Truth of LoLHelper, Riot Korea Ignored External Helper Programs

http://www.inven.co.kr/board/powerbbs.php?come_idx=2778&my=chu&l=41776

I am a user who first found out about LoLHelper back in March of 2014 and reported it to Riot Games Korea. This is a post to publicly inform everyone about the back story of the sellers of LoLHelpers during their beginning period and Riot Korea's reaction to such actions.

Above all, unsatisfactory Riot [Korea]'s passive and formal attitude and videos blaming users' fault for using such unauthorized external programs with showing nuance of users' maturity to be not so high were the reasons behind writing this post.

By writing this post, by informing this to everyone, I don't get anything, but rather, I carry on the risk of getting sued, and I took the risk.

Time goes back to March of 2014, when LoLHelper was not yet so popular among people. I, for the first time, reported a Naver [translator's note: a very popular portal site in Korea. Offers variety of internet services] Cafe that was distributing these LoLHelpers to Riot Games [Korea].

[TN: Following is the Screenshot of the Riot Games CS.]

Q: Program called LoLHelper is getting distributed.

At the moment, Program called LoLHelper (Oppoenent's CDs, Spells, Jungle Timers, Automatic kiting skills, and automatic cs'ing scripts) is getting distrubuted in exchange for cash.

[TN: URL of the Naver Cafe]

Although this is getting distributed at a cost of 20,000 KRW [TN: around $17 USD as of April 2016], a lot of people are visiting this cafe, (above cafe was recently remade cafe) and owners are earning multi-million KRWs [TN: 1 million KRW is around $871 USD. basically multi-grands in USD] (already confirmed of over 6 million KRWs) of illegal income.

Shouldn't there be at least some sort of big PSA about this program so that users would be scared to use this kind of program? I recommend you make PSAs or take quick actions after necessary internal discussions.

Faster actions taken will mean more trust from the users also.

Post time: 2014-03-15 00:15

A: Hello Summoner!!!
This is [GM] Heimerdinger constructing towers to protect you.

I have read over your concern carefully. You have inquired about the usage of external programs.

First of all, thank you for your interest in regards to the external programs.

External program of our interest is not authorized nor distributed by us.
Appropriate division is informed about this matter and on-task to come up with a solution.

We promise that we will always continue to find solutzions regarding unauthorized programs, and if you have any other inquiries or help, feel free to come back to our one-on-one CS.

According to my science, it's always your, summoner's victory. It was [GM] Heimerdinger.
Thank you.

[TN: END OF CS Screenshot]

After 3 months of this report, LoLHelper Naver Cafe was still intact, and Riot Korea has not taken any actions. And videos showing Katarina's multikills and Xerath's auto-targetting became popular, and LoLHelper's existance rose above surface again.

Everyone started to use LoLHelpers by then.

Another report in 3 months:

[TN: Again, screenshot of a Riot Korea CS page]

Q: I want serious reply regarding hacks.

Currently League of Legends communities or LoL related fansites are all in such a fuss regarding the helpers. Foreseeing this kind of situation may rise, I have reported about this with the cafe selling the helpers and their method in detail back in March.

But what is this situation? It's been 3 months since and there hasn't been any  actions taken regarding this, and the cafe has taken 6 grands monthly and now they've accumulated upto tens of grands of extreme income.

If client-side cannot block these helper programs from source, shouldn't you be sending in request for help in action to Naver? or at least show that you are reporting about this cafe to Naver's CS?

Do you know what the cafe in regards says in their billboard? It says that they will never be caught since they have hidden the process, so "just don't broadcast it and you'll be fine."

Are you reading up on the community reactions?
"Oh they'll just say that I won cuz of helpers if I win." "I quit Starcraft because of Helpers." "You're a fucking idiot if you don't use helpers." They're all like this. ELO boosting was like this. And now it's Helpers. When are you going to stop these 'scratch-in-the-back' restrictions?

Wake up.

Posted: 2014-05-30 09:15

A: Hello, Summoner! It's [GM] Veigar.

You have inquired about the site that was distributing unauthorized programs on League of Legends.

First of all, We give thanks in regarding your high spirit to report about this.

Not only unmannerly actions, but altering clients or using external programs to question the fairness among summoners cannot be accepted in any way, and this can lead to not only banning, but also further strong actions.

We are also on continuous scout on the community sites, and please be aware that should we find any abnormal actions, we report immediately to appropriate divisions. (Community sites' posts are great help to monitoring unauthorized programs and server failures.)

We will continuously monitor over the URL that you have linked us, and should we confirm anything regards to distribution, selling, or using unauthorized programs, we are taking actions according to our manual, so please be aware of that.

Should you find any summoners using unauthorized programs in further games, or confirm distribution of such programs, please report it to us.

Thank you.

* We will try to answer as soon as possible in regards to the previous report that you have sent us. We deeply apologize for the reports not taken and processed in order.

[TN: end of screenshot of Riot Korea CS]

However, what followed was just another macro'ed response to the report and there weren't any actions taken.

The cafe in question would have been shut down within a week by Naver had Riot Korea sent in a report to Naver CS with just one line reason of 'obstruction of business.'

However Riot Korea has not taken any actions for months, and this attitude of ignorance got me mad that I got to hand of the personal information of those sellers and reported it again.


[TN: 3rd screenshot of reporting]
Q: Reporting again in the scripting program.

[URL WHITED OUT]

LoLHelper script is sold from above site.
They are the same administrators from the previous Naver Cafe administrators, and they are raising grands a month.

This is the contact number of the administrator
[PHONE NUMBER WHITED OUT]

Either call them and swear to them so that they can’t sell,
or make a fake PSA that they sent in request for investigation on the sellers of the program so that they get scared.
They are getting 5000 daily visitors now. Fact on how many people got their hands to this scripts while you guys didn’t take any actions is giving me chills from getting scared of how useless you are.

Furthermore, glancing over the posts here, it says that there is no way for Riot Korea to check from client if summoners are using scripts.
Before, it says that three or four people got banned, but after they disguised the processor, none of them get caught unless they do some crazy shit on AfreecaTV.

[big whiteout titled ‘personal info’]

also, i’d like to ask a question.

1. I’ve been told that scripting programs disguised its processor, so how are you going to find it? Is there even a way to find it? (Beforehand, it showed as lolhalper.exe, but now it disguised as like an IE like explorer.exe)

[another blob of personal info]

A: Hello, this is [GM] Ziggs here to blow away your concerns!

We have received and read over your thankful submission of report following your previous ones.

You have inquired about the unauthorized programs.

I thank you for your precious report. About the subject of matter, we are also on continuous monitoring and through banning and restrictions, we always try to bring you a better environment, so please be understanding with your generous heart.

On the subject matter, other summoners have reported on this issue, and we are also aware of it.

Also, we will send over the information that you have given us to the appropriate divisions and make sure they take a look at it. (__)

Additionally, please refer to the information below about the additional inquiry that you have made.


“1. I’ve been told that scripting programs disguised its processor, so how are you going to find it? Is there even a way to find it? (Beforehand, it showed as lolhalper.exe, but now it disguised as like an IE like explorer.exe)”

We cannot give you a definitive answer to that question, but an appropriate division is conduction investigation on that subject matter.

[another blob of personal info]

I hope my answers were helpful to you. If you have any further questions in future, inquire to us and we will try to answer it fully for you.

- it was midget sized problem solver [GM] Ziggs until now.

[end of screenshot of 3rd report]

Finally after sending in the report containing their contact information, Riot Korea had reached out to the sellers of LoLHelpers around June of 2014.

[Screenshot of an email]

Title: Hello, this is Riot Games.
Sender: “Unknown Unknown” <kor-notice@riotgames.com>
Timestamp: 2014-June-10 18:01

Hello? This is Riot Games.

Since we have published League of Legends and started its administration, we have kept a uniform philosophy. That is to be player-focused. This is not just a quote, but our dedication and our MOTTO towards all summoners logging into LOL so that they can enjoy this game in a fair environment.

Unfortunately, we have come across an external forces that interferes with our philosophy that caused harm to our innocent summoners. That is, there are several cases where the rule of fair environment was broken due to few summoners using LoLHelper. Currently, the ‘;lolhelper’; program that you are distributing from the site that you are administrating (http://lolko.kr) is also a topic of dispute amongst several summoners.

In regards to this, we would like to have a meeting to talk about this program that you are distributing. We think that if you have the dedication to make LoLHelper, you must be a player that likes and loves our game to the fullest.
We think it’d be great to have a time to understand and exchange opinions so that LOL continuously gets loved from its players.

Thank you.

From Riot Games.

[End of Screenshot of an email]

[Another screenshot of an email]

Title: Re: Hello, this is Riot Games.
Sender: “Unknown Unknown” <kor-notice@riotgames.com>
Timestamp: 2014-June-11 15:27


Hello this is Riot Games.

We have read the fax that you sent in thoroughly.

We think that it is best to meet in person and have a conversation to discuss about this subject matter.

To do this, I have checked on our internal schedules, and we’d like to meet on June 17th (Tuesday).

If you tell us your availability, we will arrange accordingly.

As for place to meet, it’d be great if you’d come visit at our office at Gangnam Shinsa station (subway line 3, exit number 6), if that is unavailable for you, please tell us your preference, and we will visit there.

Also, this email (kor-notice@riotgames.com) can be replied to, so please send us a replay.

Thank you.

From Riot Games.

[End of screenshot of an email]

Above emails are the emails that Riot Korea has sent to sellers around June of 2014.
From the content above, it can be confirmed that Riot is rather friendly towards the sellers of LoLHelpers.

(I, the writer, have kept contact and friendliness with sellers of LoLHelper, and asked if things were going smoothly with Riot Korea, and sellers have given me this information.)

So Riot Korea requested for a visit to their company office, and had following conversation.

Script Seller: Are we gonna get taken to legal actions?
Riot official: Riot Korea, by manual, do not take any legal actions under any circumstances.

Script Seller: Question about the rating system.
Riot official: Those who will climb the ladder will climb with or without using scripts. (They are still not getting the seriousness of this situation.)

Riot official: We ask that you refrain from selling this program.
Script Seller: Even if we close down, it’s gonna be sold from other sellers. (Question regarding if they are going to prevent  this kind of situation in the future.)
Riot official: That’s not something for you guys to be thinking of, since we are concentrating on it anyways.

This kind of conversation went on for about an hour, and Riot officials mostly didn’t answer any questions from the script sellers with an excuse of ‘internal rules/manuals.’

Although Riot reached out to script sellers to invite them for a visit, there were no preparations in the meeting and was processed very poorly. Furthermore, there was apparently an event scheduled that day, so the office was rather unsettled.

Without bring this to an end, Riot sent the script sellers back with Coke and Sprite on their hand.
On a side note, according to the script sellers, there were a lot of gaming consoles and sodas in the company office.

After visiting the company, script sellers got a firm reply that Riot Korea does not take any legal actions, and as if they were dogs released from leashes, they began to act more wildly and still continued to earn even more money afterwards.
There were times when they earned thousand dollars a day, and they were raising a lot of money to boast about it.

[Screenshot of a Riot report system]
Q: Wow, the level of administration in Riot Korea, seriously, (chills…)

I heard you guys have been called ‘script-selling company.’ kekek.

Why didn’t you just meme on them on email that y’all will sue them instead of some unproductive company visit? kekek.

well, this script-selling site is still running normally.
there is just no answer to this adminstration. ‘grats.

Timestamp: 2014-June-30 06:00

A. Hello,
This is [GM] Rengar jumping out from bushes from your call.

You have inquired about the site that sells the unauthorized programs.

Riot Korea does not have separate visiting programs, so we hereby inform you that *there were never any case where distributors of unauthorized programs visited the company.*

League of Legends is fully aware of the unauthorized programs that are harming the fairness in competition, and making efforts of our majority, innocent summoners.

We are rather fully trying to shut down the usage of unauthorized external programs, and you can find about that at [PSA on the Unauthorized External Programs.] [TN: <- seems like a link]

Also, several sites distributing unauthorized external programs and its users have been confirmed thanks to a lot of help from Summoners.

Even besides you summoner’s report, we are under process of confirmation through internal monitoring.

As for the case of sites that distributes unauthorized external programs, we are taking actions after confirmations, and same goes for the users.

However, this requires a process of acquiring enough evidence, so this can be time-consuming to complete the confirmation process.

We are always trying to provide smooth and pleasant environment to League of Legends.

If you have any further inquires, please leave us a 1:1 report.
This was [GM] Rengar jumping out from the bushes to solve you, summoner’s conflict and questions.

Thank you

Timestamp: 2014-June-30 16:47

[end of screenshot]

<Despite several reports, all that came back was ignorance from the company. I left a joking report to them out of spite, but all that came back was a bold lies from the Riot CS team.>


Although I have dedicated a lot of time to make several reports and informing them even about the contact information of the sellers of the unauthorized programs after some back-hand investigations, trying to help Riot Korea, Riot Korea did not take any rational actions accordingly, and being disappointed to it, I have quit League of Legends after leaving that report.

Time passed and in 2015, 2016, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t know LoLHelper, and you are an idiot if you don’t use it too.

In the end, this state where LoLHelper has been spread throughout was because of idiotic, complacent Riot Korea’s CS team with their complacent reactions to the scripting programs, along with their quote of ‘those who will climb will climb with or without scripts,’ and ‘we don’t take any legal actions under any circumstances.’

If Riot Korea’s CEO/President is reading this, please just change all the HRs in the CS department, manager level and upwards. Even take the legal actions and change the internal manuals if you need to.


—————————————————————————————————————————————————

+ Added text

[screenshot]
Lv 70: Riot Runeterra (2016-03-26 21:35:08)
<I speak to the writer>
The passion to cut down the unauthorized programs is not any different from ours. However, posting something that is different from the truth does not help in this current situation.

After a review, I have found out that what you claimed as your exchange between you and Riot in your inquiries have been deleted in some parts and added your own that we never said. In example, on your third answer screenshot, you have put the same answer as your second one.
[end of screenshot]

Reply: I have fixed the error with the duplicate on the screenshots, but I have posted everything without any alterations. Honestly, I don’t know if any of these formal and macro’ed answers are going to have any influences in the context of this post, but as an official related to Riot, I hope you don’t frame this whole post as false just because there was an error in the screenshots.

It is not me who you guys should be scaring away and monitoring, but those script sellers and users.

<Counterargument on the position of Riot>


[screenshot of a comment]
Lv 70: Riot Runeterra (2016-03-26 21:35:08)
<I speak to the writer>
The passion to cut down the unauthorized programs is not any different from ours. However, posting something that is different from the truth does not help in this current situation.
[end of screenshot]

You have said that this post is different from the truth. Then don’t just say that “it’s different from the truth,” say which part is different, how different. If it is problematic due to personal information or user trends, send me a PM.

If there is something that’s different from truth, i’ll admit it and have some explanations, apologize, delete this post or something, and i will not reveal the content of the message.

I tell you again, but there is nothing that I gain from writing this post. In fact, I write with carrying the risk of legal actions. Although I reported first out of all in regards to scripting for you, it is all your fault for complacent actions and making up a negative user trends.

[screenshot]
Lv 70: Riot Runeterra (2016-03-26 21:35:08)
<Follow-up action on the cafe in regards>
Cafe in question was convinced to close down, and it did. Although we can assume where they had their business away from our monitoring, we firmly inform you that we did not just let them make profits out of our sight. To tell you additionally, we are continuously monitoring and taking actions anywhere that distributes or sells unauthorized programs.
[end of screenshot]

Even anyone can report to Naver about the Cafe that sells illegal programs or scripting programs to their CS team and the cafe gets closed down within a week. Since the early 2000s, any sort of free-server or scripting cafes have been shut down within a week.

Even if the cafe gets shut down, even an elementary school kids can remake it.
Cafe that I mentioned is a remade cafe after getting ‘blinded’ once. And that is why I didn’t just report to Naver but instead told Riot, so that you guys can collect enough evidence and do your monitoring job, and finally hoped that you would take appropriate actions.

Three months passed like this.

I’m quite sure that cafe would’ve been shut down had I left a note to their CS team with just a memo of “selling scripts.”