Super Pichu cheating scandal: Difference between revisions

The '''Chaos cheating scandal''', also known as the '''Super Pichu cheating scandal''' or '''Pichugate''', was an incident that occurred in the North East Ohio ''Melee'' scene.  

 

This incident is notable for being the first and only recorded case of cheating in ''Smash'' tournaments through gameplay modification.

At the time of the incident, Pichu was ranked 24th out of 26th on the game's [[List_of_SSBM_tier_lists_(NTSC)#Twelfth tier list (December 10th, 2015)|twelfth tier list on December 10th, 2015]] at the time. This ranking resulted from Pichu's bevy of weaknesses, mainly its extremely light weight, poor range, and lack of defensive options. In fact, Pichu was intended to be a joke character by the game's developers<ref>''[http://sourcegaming.info/2015/09/24/meleepichusite/ News Flash! Smash Bros. Dojo: Pichu]'' (translated 2015-09-24; [https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/1211/index.html original] posted 2001-12-11)</ref>, emphasized in its [[List of SSBM trophies (Pokémon series)#Pichu Smash|Adventure Mode]] and [[List of SSBM trophies (Pokémon series)#Pichu Smash 2|All-Star Mode]] trophies.  

Chaos picked up Pichu in 2014<ref name="Lil Homie"/>, aiming to become the best Pichu player in the world. On March 10th, 2015, Chaos (xChaos on SmashBoards) replied to a SmashBoards forum titled "Pichu isn't the worst!",<ref>[https://smashboards.com/threads/pichu-isnt-the-worst.393987/post-18736874 Pichu isn't the worst!]</ref>. He stated that despite {{SSBM|Marth}} being his most used character, he was gravitating towards Pichu's potential from a personal skill-based perspective, intending to improve hismself with the character. In turn, this would spark arguments with users on the forum.  

==Affected Tournaments==

Given the length of time taken before Chaos was caught, he cheated at an innumerable amount of tournaments. This list compiles tournaments Chaos attended and thus possibly cheated.

|[https://challonge.com/argw7 ARG 7]|| 14th September 2015 || 9th/14 || 0-2

|[https://challonge.com/arg8/standings ARG 8] || 21st September 2015 || 9th/15 || 0-2

|[https://challonge.com/arg9 ARG 9] || 28th September 2015 || 7th/18 ||

|[https://challonge.com/argt10 ARG 10] || 5th October 2015 || 4th/6 || Round Robin

|[https://challonge.com/arg11 ARG 11] || 12th October 2015 || 7th/14 ||

|[https://challonge.com/arg12 ARG 12] || 19th October 2015 || 7th/18 ||

|[https://challonge.com/arg13 ARG 13] || 26th October 2015 || 4th/11 ||

|[https://challonge.com/arg16 ARG 16] || 9th November 2015 || 13th/22 ||

|[https://challonge.com/argt21 ARG 16] || 22nd December 2015 || 17th/30 ||

|[https://challonge.com/ARG38 ARG 38]|| 6th June 2016 || 13th/33 ||

|[https://challonge.com/argm45 ARG 45] || 20th June 2016 || 7th/36 ||

|[https://challonge.com/ARGMM2 ARG Melee Monthly #2] || 25th June 2016 || 2nd/24 || See below

|[https://challonge.com/argmim ARG Melee in Medina 45] || 28th June 2016 || 2nd/19 ||

During the Alter Reality Games 2016 ''Melee'' singles, Chaos, and another player, Remix, were arguing over whose setup would be used for their tournament match. However, both players agreed to play on Chaos's setup, where Remix won 2-1 in Round 1. However, despite Chaos losing to Remix, he would go on to defeat five opponents in a row in the losers's bracket, notably defeating {{Sm|Surf's up. hail satan}}, who was one of the best ''Melee'' players in the region. In his next round, Chaos would argue with {{Sm|Minnty}} over setups once more. Eventually, both players agreed to play on Chaos's setup, where Chaos would defeat Minnty 2-0.  

Following Chaos's placement using a character largely seen as unviable, players began considering the likelihood that Chaos had been cheating. In a forum post from an unnamed tournament attendee, they claimed that Chaos had KO'ed Joeycrzl's {{SSBM|Ice Climbers}} with Pichu's uncharged forward smash at 18% during a transformation on [[Pokémon Stadium]].<ref name="Lil Homie"/> While Pichu's forward smash is notable for having the highest base knockback of any forward smash in vanilla ''Melee'', it provably does not normally KO at said percentage range.

Some time later, a local event was organized for players in the Ohio ''Melee'' scene to gather together, with Chaos showing up as one of the attendees.<ref name="Lil Homie"/> While the attendees were playing their games, a plan was devised to expose whether Chaos was actually cheating or not. The plan involved distracting Chaos by having some of the attendees take him to a Sheetz convenience store nearby, while having another group stay behind to copy the SD card in Chaos's Wii to a separate SD card. After Chaos returned and everyone went home, the people who copied Chaos' SD card showed video footage of Chaos' Pichu down tilt, which turned out to have increased range compared to vanilla ''Melee''.

On July 2nd, 2016, the_beanwolf would make [https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/4qyq9x/on_melee_modifications_and_cheating_a_warning post] in the r/smashbros subreddit that confirmed Chaos had cheated the whole time.

The changes compiled are as follows:

* {{buff|Pichu falls faster.}}

* {{buff|Down tilt's range is 1.5× longer and has increased knockback.}}

* {{buff|Forward smash is much stronger.}}

* {{buff|Aerial attacks have little to no lag.}}

* {{change|''Melee'' was running on [[List of regional version differences (SSBM)|the 1.0 release]], making [[SDI]] more difficult.}}

* {{change|The changes could only be used by plugging a [[GameCube controller]] into the fourth controller port, then holding L and down-left on the control stick when starting a game as Pichu's blue costume.}}

Chaos's cheating would soon be exposed; as a result, he would be banned from attending tournaments in Ohio, while his earnings from the tournament would be confiscated.

This incident is widely regarded as one of the first notable instances of cheating through [[gameplay modification]]s in competitive ''Smash'' history. However, it is far from the first case of cheating in general, with incidents such as tournament collusion happening for many years prior. The impact of Chaos's cheating raised numerous questions about hidden modifications being put into ''Smash'' setups. At the time, with mods like [[UCF]] gaining in popularity, it could even raise the question of whether any mods should be allowed at all, though little has changed in this regard. That being said, [[Tournament organizer]]s now tend to be much more scrutinous about what hardware and software gets used in a tournament to make sure a similar incident never happens again.

On 3rd August 2017, the University of Advancing Technology covered the incident in reference to rising security issues like BlackHat and Defcon<ref>[https://blog.uat.edu/blogs/5249 University of Advancing Technology article]</ref>.

In October 2020, Esports talk cited the scandal in their "The Difference Between Cheating in Esports vs Traditional Sports" article<ref>[https://www.esportstalk.com/blog/the-difference-between-cheating-in-esports-vs-traditional-sports/ The Difference Between Cheating in Esports vs Traditional Sports] </ref>.

Since Dan Salvato's video, multiple others have been produced that have gone viral, mainly because of the spectacle. On 20th December 2019, {{Sm|ZeRo}} would cite the scandal as part of a video discussing cheaters who got caught in Smash overall, garnering over 900,000 views. The next year, on 10th November 2020, {{Sm|AsumSaus}} released a video discussing the incident at-length, which reached over 1,000,000 views<ref>[https://youtu.be/iik_iUPCSl8?si=DvyOnfswsIBBc5DO Cheating in Competitive Melee]</ref>.

A few years later, on 19th March 2023, {{Sm|lil homie}} would also release a video, which has reached over 500,000 <ref name="Lil Homie">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5asTiS_FILQ "How Melee's Biggest Cheater Was Caught" by Lil Homie]</ref> views. A month later, the scandal would see coverage on EventHubs, possibly because of the renewed attention the scandal received<ref>[https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2023/apr/03/super-pichu-cheater-caught-ssbm/ EventHubs article]</ref>.  

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