In sports there has always been a guideline of ethics to follow that have been shaping the public view on players and contenders on what is right and what is wrong. As with an ethical decision there are always consequences, rules, obligations, and motivation considered when the masses pass judgment on situations that occur in sports history.

We have heard the tales in professional sports of teams throwing matches that in the end would allow them to play a lower ranked team in order to increase the odds that they would advance further throughout the competition. Individual players have also been seen “sand bagging” games for the purpose of monetary gain through betting.  A sport is defined in Wiki by an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.  These situations would obviously be considered ethically wrong and morally reprehensible, cemented in the fact that there are explicit rules against such conduct- but what about ethics in competitive gaming, where, if such rules or guidelines exist in regards to throwing matches, they aren’t really known or enforced.

Throughout, WCG Ultimate Gamer we have seen some strategy talk of players saying they were contemplating throwing individual matches to better position themselves or others to not lose.  Last week, we also saw an evolution to this thought with a team based game as a player stated they did not play to the best of their abilities on purpose.  This was said to ensure that one of their team mates, who they had a negative relationship with and could possibly hinder their survival in the show, would be sent to the Arena and potentially go home. 

A different example of throwing a match like this was when a top female player in a fighting game was approached by another to whom they were in a personal relationship with and asked to throw the match.  The player had been beaten over and over in warm-ups by their partner who was concerned to how he would look as he just won a National Tournament if he was beaten by his girlfriend. He even offered to pay that person if their relationship alone wasn’t enough to ensure they lost.  The player that was approached conceded to do this out of love for the other, and with the cue of the signal of random counters, changed the game for themselves and everyone else.

Although these situations have, or would have had the same outcome, they can be viewed very different with their factors, motivation, and moral reasoning by general society, but it still has to be noted that in the end, individual or team games affect many other people as well.  Throwing an individual game might appear to only have an impact on player themselves, but in actuality it affects other people down the line unless it is a “final” match which in any of the situations used, this was not the case.

I could even mention the example in which I was prepared to forfeit to Alyson should I have been chosen to go against her, as I thought she would do better down the line on the other games and would in sense represent female gamers better in having a greater odds of winning the competition. While this would have been forfeiture and not throwing the match and attempting to serve the larger portion of female gaming in general, in the end it is still potentially changing the outcome for others.

When we look at ethics is sports, there are many theories we can spout and challenge in discussion of these decisions and all sides would have an argument. We can shout to the world that both “positive” and “negative” ideas of the greater good, fairness, intrinsic virtues, the end to justify the means, self preservation, self sacrifice, integrity, etc.  While the overall sport situations were clear as to what was right or wrong, in gaming these players in these situations did not break any actual set rules within the competitions. In fact WCG Ultimate Gamer was not a normal competition and contestants are urged to compete and strategize in any way they see fit.

This brings up an important question: Is it right to intentionally lose a game when it best suits the long term interest of an individual player themselves?

However, many sides to these situations there are, I follow the philosophy of the greater good and believe the general societal idea of what is right or wrong is a good rule of thumb to go by. Not the absolute, but a good rule. While all of these situations are different and do not share the same motives, I can understand how all these decisions came to be made.  However, while I cannot say with certainness how general society does view this issue, I will say I believe that throwing a game to further yourself or another person for their own benefit is not the right thing to do.