Meet the Player that Completely Broke Rocket League

This is the true story of how the actions of just one man started a chain of events that broke competitive Rocket League and led to the bans of thousands players. It's a story you might think you already know. The Nexto Bot Hack of 2023 was the first widespread cheating event in Rocket League History. But how did this Machine Learning AI end up in online servers? In this video I will trace the Rocket League Bot Cheat back to it's source and recount the events that lead to the leak, it's exponential growth as GC Bots took over competitive, and the eventual response from Psyonix to ban the cheating bots. Along the way I will address several misconceptions about the Rocket League Bot Expliot and answer questions like: Was there an SSL Bot? Did the bot learn while playing ranked? What happened to players that cheated in Rocket League? and Are bots still being used in Rocket League today? Special thanks to Rolv, Soren, Rangler, Aech, AlpacaFlightSim, and Thorami.
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[@efhiii]

It seems like a lot of people are getting the impression that Psyonix could've put in preventive measures so that bots don't work online, thereby preventing the issue, but I don't think that's the case. If I'm Psyonix and someone is telling me that they managed to get a bot to work in ranked, my response is, at most, saying "hey, don't share this with people and don't use it yourself" and that's it. As long as that specific code doesn't go out, there's no real need to put in detection code. I'm (as Psyonix) also probably well aware that it *can* be an issue, but so far it hasn't been one. From Psyonix's perspective, I don't think preemptively putting in detection code was worth it because bots looks just like a normal player using normal input to the server, there's no one-size fits all solution, the most effective protection is a case-by-case detection of very specific inputs that are distinctly inhuman like uncannily fast input changes, consistently frame perfect identical kickoffs etc. They could've implemented such protections for Thorami's version of Nexto, but because Thorami was the only one with that code and Thorami was presumably not going to distribute it, it's unlikely that such detection systems would work particularly well for if someone nefarious independently created a similar thing but used a different bot. Maybe Thorami would've gotten a white hat back when those were given out, before Epic was involved, but even then, I think it wouldn't be a productive use of developer time to make the protections necessary to prevent bots from being in ranked because it could easily just become an arms race where a simple detection system goes in, then a bypass is found, then another detection layer is added, then another bypass is found etc. which is just a waste of everyone's time.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Great points. I agree, that is basically what I was trying to say in the outro. Of course in hindsight you could say that a detection system for Thorami's bot would worked perfectly, but no developer is spinning up detection systems for every single exploit that comes along. Especially one that (at the time) was really only in the hands of one person. That being said, things would have also gone much better if one or both of following had happened: 1) Thorami had followed the appropriate exploit submissions system that is in place (HackerOne). It's true they no longer give White Hats, but HackerOne has awarded thousands of dollars to players that have found Rocket League expliots over the last few years and is known to be the place to go if you find something like Thorami did. 2) Psyonix had overlooked the protocol and actually made an effort to talk to Thorami. I understand why they dont usually engage with people that act like he did, but I think it's good to make some exceptions especially when it's something as serious as a bot working online.

[@davidmassey8773]

Yeah I suppose you're correct here, fixing something that isn't broken usually breaks what already exists.

[@CorpusFisty]

What about all of the people who weren’t using this bot but were rightly sniffed out and banned as a result of this? People were using other scripts and cheats, as this video points out. Everyone is highroading Thorami because they were briefly inconvenienced, meanwhile countless current and future undetectable (until his actions) cheating has now been prevented.

[@charpool169]

The fact that if this happened a few years ago, he would have most likely been given a white hat but now got banned for bringing an exploit like this to the devs attention is a little crazy

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Agreed, the response he was looking for was how things used to work back in the days they gave White Hats. Some of those guys literally hacked dev accounts, then would talk to the devs about how they did it and get rewarded. Now there are specific channels you are supposed to follow (HackerOne for Epic) and unfortunately though Thorami knew about the channels he didn't follow them (for various reasons).

[@TheFlashinPulsar]

He needs a grey hat now. Lets petition, protest, and riot.

[@UnrebornMortuus]

@@TheFlashinPulsar I want to agree but technically speaking, I don't know, I have no rational! I wouldn't riot if he got unbanned and given a grey hat. But that shouldn't happen (at least the grey hat) because then people would be encouraged to not be full white hat, for a unique cosmetic, keeping it white hat is better.

[@winkletown8828]

Rewarding people for malicious behavior 🤔🤔🤔 we wonder why this world is the way it is.

[@UnrebornMortuus]

@@winkletown8828 His behavoir wasn't intentionally malicious AKA black hat, hence the grey hat idea. I wouldn't complain if he got a white hat or whatever

[@TheDarkbluerock]

The fact that he contacted Psyonix offering help before unleashing the storm is a chaotic good move in my book

[@heavyhittersirl]

By doing this he essentially checked TF out of all the devs and I hope they read my comment. They've proven themselves lazy and short sighted at best.

[@MyroRL]

If we’re being honest if he didn’t realise something like this it would’ve came around eventually, him leaking it gave psyonix a reality check in a sense

[@-Pedry]

psyonix didnt pass the vibe check 😂

[@Sc0musiq]

@@heavyhittersirl checked tf out of the devs? Bro he released bots that led to people getting their money taken by scammers because they didn’t give him the clout he wanted for exposing 2 people who had the bots. Guy sounds like a scumbag attention whore

[@Bart230]

It's grey hat. Fix it or I release it.

[@SunlessKhan]

Excellent video

[@EpicnessCrossed]

🚀🏎️ Hey sunlesskhan! I see you're still chasing that Rocket League dream, even though your car control skills are about as reliable as a toddler behind the wheel. 😜🚗 But hey, I'm not one to judge - I'm sure you've got more goals than I do in the game... and in real life, for that matter. 😂⚽️ Keep up the hustle and maybe one day you'll be able to afford an actual rocket! 🚀💰 Just make sure to watch out for those pesky speed limits...and goalposts. 🚫🥅 Anyway, keep on boosting and ball-chasing, my friend! 🏎️💥⚽️

[@MI5500]

@@EpicnessCrossed why does this comment look AI generated? Hello? Am I talking to ChatGPT?

[@tomchappy3388]

Yo Sunless! :D

[@HdJnW]

excellent comment

[@r_matchwastaken]

@@EpicnessCrossed ChatGpt??

[@MeioNeiz]

Personally think it is a bit crazy to say that Psyonix took the appropriate response. Thorami showed it was possible, if he could do it then someone else can do it too. Psyonix chose to brush the problem under a rug and then the inevitable outcome occurred.

[@superfunion]

I'm exclusively on Thormai's side. He showed the devs a game-breaking exploit and was banned.

[@ruohos]

@@superfunion yup, years ago u got a white hat for that. Now a ban.

[@f50elite]

Psyonix was not proactive, and that was wrong. But "inevitable?" Thorami had complete agency over whether to leak or not.. it was his own mistake to trigger this event. Tantrums get attention. He threw a tantrum, then Psyonix had to respond.

[@Mega-rw8mt]

@@f50elite he shouldn't have leaked it, yes. but he did say that people were asking for him to send the cheat to them. im sure somebody would make it

[@pingwinner_]

@@f50elite what are you even talking about? You do realise that if he wouldnt have released it then some other person would have. It IS inevitable. Think for a second.

[@firedell1031]

In a better world, Thorami is out there showing off his White Hat for showing the devs a serious problem that needed to be fixed.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

You are right, pre-Epic that's probably how this would have gone down.

[@UnrebornMortuus]

@@Rocket_Sledge Does Epic have any license agreement on Rocket League 2? Which... would be UE5? Get what I'm sayin'? We have a solution here, brother. A way to wiggle out of that epic contract AND keep the big boy bucks earned thus far.

[@nyny]

White hat wouldn't have happened. The vulnerability is dll injection, which has been allowed. bakkes is pretty much a must have for professional development. Modders typically had a code of not abusing it within competitive. Connecting an AI to it doesn't make the 'vulnerability' new, it's simply attaching a new payload to an existing exploit. The real work of this - dll injection framework, nexto, ai2controller mappings, was done by passionate developers who were trying to push forward the RL experience. His actions cast a shadow over the hard work and efforts of many modders who have poured countless hours into bringing us amazing things. Up until he put together the exploit, the people who knew how to do it knew why not to do it. He didn't have the equity in the hard work that it took to get to this point and so was reckless and caused many to fear their efforts were about to be shut down.

[@f4t]

@@UnrebornMortuus they own psyonix, if a ue5 rocket league 2 was to be released then the only way epic wouldn't be in control is if a company other than psyonix made it under a different name and without any collaborations and at that point thats not even rocket league anymore

[@firedell1031]

@@nyny He most certainly could have gotten a white hat for it imo. Obviously dll injection is how this happened, but that doesn't mean that they can't block certain dll packages from going through. Obviously he should have brought it up through the proper channel that were set up, but also they should have taken it far more seriously rather than they did.

[@billychanclub8622]

No one can make the right decision every single time. The guy just wanted some human-like interaction for doing something everyone thought and said couldn't be done, I think that says a lot.

[@YanDa739]

common thorami W

[@nyny]

It's like if someone came up and warned you that your house seems flammable. And when you didn't take action they return with a Molotov cocktail

[@molvincartoid6982]

he got his ego hurt when he didnt get the response and attention he wanted

[@nocapmajor]

@@molvincartoid6982 who cares about the ego? he single-handedly made psyonix do something that had to be done since the release of the game. thousands of cheaters being exposed for taking advantage of the hack, resulting in a ban. psyonix adressing the issue, and even starting to make an AC for the game which is necessary for any online game nowadays

[@molvincartoid6982]

@@nyny i agree, it sets a stupid precedent going forward. and the fact that people act like he did psyonix a favor

[@LLikzy]

Psyonix choosing to just ban account rather than contact the dude and get something going with him to adress the issue (which he apparently was open to at the start) is clearly the source of all this mess, sure it's on him for releasing everything but as many mentioned, someone would have done it eventually, probably within month seeing the current era of AI. Seeing a GC Rank Bot on your game that has never seen a cheat since it's release should be more alarming than just banning the account..

[@asisimalp4374]

I am thinking the same, yes he was the only one who had the hack and it was not a problem to other players, but just the kowlege that someone is capable of making this happen should be at least concerning to you as the game developer. At least from my POV.

[@Piotr-iu3ee]

@@asisimalp4374 Especially on the free to play game, where making a new account is not a problem. Most game devs like when a hacker comes to them and shows how they make the exploit and reward them, as seen with ARK, but psyonix thinking they can just let it go without an issue were simply lazy and they should take all the blame for it.

[@doctorjawline7608]

@Piotr Psyonix is to blame!!! Not 'should' but 'IS' to blame!

[@TweakMDS]

Great video, as someone who used to casually play rocket league, and who is very much into white hat security, I'm missing a few key points that Psyonix should have addressed: Any software company that takes itself serious should have some sort of exploit-related bug bounty program. It doesn't have to be about money, but they should validate and acknowledge any report of exploits, whether it be a bot, a trading exploit or anything that affects players. Failing to do this automatically invites any exploits being made public. This is the unspoken agreement beween any white hat hacker and any publisher: You don't acknowledge their findings, ignore them or penalize them? Exploits are made public. To me it's not about being the good or bad guy, but it's about being heard and taken seriously.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Epic does have a bug bounty program. It's called HackerOne and has given thousands of dollars out to players that have discovered RL exploits. Thorami was aware of it but thought there was "too many links in the chain HackerOne -> Epic Games -> Psyonix".

[@TweakMDS]

@@Rocket_Sledge Thanks for adding that, completely changes my point, but it does change my perspective a bit too... He should have probably gone through that...

[@007LvB]

Yessir! I can only agree, I'm not a security expert just SW dev, but I know instances of companies treating the white hat hackers as people, and some other companies that do the exact opposite (which always backfires!). IMO Psyonix is 100% at fault here. Could have been easily avoided. But they failed to communicate well, and as a professional institution the responsibility (and blame) is hence on them.

[@joelikesthings]

​@@Rocket_Sledge I think this should have been included in the video. A lot of people know about the white hat in Rocket League, or people getting rewarded for finding exploits and reporting them. To me, this video made me think that Epic/Psyonix no longer did this.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

@@joelikesthings Yea you are probably right, this took almost a week just to plan out the whole story in a scripted form, some things got cut, other got omitted. I have covered the White Hat and it's replacement program on this channel in the past but it would have been a good idea to touch on it here again.

[@MBaderson]

The butterfly effect can hit hard when you give away the one thing Rocket League had always been missing...

[@UnrebornMortuus]

It sucks that this happens right as I get back into rocket league and for real.

[@cured_bacon647]

@@UnrebornMortuus well its been straightened out soo just play

[@UnrebornMortuus]

@@cured_bacon647 nto really i just get mad at the obvious bot infested game and uninstall and try every once in a while same shit it makes me toxic enough to take break

[@GuilleVQ]

Psyonix is 100% to blame here. If Thorami informed Psyonix about this huge issue back in June and showed them proof, and Psyonix decided just to ban him, that was a stupid move from them. They deserved all of what happened. They should have thanked the guy and offered him compensation and a channel to work together to solve the potential problem.

[@doctorjawline7608]

Totally agree! And as we know now Thorami just wanted a simple response. And even this simple task Psyonix failed to do 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@hhaste]

I think you need to re-watch it. They banned him because he streamed himself taking the bot online, in public games which is cheating and against the ToS. They wouldn't have banned him for anything he had done prior to that, like telling them about it etc. I know Psyonix's original response is what drove him to do this, but he still chose to take it online. He didn't have to actually use it..

[@JGMeador444]

@@hhaste The point isn't that he got banned. The point is that the devs ONLY banned him and weren't asking him how it was done so that they could fix it.

[@GuilleVQ]

@@hhaste You need to break the security of a software program to prove that the software is vulnerable. Most companies understand this and hire hackers whose sole objective is to find these vulnerabilities. Thorami didn't create the bot to cheat or have an unfair advantage (which is usually the reason behind any ban). If that had been the case, he would have said nothing and kept the cheat bot to himself. Instead, he chose to show the bot to Psyonix, so they would do something about it.

[@linkin5088]

@@GuilleVQ Ironically, the whole "hire hackers" part was done for free by people who loved the game. Sucks that Psyonix ruined such a fantastic system.

[@muratwayne4039]

Actually it pretty common procedure in the IT security community. First you try to find an exploit, then you contact the company. They resolve it, thank you for you work and big company's even have bug bounty programs where you get paid for finding an exploit. If the company doesn't react or dismiss it and the exploit is seen as critical by the hacker they sometimes release it to the public to put pressure on the company to fix it. That is exactly what happened here

[@somerandomdudefes31]

aka responsible disclosure which any software development house should be aware of. Psyonix dropped the ball on this one.

[@davidmassey8773]

Yeah I noticed more and more ubisoft games are doing this. I know for sure that R6 Siege does this.

[@Mike--sj5ez]

just bc he is the bad guy, doesn't mean he is a bad guy

[@matmar-4356]

Its so nice to see sledge make another video about his fanbase - bots

[@binary2699]

hi mat

[@allanburns1190]

Thorami was in the right. It was not just a small problem when they knew only Thorami had it. It was a big problem bc Thorami figured out you COULD cheat which means it would have been only a matter of time where someone else figured out. Even if Thorami never figured it out someone else would have so psyonics should have taken it much more seriously.

[@shadowyzephyr]

That would have been valid if he'd released it right away to force Psyonix to do something about it. But I remember Thorami saying on his stream "I'm going to wait until Tecko releases/an SSL bot releases." There's literally no reason to do this, it just makes the problem worse and someone else could have developed a Nexto hack and sold it in that time. Even if he claims it was completely white hat (which he doesn't seem to anymore) the reality is that it was more like gray hat.

[@rltt379]

@@shadowyzephyr if that's true, then yeah i agree

[@eisen161]

​@@shadowyzephyr yeah, I'd say his intentions were good, but how he went about it was pretty awful and not thought out.

[@beric0bartman]

This dude sounds so bored tbh, he obviously does this for good sometimes, but you just know that he's also cheating in every single game he plays on alt accounts.

[@kiiturii]

Thorami was not in the right. He didn't even make an attempt to properly report this. Epic Games has a bug bounty program with HackerOne where he could have immediately reported this, walked out with a lot of reward money and had the problem fixed quickly. But he didn't do that despite being aware of the bug bounty program. He instead started distributing it to random strangers. Thorami was absolutely not in the right here.

[@jbmaurel4872]

A good whistleblower is not the problem, not hearing him and not responding is. Bad point for Psyonix, thumbs up for Thorami, even if in the end Psyonix did well.

[@UnrebornMortuus]

Sometimes you have to turn your whistle into a schizo fog horn and take flack from all sorts of angles and insults before ANYTHING is done, it's the bystander effect, diffusal of responsibility. To counter this, next time somethings up in life and you are a "bystander" try to take action, no matter how small. Sometimes, it only takes one to snap the crowd out of it's bystander daze.

[@Travixty]

He's not a good whistleblower lmao. He released the bot to random people instead of actually trying to tell someone. If he actually cared he could've dmed a psyonix employee directly instead of emailing a massive company. This guy shouldn't be praised, it's so obvious he has a major main character syndrome.

[@Travixty]

@@UnrebornMortuus "bystander gaze" I'm sorry but that is no applicable here. Before Thorami no one knew this was possible and no one was doing it, there was no problem to be solved. He created the problem instead of trying to fix it before releasing it.

[@UnrebornMortuus]

@@Travixty I respect your point of view, however I view it slightly differently. Instead of a slow burn of gradual build up behind the scenes, it was a short firework burn, the burn being the hacks mentioned being released. I believe, there was less damage in the long run this way. He has the kill 100 people or 1000 people joker button bomb problem. I hope I articulated my thoughts to properly convey what I see.

[@Roeclean]

Then a thumbs down, because the dumb assss released the bot online and later gave it too 2 people

[@SatNav37]

Very honoured to be even a small part of this brilliant piece of content. Sledge doing the god's work telling the story of one of Rocket League's biggest controversies to date, absolute 👑

[@GnuSnu]

Villain origin story

[@lapindicitte]

As kids we love heroes, as adults we understand villains.

[@SirSealRL]

The ignorance from Psyonix here is insane. It had to happen for them to wake up. Also I love the immediate response after it got out of hand. So they recovered well, but should have listened to Thorami in this case. Also all the people that got banned, what did you expect? xD. Great video and shows the real story to the public! Thanks for the amazing content every time!

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Thank you for watching!

[@ShrtStfflp]

While it sucks how all this happened I honestly don't blame Thorami. This was going to happen eventually, he just pre-empted the situation to try and get it resolved before it became an issue. It's just that in his resignation he made a poor decision. I hope the best for them and hope that Psyonix takes anti-cheat more seriously if/when they upgrade to UE5 or just in general going forward.

[@Piotr-iu3ee]

I would say rather than poor decision, more simply a mistake. However all the blame should be put on devs, to simply think that banning the account that used exploit on a free to play game will fix the issue is very poor decision. As soon as they knew about potential danger of this they should have spoke to the guy that was reaching out to them and willing to show how the exploit works rather than let it go with account ban. With that they could have almost expected an outbreak sooner or later.

[@doctorjawline7608]

I even bet that the psyonix devs bought the hack from a discord to know how it works… they even failed to give thorami a simple 10 seconds answer like „thx for showing, we‘ll take care of it“ 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@chrimony]

He made it an issue to get the issue resolved? Err, what? He's a manchild stomping his feet because daddy Psyonix didn't do his bidding. The "somebody else would have done it" excuse doesn't make his actions any better.

[@Piotr-iu3ee]

@@chrimony It doesn't, but psyonix ignorance is the most important thing in this whole situation. They ignored the issue that would have been exploited sooner or later. He simply made it so it was sooner rather than later which isn't that much of a difference in grand scheme of things. If psyonix acted immediately it would not have been an issue. Im not saying he is completely right in doing so, but he wasn't the one that wanted this thing to be a big problem it became. He given it to untrustworthy person by mistake and it went on from there.

[@tannerbobanner9453]

Although the whole bot invasion really sucked, as a community developer myself, I really don't blame thorami. It is virtually impossible to contact anybody on psyonix unless you make a public Reddit post, wait, and hope a developer notices it in a few months. It is beyond frustrating. If I found myself in a similar situation, I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up releasing it as a "screw you, I tried to tell you" to psyonix. The lack of support they have for all of the community developers is pretty sad.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

They actually have an official channel for reporting exploits and even offer monetary rewards(I personally am aware of at least one person that's received over $10k). It's called HackerOne. Thorami knew about it but choose not to use it. That being said, you are correct that they could have handled this differently.

[@tannerbobanner9453]

@@Rocket_Sledge True, but unfortunately their lack of developer support extends far beyond reporting exploits. But it is true that he should have gone through a HackerOne since it is a system that was already in place.

[@davidmassey8773]

@@Rocket_Sledge If you can, maybe mention this in the description of the video. It would help raise awareness. Without that knowledge I would have taken Thorami's side. That said, it's great he was willing to release information to you and the public, while admitting his mistake. That really shows character.

[@ThePerfectBiscuits]

“Look mom, I made a fire!” *ignored* “Look mom, I set the house on fire!” 😳

[@scepterlit]

I was personally arguing with people when this stuff got leaked and the only “good” argument the pro bot’s had to offer was saying “I deserve a higher rank”. I can’t believe people can actually be that stupid and ignorant. Thanks for getting this out there Sledge! ❤️

[@marriedtwogaming]

Another great piece of journalism, Sledge

[@creeloper27]

Big Props to everyone who helped and worked on this video, thanks for taking the time to dig, research and present this whole situation.

[@bltsammich9760]

Nicely Done! I kind of remember back last year when you started diving into this on reddit. Good to finally see the whole outcome.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

It was a long journey to get to this point for sure. And then assembling all my research into a concise script was an almost week long project itself. Very happy with the results so far, this looks to be my biggest video in a year.

[@Yosymite]

I think the bot should have a difficulty selection UI, from Bronze 3 to SSL, and everything in between. I’d love to try this using Hoops and Dropshot (offline, ofc)

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Nexto was never trained in extra modes (though it does decent in snow day) Also it is about GC2 at best. There is a close to SSL level bot now though, as seen in my previous video.

[@shadowyzephyr]

@@Rocket_Sledge Seer doesn't play like an actual human, it does even less so than Nexto. I doubt it would be useful to train against for an actual SSL

[@MoreTickle]

Honestly I think epic share some of the blame for this. Yes Tharomi leaked it but in the beginning they did try to contact epic, just for epic to ignore them, then they streamed it to get epics attention but they just banned and ignored (again). The leak only happened because Tharomi thought the people who they provided the files to could have helped him bring this issue to epic's attention, which was a stupid move, however, none of this would have happened if there was a way to report exploits, instead of ignoring and banning the very people trying report these exploits.

[@Piotr-iu3ee]

I would say Epic/Psyonix is solely to blame for this, when an exploiter reaches out to devs they usually take it with open hands and look for solutions before problems occur. Especially since game devs were overlooking his stream and banned his account, at that point they should have reached out to him and work on solution and not leave something that was so dangerous in the bin.

[@tiago3180]

Honestly I think that if thorami didn't leaked his code, someone else would've found the exploit and leaked it. Such a game breaking exploit should've been dealt with from the start and I think that was thorami's intentions

[@majones117]

What blows my mind is the people who are so desperate for validation they use a bot and claim they're just that good. I love the call outs of those people you showed

[@FrowzySquirrel]

Psyonix statement about bots in Rocket League

[@HeckYouEpically]

The devs at psyonix have to be some of the best bots in rocket league 🤯🤯🤯

[@aonoloki]

About 4mn in, Thorami should've been granted the legendary White Hat. Him going on stream as a kind of a proof of concept but just getting banned, without any reply to his previous warning to Psyonix, is somehow unfair to me

[@alphalance9408]

Psyonix is at fault. I would have done the same thing as Thorami

[@Mcneds]

I got asked by youtube how i feel about this comment

[@clear.5999]

@@Mcneds how do you feel, mcneds

[@finalfeckt2369]

​@@Mcneds yeah, how do you feel? Mcneds

[@alphalance9408]

@@Mcneds Tell us how you feel Mcneds?

[@molvincartoid6982]

so you get your feelings hurt and release a hack

[@darkstarknight95]

Well researched and sourced as usual. Nice investigative work.

[@Pixelhurricane]

For as chaotic as things got I'm ultimately glad that Thorami did what he did. Let's be honest, he wasn't the only person capable of doing what he did, someone sooner or later was going to figure out a way. At least this way Psyonix was able to be a bit more prepared to deal with the situation, if it was inevitable this was probably the best version of the event imho

[@rosstv_]

Worse thing had to be Kaken, the owner charged 20£ and as soon as it started going downhill he left, no one could get a refund and he just left us all in the dark.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Yep, I heard about that. That is the risk of trusting a cheater. Once he has your money there's no reason for him to care anymore.

[@rltt379]

I don't think I can personally blame thorami because not only did he not sell it, he also tried to prevent it. On the other hand it was clear that measures needed to be taken against botting, so it's actually better that it happened sooner rather than later. Epic/psyonix needed the reality check tbh and thorami tried to tell them but they didn't listen. But it was a deserved ban nontheless

[@Plumato]

Another great video from the goat himself. Thanks for the story!

[@Ch4fM4n]

Rocket league : Unhackable - Titanic : Unsinkable. I'm all for calling him Thorami the Iceberg for all time.

[@redd_rl]

Unfortunate series of events, truly

[@SavouryLobster]

4:00 This is what happens when you sell out to Epic and your customer support turns into automated responses. Good one devs! A free exploit reveal and you did nothing because of your Epic money. I'm glad it ruined the game for a bit and I hope we find more.

[@somerandomdudefes31]

If Psyonix had known anything about responsible disclosure, they would have seen this coming. Then again, I've had to deal with their support team a few times in the past, and most of the people over there clearly don't play rocket league or care anything about the game or those who play it, so it's hard to see that going any other way.

[@amlenk]

Thorami seems chill, Psyonix ignored his warnings and so he proved by example how dangerous it actually was. It was bound to happen, but at least it came from somebody who was willing to admit to his mistake.

[@kongzlla]

This has to be the most devastating chain reaction in rocket league history

[@nitrommo]

Yep, the video that Wayton put out was premature, and wasn't covering the entire story. Great video as always!

[@9425]

I can relate to his situation. Psyonix not rewarding people who find bugs in their game is extremely disrespectful. Back in like 2017 I got scammed by someone who used a glitch in the game, that showed a different item in the trading screen (white zombas) and after the trade was done, the white zombas were purple zombas (not grey). That person didnt swap the item, he changed the visuals. Ive lost ~80 keys in value back then. Ive explained the entire situation to dirkened (Psyonix Analytics DevOps Engineer) and even sent him my logs. Did I get my items back or anything? No, I got nothing. I got scammed by a bug in their game, helped them solve it and got nothing. I am not surprised, that they are still acting like that.

[@TheUnDeadPuz]

Hello, in the server name "RLGC" i was a head admin, my name was normally puzzy. I just wanna spill out some more info about the server named rlgc. Now the owner, or nanek didnt know that the "devs" were going to exit scam. If you didnt know the "devs" which only thing they developed was a basic script that made the bot do a speed flick on kickoff, exit scammed by saying that there was VIP bot that could speed flip and was SSL. Now nanek or the owner didnt even know anything about this and niether did the staff. Nanek didnt get any money, while the devs exit scammed around 3 grand then they nuked the 10k member discord server. Also, the saying that the bot would learn over time was total bs as far as i know, and so were the "methods" that train the bot.

[@stebogaming8813]

This is like the episode of the office where Dwight fakes a fire to prove how unprepared they are for a fire, giving Stanley a heart attack in the process

[@GrepidYT]

Despite being the one to release the cheat, and also develop it, I don't pin a lot of it on him, and I don't think it was so hard for Psyonix or Epic Support to just give him a response. If someone comes to you with the first fully functioning Ranked Cheat and you ignore them, what are the odds you're gonna help little Timmy with his Login Issues or whatever common issue someone is having. I do however, think the guy selling the cheat in a discord is a scumbag. But that one might be more of a hot take.

[@Milk_RL]

Thorami got that Code Geass ending 😭”I destroy the world to create it anew” -Lelouch

[@davidmassey8773]

I mean yeah, Thorami of the rebellion. lol

[@starscreen.202]

Thanks for featuring me in the video!

[@DanielGirardBolduc]

I do understand "Thorami" decision to go in war agains RL, There is nothing worse than getting rejected when being helpfull and kind. It is easier to prove that they are wrong, than to prove that you are right. This is the kind of situation where your can quickly switch from being helpfull to being their worst enemy.

[@hatherlow]

Growing up is another response

[@evanmico]

It took 20 days, but I think thorami ultimately left the competitive scene in a better state than it originally was since now psyonix has anticheat in place not just for the AI, but also all the modded "bakkesmods" that had things like macro kickoffs.

[@alanrankin1907]

Best "investigating journalist" award in RL community goes to: Rocket Sledge!

[@Dicemann555]

Great coverage of this whole issue. Thank you for your hard work!

[@magicjack4076]

The problem is that if pysonix handled it first and quietly the bot wouldn’t of leaked to the extent and most people would still think that you can’t cheat in rocket league. Now that’s it’s proven you can cheat, be people will now go out of their way to actually make new bots, new ways to inject them into the game that’s undetectable instead of stealing and trying to sell a cheat that they didn’t make.

[@CancerCows2498]

The discord ad saying “a rocket league client cheat to get the rank you deserve” the only thing the ppl using cheat’s deserve is a permanent ban

[@sirsulley8110]

Homie should have gotten a white hat for this!

[@ultimmytly]

he's the vigilante we needed. i feel like this would've gotten attention eventually he just sped up the process. though in hindsight his actions were very dumb and on the spot, they ultimately achieved the goal

[@crxyn]

i love how this whole thing became a story, i'm only champ, i was right under all the chaos

[@gamerandcontroller9129]

I don’t understand Psyonix’ response to the hacker. Seems like he was trying to do some white hat hacking by first contacting Psyonix about what he had discovered. As far as I know, Psyonix still has a cash rewards program in place for white hat hacking, so why was he ignored? Psyonix definitely dropped the ball there

[@Trisxd]

If thorami didn't do it, someone else would've. Shame on psyonix for not acting when they were first made aware of it

[@Passtronaut]

my guy wanted to switch from villain to a superhero in a way that never happened in a movie even lmao

[@HoboGaming]

Sledge, I've seen your recent videos on SEER which only proves the progression of RL bots. Do we even know what Payonix/Epic will do differently to prevent a similar situation to Thorami? Do we know that the next time a game breaking cheat gets invented, it wont literally ruin ranked again?

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Yes they are working on a full anti-cheat. In the meantime they are relying on the assistance of RLBot to not release new AI publicly. It's not a perfect system, but fortunately people that want to cheat *and* are skilled enough to be able to create high-level AI doesn't have much cross over.

[@Foxhole_official]

1:05 always fun to hear something happand at ur birthday

[@nicolerodriguez7453]

to be fair with Thorami, what he was looking for was a payment. Ppl that report exploits usually look for some sort of remuneration bc instead of getting personal gain from it, they are trying to help the devs. In this case they decided to ignore it which is pretty weird ngl. In his situation i´d feel frustrated too

[@danielcook1140]

Love the pysonix can quickly address an issue like this, but somehow cant come up with a way to stop smurfs, even when games like dota2 have brilliant ways they could copy...

[@gsharpenmydjencil]

Never challenge a person in power's ego, whether you're doing the right thing or not.

[@ispeakforthetrees1330]

thorami really had a whole villain arc and i love it

[@scriptsrl]

Lol I had a nice little cameo in there. Great video

[@RyanGoldfishTV]

Dude behaved so immaturely in the whole situation. AlpacaFlightSim is a legend :P

[@Rocket_Sledge]

He is another user that deserves some special flair on the sub!

[@RyanGoldfishTV]

@@Rocket_Sledge "Ruined the game" flair seems appropriate

[@Rocket_Sledge]

@@RyanGoldfishTV lol I meant Alpaca

[@Darxeal]

"The ENGORGED Story of The Rocket League Bot Invasion"

[@Rocket_Sledge]

😳...

[@castlecrasher6924]

Never thought I would see Ark and Rocket League related in the same video.

[@TheFella15]

Ik most people don’t like Thorami or what he did but me personally I think he’s a goat for this and most of us would’ve done the same or worse with his knowledge/ abilities

[@johntet]

I'm with Thorami on this one. Regardless of the communication path he took , he did contact psyonix before generating buzz. An alternative slow, hush-hush, undetected and long-term invasion would be worse. Short burst with enough buzz to generate a response worked better.

[@thizlam4810]

“They will have to unban people or else rocket league will die” Lmaoooo

[@KellyLChambers]

On December 1st I opened a rare crate and Got "none" an uncommon item. I then made a KZbin short and took screenshots to verify, they still haven't fixed the issue. I went back and forth and emails with them for a long time, and now they are just blowing me off. Has this happened to anyone else???

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Regularly posted to the subreddit. You still get your item it's just a visual bug. Sort by new in your inventory to find it.

[@KellyLChambers]

@@Rocket_Sledge no I got nothing, they even recognize that and said they would fix it. They play the waiting game and I pretty much just gave up.

[@UberDragon]

I can totally see how Psyonix is to blame for this in large part. In the professional industry it's standard procedure to not just acknowledge people who find serious exploits and security vulnerabilities, but also place bounties on them. Not responding to the concerns with definitive proof clearly shows, that they needed to be reminded that this kind of stuff needs to be taken seriously right away. It's very possible that other people, who wouldn't even be interested to take the good-guy route, would find the very same weakness and exploit it to a much larger level. I'm not saying he should have released the code, but I can see why he did it. It's gotta feel really bad if you're trying to do the right thing, but you just end up being ignored or laughed at. That's unironically how some people 'break bad'.

[@evanthefish]

Can't help feeling a white hat would have kept any of this from happening

[@UnrebornMortuus]

PysOPix my bros, you guys need to next time LISTEN to grey hats like this. Tarkov, the wiggle that killed tarkov, please, I love my newfound fun in rocket league, listen to the grey hats, you don't have to unban but LISTEN so you can patch! Please, don't be short sighted! I know you guys care, it's WHY you found his stream in the first place!

[@mtd_mike3938]

I feel like Thorami at least made a better decision than %90 of people would by trying to reach out to the developers first before unleashing a hack. Psyonix missed their chance at having a cheater free game

[@ttvttics9336]

Thorami isnt a bad person tbh, he took a ban to protect the community, pretty nice guy to me

[@fohrum4757]

Honestly, for me, Smurfs were the ones that ruined Rocket League. I play maybe once a week now because it just isn't fun playing against people that have thousands more hours than me

[@Pr0digium]

When I first read about the bots on Twitter, I knew it was going to be a whole thing. Kept my nose clean and sat back with a bag of popcorn. I’m just glad it’s handled now.

[@JoshyDev]

Quality sledge video like always 🎉

[@fullbeans983]

This only raises more questions as to why I got permanent ban a year ago when im a console peasant hard stuck C1 who only plays 2s with a friend and has played since original release. When I appealled I received the same generic email. 40 thousand games for nothing with 0 explanation

[@hydrarl3869]

Weird ego play to expect that type of response by Psyonix, but also very weird from Psyonix to not want to fix this issue at the source

[@curlywhites]

No one likes being ignored when they believe they have something important to say. It's not weird; it's human. And we should stop treating developers (or any company really) like they're superior to us. We literally pay them. These people wouldn't exist without customers.

[@hydrarl3869]

@@curlywhites You have to be realistic, I wouldn't expect the POTUS to listen to and acknowledge me just because I feel my contribution would be important, that is just pure entitlement. Yes they rely on us, but because they provide a useful service that we all enjoy, without them both parties would suffer.

[@CometWarriorYT]

@@hydrarl3869 without us both parties suffer too 👽

[@curlywhites]

@@hydrarl3869 well, the POTUS isn't a company.

[@oliver-nation4377]

Can't really blame Thorami since he tried to contact the devs.

[@WLM505]

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff, surprised how all of this happened

[@JUNKO____]

RIP Psyonix HQ. They were told that the building made of and filled with flammable stuff was fireproof, so they went on vacation and let it keep burning.

[@haltsmaul.]

I was always under the impression that it was very easy to get in contact with Psyonix Devs to do a responsible disclosure. I thought you could just tweet at them and you'd be in a call with them in a matter of days.

[@xScopeLess]

So basically it’s actually Ryu’s fault and Thorami did absolutely nothing wrong. Psyonix shares the blame too.

[@DropIet]

Petition to give thorami the first ever Grey Hat topper

[@Daniel-oc5fj]

If it’s not thorami, someone somewhere would eventually make this cheat and release it. Thorami was just the first to think of this

[@uninterestedcat8429]

No probably not even the first to think it, but one of the first few to try and act on it

[@DarkSansTV]

I’m with Thorami on this one. Support being ignorant is completely unacceptable for any company and the fact that pretty much every company gets away with it is hell on earth.

[@Keenadian]

The bot invasion was the most amazing time in this game for me. I searched out exploits and practiced for hours beating nexto in rlgym. Then queued ranked and shit on all these cheaters. 10/10 would do again

[@DIAMONDBACK__6]

Devs helping the community and not releasing another buggy rocket pass update challenge : IMPOSSIBLE

[@Pseudoku_RL]

In a way, Thorami reminds me of the guy who was put on the No Fly list for hacking an airplane through the infotainment screen at his seat

[@leosanchez2994]

Kinds sounds like the plot of Live Free Die Hard minus all thr badass action. Dude tells the government there's an invulnerability, they ignore him so he decides to show them first hand what could happen.

[@z_zenith]

0/10 not enough demos. Seriously though, this was another really interesting and well made video.

[@Rocket_Sledge]

Thank you! The real demos in this video was the exposing of people claiming false bands 😄