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.

Join this channel to get access to perks like EARLY VIDEO PREVIEWS:

-neon-green-loading-line-and-binary-code-digital-background
-the-matrix-raining-code-background
-tech-abstract-data-background
-artificial-intelligence-a-i-technology-machine-learning-futuristic
-computer-data-transfer-high-tech-background
-abstract-technology-big-data-digital-code-futuristic-background

Thumbnail Credits:

Epic Partner: use code ROCKETSLEDGE
Cinematic Map Footage courtesy of @FlashForce

#rocketleague #bot #hacker

[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.

[charpool]

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

[TheDarkbluerock]

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

[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.

[billychanclub]

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.

[firedell]

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.

[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..

[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.

[MBaderson]

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

[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.

[muratwayne]

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

[Mike--sjez]

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

[allanburns]

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.

[matmar-]

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

[SatNav]

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 👑

[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.

[jbmaurel]

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.

[tannerbobanner]

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.

[marriedtwogaming]

Another great piece of journalism, Sledge

[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!