's perhaps more
[06:46] whatsoever. [music] He basically admits fault in one breath and then dodges responsibility and downplays in the next [music] breath. A little weird. Now, the worst is when Growl brought up the other cheat. You see, the last mob was not the
[07:01] only one that was killed off. It's harder to notice naturally, but it also looks like Lothraxian was instak-illed as well. You see, at 1.5% Dai hit him with a different spell. This one literally named Touch of Death just to
[07:16] save the group some time. Now, to this, the demon hunter said, "No, no." Despite, of course, there being proof of that sitting right there in the logs. Of course, if you're going to tell the truth, why not just tell the whole
[07:30] truth? especially when the actual log is floating around the place. If the game master only killed the last mob because you asked, then why did the game master [music] pop in as well? And why did the OP call out Yara? So, with all of this,
[07:44] something does not add up. But what we can do is take another angle and we can can do is take another angle and we can think about the motive. know. So, we know they were in the call together. We know the GM and Yara have
[07:59] interacted on Axe publicly multiple times. She wished him a happy birthday before he was a game master. So the question then is was he doing his friend a solid or is there something more here? Well, one of the more popular theories
[08:13] seated by the OP is that our GM was quite simply sing for Yara. And human explanations on the table. He basically helped her out in return for some attention. He's a big s. That's it. Case closed. I mean, it certainly
[08:28] wouldn't be the first time that a guy takes a dumb risk for the attention of the last. And it's such a popular theory that all the [ __ ] posting has been that all the [ __ ] posting has been absolutely sublime. Complete humiliation
[08:41] for our poor game master. But it is worth stressing, [music] we don't actually have any evidence for this specifically, his motive. I mean, it may just as well be for the cloud of his friends as one example. And as much
[08:54] bigger and more serious fish to fry here. Like the murmurss of money. Yes, the same threads that dug up all this alleged that Duoai had been selling
[09:06] Mythic Plus kills for 2 years. That would be long before he was a game master, which does mean that it's not entirely relevant, but it could play a role in this. Like, it really could. Some have actually said that three
[09:21] people in the dungeon are known title sellers. And that assertion is actually furthered by the Demon Hunter's own interview because they said that they don't even know if it was title for the tank. So perhaps it could have resulted
[09:34] in a title for that tank. Now, one possibility here is that everyone so far has just been lying and this was actually a title run for a pug tank. It's a pretty good theory. It's quite juicy. But as juicy as it sounds, well,
[09:49] we did investigate the tank's history, and we found no evidence of wrongdoing. At least no clear [music] evidence that jumped out to us. They've cleared plenty of keys with a wide variety of players, all logged like usual. So, the worst
[10:03] possible case is that this is one random example of a long history of cheating World of Warcraft. Players using their connection to a game master to time keys and maybe make some money off doing that. That's what some people imagined
[10:17] and then immediately tried to prove. And to try and prove it, someone built a site that actually scans logs for unusual spells. And as it turns out, this [music] is the only example they were able to find across 166,000 [music]
[10:32] logs. Though, in a way, I'm not surprised. Dai only had his game master account for a matter of days before this stuff happened. [music] So, if some deep conspiracy was to exist, well, him abusing Blizzard power would really have
[10:45] nothing [music] to do with it. Because, at least in so far as him doing these things goes, we've only got one proven example. Though, certainly a deep conspiracy would be a way more dramatic story. But I do have to hold back here.
[10:57] There is no evidence of rampant cheating. Now, that high-end Mythic Plus [music] is a bit of an incestuous title selling and boosting market is a valid concern, but the connection to our particular game [music] master here is
[11:11] more coincidence than anything else, and maybe something worth talking about another day. But ultimately, I think that this is the fairly clear motive. A because they're all Mythic Plus key pushers were being dumb and joking
[11:25] around. One guy showed off to his friends by abusing his power for perhaps nothing more than a little bit of [music] social status and happened to get caught. Mostly harmless in terms of intent, but completely and flagrantly
[11:39] breaking the [music] rules of World of Warcraft. You know, almost like say the kid who says his dad works at Nintendo, except in this case he actually did. And he got his dad fired for leaking new Pokémon. Because yes, this silly sausage
[11:53] did of course lose his job for [music] abusing the GM powers, as he rightly should have. But obviously, he wasn't the only one do a little bit of punishment. It didn't take long for Blizzard to step
[12:06] replied saying that they were looking into it, and shortly afterwards, they posted [music] this. The game master was fired, effective immediately, and they said they'd be taking action against the player accounts that were quote
[12:19] we had to go off. We could actually see the same players were just running keys as normal, even after Blizzard's statement. But then a few days later, the first word of consequences arrived. Not from Blizzard, but from J.B. joking
[12:34] that since the Demon Hunter was banned for a month, he to quote will no longer be knowing him. So, a 30-day ban for the Demon Hunter at least. Blizzard [music] treat it as something that is being reported rather than fully confirmed.
[12:48] And if others got hit, which could be the case, well, so far no one's really saying. But if the timing holds, it is just long enough to screw up the end of their season and of course the first week of the next season, [music] should
[13:01] they all get 30-day bans, which to a bunch of key pushers would certainly think about the people in the Mythic Plus scene, [music] well, what we see is this isn't really being treated as that serious. You see, there are a few enough
[13:14] players at that key level that they kind of all know each other. Naturally, the doubt instead of branding people as known cheaters [music] that nobody will play with. This whole thing is largely a goof rather than, say, an attack on the
[13:28] fabric of Mythic Plus. But certainly, Blizzard themselves cannot afford to feel the same way. In their post, they dropped a little bit more detail. They said that a small number of employees have got access to tools on live servers
[13:42] which are intended for urgent live testing [music] and fixes. They these, which does mean that Blizzard has the receipts. So, they almost certainly had the GM dead to rights. But more
[13:54] they say they [music] are confident that this was isolated to one single individual. So, there we have it. No rampant cheating, at least [music] being done using dev tools from the inside. And that does track with an ex developer
[14:09] comment. There is basically a ton of protocol before you're even supposed to touch these tools. So, it seems it is something the company takes seriously. And I think you can tell they take it seriously. They ended with a paragraph
[14:22] thanking everyone for reaching out with quote real concern for the integrity of the game. And that was signed off by the WoW team as a whole. And I know you coms, but I do actually think they take this seriously. Mythic Plus is a fairly
[14:36] base and they know that if integrity goes, especially if that's caused by actually be damaging to their game. But I don't think it's the end of this story because, well, I want to go back a little bit. You see, when talking to
[14:51] Growl, the Demon Hunter downplayed all of this stuff. You know, whatever. They'd already earned their title. But the thing is, that completely ignores the thing is, that completely ignores the bigger picture of this story.
[15:05] Say what you want about WoW, but outside of high-end myth grading being a big week [music] or a fest, it has been consistent really. Everything you do in Azeroth does matter within Azeroth. Your [music] progress is earned. It stays
[15:18] with you. Hall of Fame achievements, gladiator mounts, Mythic Plus titles, [music] even simpler things like, say, the insane title from way back in the day or maybe that rare mount that you farmed for. All of those things feel
[15:30] real. So if game masters are breaking the rules of the game and if players [music] are complicit in that then the entire illusion of well woow mattering is under threat and that does mean it's absolutely imperative that Blizzard
[15:45] treats cheating from inside or from outside with the utmost seriousness at all times. Even when the cheating is minor, the principle of a real game in a real world has got to hold. Almost nothing is worth the risk of devaluing
[15:59] 20 years of someone's effort. Cheating of course has happened before and botting is rather rampant, but on those at least we do know that they try. And even back in the day when game masters were a lot more visible on live servers,
[16:13] you could really tell that game masters had a weird uniform. They would fly and teleport around the place instead of walk. They had a almost mythical place called GM Island, totally inaccessible to players. They were these weird
[16:27] otherworldly almost alien gods. And in a way, that mystique kind of sold that they weren't real within World of Warcraft. Meeting one felt like a dream. You know, like an apparition from an angel, not really a peak behind the
[16:41] curtain into [music] development. And that was actually by design. A little bit like, say, the hand from Spongebob. It's clearly not part of the world. So world [music] logic, well, the world doesn't stay broken. So, in other words,
[16:55] decent response, Blizzard, actually. The firing of this employee was right. [music] Absolutely. And the bans are at least more than nothing. But a month they can easily sleep off doesn't feel like the right bill for death touching
[17:09] your way to a timed key and kind of breaking a lot of how the game should actually work. They should probably make this stick. Maybe lock them out of [music] this season's title. I think that would be a fairly good idea. At the
[17:22] end of the day, it's a competitive title and if you break the spirit of the game, well, that should be stripped from you. At least in my opinion, because otherwise, people may just think, "Ah, it's a slap in the wrist. Fine, I can
[17:35] bit where you could take your leave and watch another video. But as it turns out, there is just one more thing. There is one final mystery to this story.
[17:47] question I'm afraid will just go unanswered, and that is who blew the whistle? You see, [music] I can believe that people examine top logs for strategies. That's a good reason for someone to be, you know, looking at
[18:02] [music] and have some downtime. I find it harder to accept, though, that someone just so happened to find this one completely randomly. I've got two theories, then. One is what if the OP is
[18:17] actually the pug tank and what if they blew the whistle because they're afraid of repercussions for being part of a cheated key. And do remember the demon hunter was happy to throw the tanks routing under the bus on camera. So if
[18:32] there was bad blood within that group, then well, an expose in the situation sure does ride itself. Juicy. But that theory does kind of fall apart given that they well kept on running keys
[18:45] together afterwards. The theory, too, is it's one of Yara's other friends, or maybe a viewer blowing the whistle in a little bit of inter competition. Maybe really principled about World of Warcraft. We can't exactly know, but I
[19:00] think I believe this one a little more. And that's because after the Kyax response, the OP got really weird in the comments, referring to their own anon account in the third person. You know, like they might be afraid to be found
[19:14] out and therefore have something to lose. Or maybe they really are a random demon hunter trying to figure out how to run a nexus point plus 23. At this point, I don't think we'll ever know, but at least it was one hell of a
[19:28] dramatic story. And a reminder, if your job gives you power, do try to not abuse it for cloud, at least within the first few weeks. Or maybe do because the rest of us [music] will get a good laugh out of it. But being serious, this is an
[19:42] important story because the integrity of the game is being [music] upheld. And see, there's a lot of discussion about why WoW does not just hit the same that why WoW does not just hit the same that it used to maybe back in 2004 or 2008. A
[19:55] immersion, and I think some of it's that, but actually it's about something different entirely. [music] It led to us digging through loads of scientific papers. It was a hell of a ride, and you can find out about it in
[20:08] ride, and you can find out about it in the next video.