AnonymousJoe

Dear SC and tournament players, It has come to my attention that a possible exploit has been found in Email games that may have been used by some of the tournament players both currently playing and not. I have had a discussion with some of the players(who wish to remain anonymous) and the topic arose that, while playing, some people observed others "Making perfect moves" each turn. In other words, it seemed as though these players knew exactly what the other was doing/planning at any given point. So we all got to thinking, how can one possibly cheat seeing as though you can't "Undo moves" and load the games twice as reloads are being counted.We all put our heads together and what we found seemed too simple to have been overlooked(So simple that we wouldn't be suprised if this has already been discussed, in which case,we apologize for bringing this up again). Allow me to explain. When sending a saved game file through email, it is of course attached to it so that if the reciever wanted to, he or she can download it as many times as they so wish. Lets say, hypothetically speaking, Person X is playing against Person Y. Person X sends a game through email, Person Y downloads it and puts it in the Email folder so he can play it. When playing, Person Y makes some major mistakes, so he quits the game and goes back to the folder and deletes the game file. He then goes back to the email, redownloads the file, puts it in the Email folder and Bam! Zero reload count on the file as if Person Y had never played the game(We tested this ourselves, try it for yourself if you so wish). Knowing this, Person Y is free to send units in all directions to discover where Person X has his units, deletes the file, redownloads it, then makes the best possible moves according to what he has seen of his opponent. This completely eliminates the strategic aspect of the game. This is a simple yet serious flaw which must be looked into. Seeing as though there is a prize involved in this tournament, we would all dislike seeing it fall into the hands of someone who is using this exploit, and now that eveyone knows this exists, not one person could completely use it to their advantage. Also, for the sake of keeping everyone's reputation intact(in the end, this is just a game), we will not name those accused. That is all, thank you for taking the time to read this. Sincerely, AnonymousJoe