Over the last week, the enthusiast community witnessed high drama as some world-renowned overclockers were disqualified from the MSI Lords of Overclocking online competition for engaging in malpractice. Futuremark noticed that some validation entries from top scoring candidates originated from the same setup, confirmed from consistency in Futuremark product key and PCI devices. Top three position-holders at the LoOC competition admitted to using scores generated by a third person, AndreYang. Hiwa, eXtremetweaker.de, KJ and Skinnee were named as disqualified candidates.

What happened next could come as a surprise to some. Major overclocking communities banned these individuals, some permanently, with enthusiast charts aggregator HWBOT handing out a 1 year ban to each of them (although HWBOT wasn't involved in that competition), and XtremeSystems.org issuing lifetime bans. Even as some question the motives behind Andre sharing scores with four people at the same time, the candidates deny that Andre had any intention to profit from it, other than just helping.

eXtremeTweaker.de said "He helped me cause he knew that I worked hard for this competition and cause he knew that i want come back Taipei to see someone...So what do you think is his profite? Again, it is not ok but I cannot see that Andre could gain anything from doing this". "Andre didn't get one CENT on LOC, he never sold the scores to me or other ppl . As I told before he gave me score on my request. Andre tried to help us", Hiwa adds.

In several of their statements, the overclockers who sought help from Andre are speaking in his defense, and allege that the bulk of the hostility is towards Andre, when it was they who sought help, and when Andre was not even a participant. "I spent a lot of time in benching but all my scores useless for this competition and i tought i will upload scores with Q3QP but then i talked with Andre and he said he can help me...I know it is not ok and it is only my fault! It is not ok that all people here more against Andre than against us. He benched his own hardware and he also did not compete in this event. So i think the main fault is 100% on our side. What he did is not fair but as i said the main fault is on our side," said Afrokalle (aka eXtremeTweaker.de).

Communities that banned him seem to have reacted very strongly, much to Andre's disgrace, they stress that the sanctity of overclocking competition charts need to be maintained well, and practices such as these prevent candidates who work hard for their achievements from reaching the top spot. "We feel it's our duty to stand up for the sake of the community and take actions based on what happened in the Lords of Overclocking competition. By sharing scores, you don't only commit fraud in the competition, but also hurt overclockers from our small community that are trying to win this ticket by working hard to achieve their goal. This is something that no overclocking community, how small it may be, should tolerate," says a HWBOT representative. Fellow overclockers also expressed shock.

However, the quantum of punishment meted out to Andre still hangs in the scales. AndreYang was a leading overclocker from Taiwan, credited with topping the charts. On the other hand, malpractice in an overclocking competition, even with the motives to merely 'help' and not 'profit', is anti-competitive.

Like every competitive sport, overclocking has evolved into professional level, and with it came all the spoils of Pro competition. The competition at the top tier is extremely heated, with competition going beyond just seeing your name on the top. It involves sponsorships and endorsements from hardware manufacturers, some of which even organize competitions like this one.