Ramification's from Pog Champs 6 Cheating Scandal with DrLupo

From my point of view, this type of situation has been a regular occurance for normal beginning, intermediate players who play daily on chess.com.  If you watched DrLupo's stream and the games simultaneously, it was extremely obvious that his chess knowledge and the lack of being focused on the main chess stream as the game was going on was miles apart.  Then looking at his monitor, suddenly multiple times, immediately making a move.  Which happened to be the best move, made it really suspicious. To even have the audacity to try that, in front of millions of viewers, has to lead to a belief that this individual is very narscisistic.  I would assume the guy has to believe he is smarter than most and has the ability to pull it off. Or maybe the bottom line was all about the money. Shoot, most of his fan base defended him initially, some still do.  He did do a lot of charity work for St Judes.

In his conversation call with wolfy, after just lieing to the man, and then a half ass apology stating he was withdrawing from the tournament, after chess.com banned him.  Again with no acknowledgement to being banned for cheating, when he got caught.

I think this incident says a lot about the state of online chess in 2025.  He did come out and state later that he used an engine, but there was no remorse, no accountability.  This is a grown man with a family.  He intentionally tried to scam chess.com, pog champs 6, chess fans & the chess community as a whole.

Why is it a big deal?  Because a good estimate is that probably 30% of the current chess.com playerbase from beginning to up to 2000 elo, normal not exceptional top players have the same attitude in regards to chess.  They have the same mindset, to actually with intent cheat, and have no qualms about it.  It could be even a higher percentage.  Who does that hurt? All of us that actually play the game straight up.  I myself have never cheated, started playing in 1969, have a respect for the game, have respect for myself. My elo ratings in all time controls are extremely low in online chess.  When I accept challenges online during streaming I rarely win, Yet when I play face to face, over the board I rarely lose.  I have been fortunate to play some really good players in my life as well.

So for me, streaming is an outlet for me to have fun in conversation, and have commradery with people that come in to my twitch and follow, subscribe and have good intentions. I enjoy talking it up and having fun. The chess play is secondary, the communication aspect to me is more important.  I really enjoy it.  People who come in  and cheat have an affect for sure on how many views I get.  At times they can completely clear out my chat room by coming in and beating me in a challenge.

Especially outside challenges from players that are not following my twitch.  I have lost to as low as 200 elo online players.  A vast majority of 400 to 700 elo players, most all of which sending outside rated challenges, that are not following my twitch.  Even 1900 to 2450 newer accounts a few months old, over and over every night.  Some of which, when I accept, just stall until the last few minutes, then play every best move known to man, when their clock is down to less than a minute.  Others sending mass challenges, 1800 to 1900 players that never lose and never have less accuracy than 90%.  Sending challenge after challenge while I do events. It is frustrating.

Anyone watching in my channel at that point has already left, knowing what is up.  Over the board against beginning elo players, I have never lost, that has never happened.  Against higher rated players I am competitive.  Which is really frustrating in regards to online chess games vs over the board play.  But I enjoy the commradery and fun nightly, because of those that come in that are very cool people.  I really appreciate that as well.

With covid in September taking a 9 and a half week toll on my body, then the injurey to my knee and hip, I am lucky to get out of the house once a week.  I miss my friends who I used to see more regularly on a daily basis, but now I can't walk well enough to stay out an about for very long.  As I heal up, I will get that chance again, but for now, twitch for me, is an outlet for human contact.  Those that cheat put that at risk.  I am lucky, I will recover, but for those that have serious illnesses and handicaps, they may or may not.  Those that cheat, they do not think about that.  For them, they are being sneaky, they enjoy it.  Those that mess with streamers, intentionally or for their enjoyment, do not know the damage they cause. 

Online Gaming has had rampant cheating for years, and it is a huge dollar industry.  No major company in the industry wants to hurt their own bottom line.  They may ban 100's of thousands of people a month, and honestly try to solve the problems with online cheating, but they never address the source exploits that entice people to take advantage and cheat.  Heaven forbid they fix it, and by doing the right thing, lose mass amounts of people that can no longer cheat to win.  That could affect their total numbers in ad revenue and their bottom line. That is not always the case, but the current state of the industry, looking at all the online games that are out there, how many have mass exploits that the player base knows of?  Yet those exploits have been there for years.  It is a catch 22 for those businesses as well.

But it is just a game, most people cheat, it doesn't hurt anyone and everyone does it.  Not everyone.  I sure do not and I am proud of that fact.