Final Fantasy 14 Ultimate Raid Marred By Controversy
Summary
GRIND was disqualified from the Final Fantasy 14 Race to World First for using third-party tools. Square Enix punishes players for cheating, as using third-party tools violates the game's terms of service. Clearing Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) is competitive, with post-disqualification races ending in close finishes.A few days after the release of Final Fantasy 14 Patch 7.11, the race to clear the Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) raid was dampened by a controversial finish that ended in a team's disqualification. One of the top Final Fantasy 14 raid teams was accused of cheating after one of their members was caught using a third-party plugin that turned up in a screenshot on social media.
The Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) raid is the latest 8-player challenge in Final Fantasy 14. Inspired by the Eden raid series from the Shadowbringers expansion, Futures Rewritten is a five-phase gauntlet that features unique twists on the Eden raid series' later encounters, as bosses like Fatebreaker and the Oracle of Darkness make appearances. Although Square Enix does not host an official race to determine who cleared the new raid first, Echo Esports and MogTalk hosted a Race to World First broadcast, with various Final Fantasy 14 raiding teams streaming their progress on Twitch and YouTube as part of the event.
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Although the Final Fantasy 14 Race To World First saw teams complete the raid within three days of release, the race to determine the world-first clear was muddled. After two and a half days of raid progression, a Japanese team called "GRIND" claimed to have cleared Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) before any of the Race to World First stream teams, and posted screenshots on Twitter as proof of their deeds. GRIND did not stream any of their Ultimate raid progression, and Final Fantasy 14 fans called their legitimacy into question after one of the group's members shared a screenshot that showed a red dot that normally should not be there. The red dot was an indication that a third-party plugin had been used at the time it was taken. Using third-party tools goes against Final Fantasy 14's terms of service, and players caught using them have been subsequently punished or banned from Final Fantasy 14 for cheating by Square Enix.
Final Fantasy 14 Raid Team Disqualified From Race To World First For Using Third-Party Tools
A Final Fantasy 14 raid team called GRIND was disqualified from the Race to World First following an investigation. A member of GRIND was caught posting a screenshot that showed a red dot, an indicator that a third-party tool was utilized. Using third-party tools goes against Final Fantasy 14's terms of service, and Square Enix has a history of punishing players who use them. Echo and MogTalk hope to make the rules clearer in future Final Fantasy 14 races and want the game's community to provide feedback.After reviewing the cheating allegations, Echo and MogTalk disqualified GRIND from being considered the world-first raid team to clear Futures Rewritten (Ultimate). Following the decision, two of the race's top contending teams, Kindred and Lucrezia, cleared the raid within minutes of each other in one of the closest finishes to date in Final Fantasy 14's raiding scene. At the time of writing, Square Enix had not commented on the Ultimate raid controversy. It is also not clear if GRIND received any punishment from the game developers.
In response, some Final Fantasy 14 players called for future world-first races to make streaming mandatory for all teams involved. As more raid squads get through Futures Rewritten (Ultimate) and claim their Ultimate Edenmorn weapons, only time will tell what Square Enix will do to deter cheating in high-end content.
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