Last week, Kotaku reported strong evidence that at least one of the eight finalists in the million-dollar MLB 2K12 Perfect Game Challenge had used an exploit to substitute weaker batters into the opposing team’s lineup and have an easier time tossing a perfect game during the contest’s qualifying round.
If the allegations are true, the contest is tainted. The alleged cheater himself cast doubt on the legitimacy of other finalists’ qualifying performances.
But the people who run this contest won’t say a thing. When I spoke to Jason Argent, the 2K Sports vice president of marketing, at the contest’s final round pairing in New York this afternoon, he refused to answer questions about the allegations.
He wouldn’t deny them. He wouldn’t confirm them. But he wouldn’t even voice his side of the story, either.
“All I will comment on is that the contest was run fairly and consistently with the rules,” he told me.
Technically, this is true. The substitution exploit was not specifically prohibited in the official rules thanks to a loophole, but other communications from 2K Sports to gamers said that they could not make any substitutions to any lineup, either CPU or user-controlled teams.
And what of the allegations? What of the MLB 2K12 fans who may have missed a shot at winning $US1 million because they chose to play fair? More than 900,000 perfect games were attempted and more than 900 were thrown in a month.
“If you look around today, upstairs, everyone here is really happy and there’s excitement in the air,” Argent said.
As I continued to press him, the PR representative sitting with us interjected.
“I think if you keep asking the same question I think your answer is going to be the same,” she said.
In other words, they have no interest in defending the integrity of the million-dollar contest they run. Maybe their silence speaks for itself.
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