Types of cheating in Dota 2

Any Dota 2 player has faced a hack at least once. Recently, this number has continued to increase rapidly. Hackers not only appear in pubs but also semi-professional tournaments. We can’t tolerate this problem, and that’s why Gosu.AI has started developing an anti-cheat system.

You can read more to know if I have ever played with hackers.

At the time of this article’s launch, Gosu.AI has analyzed around 200,000 matches, played by 1 million players. Here are the parameters found and how this system works. In addition, the article also shares how anti-cheat works and parameters.

Hack in Dota 2, is it real?

They appear a lot in the game, check out this clip (English subtitles).

In the early stages, Gosu.AI applied algorithms to detect hacks by tracking mouse movements and clicks during replays.

Camera Hack

When opening this hack, players can see at a distance that is not in the screen they see, they don’t need to click much, nor move the mouse there (like Zoomout when you review replays). match). Wide Monitor is not cheating, because its field of view is only extended horizontally. This is the most common hack, statistically found at 12.24% of all matches. About 1.1% of all players use this hack and 76% of them have very wide vision.

This player clicks outside the camera view, you will see extra clicks appear naturally. Match ID: 3754671634

According to research Zoomout accounts for 12.24% of all matches. The number of players using hacks accounted for 1.02%, and 76% of them used zoomout in every match.

Automatically block (block) creeps

Block Creep is an important skill to help mid-farmers effectively in the early game. But what if there is software that automatically clicks for you to block creeps without you even noticing? Of course, this software is not fair at all.

The good news is that currently only 0.1% of players (ie 1 in 1000) use this hack in pub matches, but you can encounter hackers in 0.5% of total matches (ie 1 in 200).

Look at the click speed in separate locations. Match ID: 3754671634

Automatically throw (drop) items out

Toss and pick up items quickly in certain situations will give your hero an advantage. For example, tossing and picking Arcane Boots back after using Soul Ring will give you 75 more mana for free. Normally, you have to spend time hovering the mouse over the inventory bar to pull it out, then have to pick up the item again.

At least 0.035% (350 per million) players use this software. That is 0.328% of the total number of matches.

Players automatically drop items and gain more mana. Match ID: 3730565232

How does the anti-cheat system work

To detect the hack, Gosu.AI extracted mouse movement data and all actions the player does from the replays. To analyze player behavior, the system needs to integrate many parameters such as the distance between the mouse position on the screen and the action position that the data is actually recorded. Then, using a machine-improved method called ‘anomaly detection’: the algorithm learns from ‘hacked’ matches (hand-tested by Dota 2 experts) and can then detect exhibit “suspicious” behavior.

To categorize hacks and predict the accuracy of the detection system, Gosu.AI asked experts who looked at random “suspected hacks” matches and made a decision – whether it was a hack. ? According to statistical analysis, this technique is called acceptance sampling. According to current research, the system has a false detection rate of 3% (that is, the player did not hack but is considered a hack).

It is very difficult to have an ideal algorithm because there are many special cases in the game. And this system is still in the process of improving, so if that’s not the case, please contribute to the Gosu.AI team so they can fix it.