With a new Race to World First comes another batch of Final Fantasy XIV drama surrounding it. After the “winning” team for The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) was accused of using zoom hacks and hitbox indicators, director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida stepped in today to officially comment on the allegations.
The Final Fantasy XIV community exploded overnight when the Japanese team UNNAMED_ was found to have used third-party tools to gain an advantage in the fight. The community was rightfully suspicious when the team suddenly popped up on FF Logs as having logged a clear, with no buildup at all. They hadn’t had any logs uploaded and their stats, even still at the time of writing, are hidden on the site.
“We are aware of information that is being spread regarding the use of third-party tools within The Omega Protocol (Ultimate)—we are conducting an investigation on the matter, including review of reports we have received, as well as self-confessions and other information,” the blog post reads.
The topic of third-party tools was brought up last year when Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate) had an instance of players emulating the battle to gain an unfair advantage. This time, Yoshi-P has made it very clear that the players involved will be punished if their investigation leads them to confirm the accusations but will not publicize any action taken against them.
“When other instances of unfair play were identified during previous ‘Ultimate’ raids, we enacted penalties at that time as well. If an investigation is carried out and the facts are confirmed, we have not, and will not overlook this kind of wrongdoing,” Yoshi-P said in the blog post.
Penalties will be, and have been, doled out already
While Yoshi-P did touch on the use of third-party tools to clear the fight, he seems to be incredibly angry about the sharing of the final cutscene that plays at the end of the duty when a clear is achieved.
“Through sending a cleverly disguised but illicit information packet from the user’s end while on the public game server, it is possible to manipulate the playback condition flag intended for use when replaying cutscenes via The Unending Journey,” the blog post reads.
This is something the developers take seriously, and although Yoshi-P said the devs weren’t going to release the details of any account actions, he did say in this blog post that the account that partook in the sharing of the cutscene has been handed a penalty against their account.
Another video has apparently been circulating that is “not possible to record on the public game servers,” but the developers have yet to find out who distributed the video. The video is suspected to come from an internal source, and Square Enix plans to conduct an investigation and enact a “firm punishment” against the perpetrator.
In Yoshi-P’s closing, he extended his thoughts on the matter.
“It is extremely disappointing for me personally to see this commotion surrounding third-party tools once again in the wake of what happened with Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate). … I, as a gamer, am cheering on everyone who is learning this content by trial and error and putting in the effort to clear,” Yoshi-P said.
The community is still waiting on a legitimate team to clear The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) and has largely dismissed UNNAMED_’s victory as a farce since they used such egregious tools to gain an advantage. Considering Yoshi-P himself had to express his disappointment, it’s safe to say that the Race to World First for the duty is still on.
