Hefty Fines and Sentences for Overwatch Hackers as Arrests Continue

A number of Overwatch hackers that were arrested in January of 2018 have discovered their fate following court proceedings.

Overwatch is one of the most popular games on Earth but it is dealing with many of the same issues that over top games, particularly first person shooters, suffer from.

Cheaters are a plague on virtually any online PC game, and Overwatch is no different to other titles that struggle with them like CS:GO or PUBG. However, if you’re in South Korea and you decide to hack you could find yourself in serious trouble.

In January a total of 13 hackers and match-fixers were arrested by the South Korean government and the first “official rulings”, against a cheat coder, shows that the crime is taken seriously.

The hack creator has been given two years of probation while another one of the arestees has received a hefty 10 million South Korean Won fine, which amounts to around $10,000, according to an official announcement by Blizzard.

The Seoul National Police Agency Cyber Security Department and Blizzard have been working together to tackle the rampant cheating and match-fixing issue since January 2017 and these sentences show that the mission is bearing fruit.

Even pros like OGE have been caught boosting. Credit: Overwatch League/Twitch

South Korea has some of the strictest laws when it comes to online conduct, particularly in video games, and South Korean authorities have made headlines on a number of occasions in the past when tackling match-fixing scandals in StarCraft.

Unfortunately the ongoing war on cheaters and fixers, even with these stricter penalties, doesn’t seem to be scaring people off as even some professional players have received bans for boosting.

Dallas Fuel’s Son ‘OGE’ Min-seok received a four game ban for boosting and Philadelphia Fusion’s Kim ‘Sado’ Su-min has been slammed with a 30 game ban for an ongoing account boosting scheme.