On November 4th, a skeptical user started raising awareness and suspicion regarding the Trophy count of one of the members from the Elite Alphas[elitealpha 1], with another user raising further awareness by calculating the average they would've gathered in contrast to the amount they "gathered", deeming it impossible[elitealpha 2]. A member (and possibly one of the higher ranked Clanmen) denies said accusations by saying they spend "More than 24 hours online without sleep." and the won trophies seen in the (now disfunctional) pictures were all gathered in "in 1 day, I spent over 24 hours playing nonstop"[elitealpha 3]. They also declared that the Clan Leader's account is controlled by two users instead of one[elitealpha 4]. No one was convinced because even without sleeping and staying 24 hours gathering Trophies, they'll still have to deal with feeding the Dragons, not always winning a race and the Lobby being empty, therefore preventing the user from racing and gathering any Trophies[elitealpha 5].
Three days prior to the raising suspicion regarding their Trophy count, a member of Elite Alphas wrote a post redarging the Elite Alphas being an anti-hacking Clan[elitealpha 6], to prove that Brazillians, who unfortunately are highly associated with hacking, can also play fair without any methods of hacking whatsoever - this was influenced by the infamous Brazillian hacker, Jacob, who plagued popular Clans during the 2014-2015 Era by inducing a massive hack attack into them and take over it, resulting in a bad widespread view of the Brazillian SoD Community.
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We want to show that brazil is not only hack and cheats!
Much of the hackers in sod, are brazilian and People of the arabia.
And it really make me sad.
A example, is the clan n° 1 in the hacking: xXxDragonsxXx (this names is SO creative :v) with the hacker: jacob (jacobBr, jacobVip and MORE) that is a brazilian. ( I know he facebook profile, and "br" is obvious
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”
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| — BellaFoxy [src]
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The Leader of Elite Alphas, Deniprc, also stepped in by declaring that "The fear of the phantom and the attempt to eliminate us are already getting noticeably ridiculous"[elitealpha 7] but also contradicts what the previous Clanmen said - while the Clanmen said they won all those trophies in 1 day by playing 24 hours nonstop, Deniprc says "No, I did not win trophies in a short time". Most of the accusation was referred to the pictures as they can be easily doctored without presenting any counter-arguement regarding them, and Deniprc questions "What is the purpose in my country is in the article." even though there was no mention whatsoever of his country in the thread. Deniprc also declared that Fireball Frenzy, which was suffering a severe glitch at the time, was working but two other users said otherwise, with one responding with "It works for you but that doesn't mean it works for everyone else :/"[elitealpha 8].
Ultimately, in spite of the Elite Alphas' supposed purpose, they got disqualified for using cheats to put themselves at the top, automatically sending The Phantom Lords to the Semi-Finals[elitealpha 9].
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We appreciate your concern on the matter, merrry but the truth of the matter is, we looked at the scores ourselves before coming to this decision. Members of the Elite Alphas have been using cheats to put themselves at the top and we had no choice but to disqualify them from the competition. As you know, we take these allegations and reports very gravely.
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”
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| — Brynjolf [src]
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In the Semi-Finals announcement, a red strike can be seen on top of Elite Alphas' name along with their (now debunked) Trophy count of 305k Trophy.[elitealpha 10] A (possible former) member of the Elite Alphas expressed disappointment and shame towards their own Clan by explaining how some members first called in[elitealpha 11] unknown Brazillian members, and one Brazillian hacker must've gotten in, breaking their Trophy count and become disqualified, ending with a "Sometimes I am ashamed to be Brazilian".
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My Clan (Elite Alphas) was going so well, until they begin achamar many other unknown Brazilians, and then came some hacker that broke the amount of trophies, making us rise too ..
Sometimes I am ashamed to be Brazilian ...
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”
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| — Spartaaan [src]
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During the 2014 and 2015 Era, two Clans once ruled the Clan Boards: The Phantom Lords and The Phantom Shadows. These Clans were beloved by many, hated by some and shown great support like a family, it's unknown when they started but most Vikings that started their adventure in early-2014 do remember just how big of a figure they were as a popular, strong Clan alongside with the Snow Leopards, Berk Academy Students and much more. But, on the other side of the wings, what was also popular during that era? Hackers. Toothless Hackers, Speed Hackers, Gem Hackers, all leading to the infamous Hacker, Jacob, the hacker who plagued the Clans. 2014 was known for the massive amounts of Hacker Reports and some even reportedly got hacked and have their games destroyed, all with one single Hacker.
Upon The Phantom Lords' victory of the 3rd Tournament of October-November 2014, this resulted in The Phantom Lords receiving more attention and praise from both Vikings and fellow other Clans, though all the attention would unfortunately attract malicious hackers into the big screen and drag the king down - all started to happen around December 27th, 2014, nearly one month after their victory, where The Phantom Lords started being attacked by SSTheFasterSS, some Members started glitching out and being removed from the Clan[hackalle 1] and put in other Clans[hackalle 2]. This also ended up in happening with Storm themselves[3] and the attack still kept on going, with the attack getting worse in January 15, 2015[hackalle 3], but no one could've prevented what was being planned beneath all these repeated attacks.
On January 16th, 2015, the next day after the attacks getting worse, Storm, the Leader of The Phantom Lords, got brutally attacked by a hacker who destroyed their game and the Clan. While the hackers implemented Timberjacks (which, at the time, could only be achieved by hacking), increased their Gem counter to extraordinary amounts, and overall destroyed their reputation - in turn and to prevent fellow The Phantom Lords Clanmen from getting harmed by them, Storm deleted their account and kicked all the The Phantom Lords members out of the clan.[hackalle 4][hackalle 5] Storm further explained[hackalle 6] The reason for her tough decision to delete the Clan is because the hackers were likely targetting Clans with higher Trophy counts at the time, and she hoped the Admins would help them fix and potentially bring her account back to life after its brutal, unfair attack. While Vikings, Clanmen and Storm alike were very revolted by this attack, Storm did understood the reason for said reactions though pleaded to stay calm and patient, and reach out to other fellow Phantoms who either didn't have a Forum account or weren't logged in, and therefore weren't aware of what happened.[hackalle 6] In spite of other Clanmen offering her to join their Clan, Storm declared that staying clanless would be safer than being in another Clan.[hackalle 7]
In spite of the community being very revolted by the Hack Attack, Storm showing proofs of their attacks and even bringing awareness to the non-acceptable nature that SoD was infested by hackers from left and right, the Admins posted the final decision regarding this Event: By calling it an Hack Allegation (meaning someone is accusing other of doing something illegal without proofs) and negating Storm's real reason for deleting their Clan, calling it "The deletion of this clan was not a result of a hack but of one swift decision from a single user- the clan leaders.".
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Vikings -
Your comments and concerns regarding recent allegations of account ‘hacking’ have not gone unheard! Reports like these are not taken lightly by the School of Dragons team. With each reported case our tech, production, and community teams immediately begin investigating all possible leads to get to the root of any possible game abuses that would negatively affect our larger community of Dragon Trainers. We understand the impact of cheats and hacks on how our players experience the School of Dragons world and preserving the spirit of the game is of utmost importance to us!
Recently, reports surfaced on the forum regarding the disappearance of the Phantom Lords and the Phantom Shadows clans. While the user and those who rallied behind him claimed that the leader’s account had been hacked and the clan deleted at the hand of the hacker, we have verified that this was NEVER the case.
The deletion of this clan was not a result of a hack but of one swift decision from a single user- the clan leaders. After examining the situation from all angles with our various teams and communicating directly with the affected users we received WRITTEN CONFIRMATION from the leader himself that he deleted the clans, by first removing all clan members and then deleting his very own Viking profile. We have also verified this through our internal database.
As a result of recent events and to prove to all of you how serious these types of allegations are, we have subsequently removed the option for clan leaders to remove all members from a clan. We have also identified known cheaters in the game that have been regularly manipulating server calls to increase rank and trophy count and removed them from the game (the infamous Jacob accounts), which is reflected in current clan standings. More hacker account removals are still underway and will take a few more days to execute.
While we completely understand the frustration players have voiced regarding certain game hacks with dragons, coins, and trophies, we can assure you that individual player accounts have never been at risk. We know that there is some area for improvement when it comes to other game cheats that have come into play, but these are two separate issues - both of which are important to us to address and on our team's radar.
We hope this helps put hacking speculation to rest. However, if you have any additional other questions or concerns, feel free to contact the SoD team here on the forum, through official social media or email us at [email protected].
Thank you!
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”
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| — Brynjolf [src]
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The community was disgustedly revolted by this, what the Admins said can be essentially summarized to "Storm wasn't hacked, it was all a giant lie, they deleted themselves just because and used the "I got hacked" as an excuse" in spite of Storm bringing thousands of visual proofs and witnesses to confirm that it was, indeed, a hacker attacking their accounts and deliberately attacking their Clan. The majority would "correct" the post[hackalle 8] stating what truly happened[hackalle 9] and question the Admins' declarations regarding the origin of the Timberjacks, asking how did they got implemented[hackalle 10][hackalle 11] if the Timberjack could only be received by hacking, as well as asking if the community was really that protected and safe as the Admins said - nonetheless, the Admins tried to back up their word by declaring that what happened was a "a bug in the Timberjack code"[hackalle 12][hackalle 13][hackalle 14]. This instead sparked more arguments, with players questioning the Admins more regarding how is a hacked Timberjack named "wings of champion" a mere glitch[hackalle 15][hackalle 16][hackalle 17], with some providing both visual proofs[hackalle 18] and a Private Message from an user who discovered that the attack was indeed premediated[hackalle 19]. Even Diamond Racer, who was a victim of the Hack Attack, came to their defense by confirming the sudden implementation of Timberjack in their game hasn't a bug[hackalle 20][hackalle 21], including a visual proof of the implemented Timberjack[hackalle 22] minutes before the release of Brynjolf's Hack Allegation post. On the same note, Storm also came to their defense by apologizing for accidentally saying something that could be taken out of context, addressing the action they did, and declared that some coding error doesn't explain how did the Timberjacks appeared and how the names, who were also unable to change back then, got changed anyways[hackalle 23].
Siren then admitted that players can indeed hack Timberjacks though explained there's soemthing in in Timberjack's coding that allows people to hack them in, hence why it's considered as a bug and not a hack[hackalle 24] - users still brought flaws in the explanation, stating "if it was a bug, why did it only effect a few select players? Wouldn't it effect thousands of players?"[hackalle 25] and due to hackers demonstrating on Youtube how to hack dragons into the game by using programs like Charles and Cheat Engine, the developers need to change the coding of the dragons[hackalle 26]. Further proofs about the attack being planned are brought up to life, with an user linking to a post[hackalle 27] regarding the threat and forewarning of the attacks, with Diamond Racer listing a reply from Kekedaddy revealing that Storm, Diamond Racer and Artimez were being targets for a future Hack Attack all because they allegately "cyberbullied kids and drove them to suicide"[hackalle 28][hackalle 29].
Thankfully, an user named Anonymous2222 helped users get their dragons back and further confirming this entire event was a deliberate hack attack and not a bug[hackalle 30][hackalle 31]. Questions about if Jacob and Teufel are indeed gone were brought up[hackalle 32][hackalle 33] with some giving visual proofs that both Jacob and Teufel are still on[hackalle 34] and a few days later, Storm would bring awareness to their accoutn still being controlled in spite of them deelting their account[hackalle 35]. Very few people did agree with the Admins, with some supporting the Admins for their hard work and for addressing the problem[hackalle 36], and one defending the Admins stating "she is trying to say that the hackers can hack because of a PROBLEM/BUG in the CODE. And they are working to fix the bug in the code, so the hackers can't access it anymore."[hackalle 37]. One user also spoke on a neutral opinion by bringing programming logic into the argument, stating how hackers easily implemented dragons and how they could fix it[hackalle 38].
After months of people arguing and defending their points, the thread started to die down around March 2015, it's unknown what happen with Storm's accounts after this event but their second clan, The Phantom Shadows, went on to win the 2015 Tournament and Storm officially retired from Tournaments in 2018. School of Dragons went on to have a stronger security, Dragon and vikings now have a different coding upgrade, and as the years go by, while hackers are still around, they're way less than it was before this event. To this day, some will consider the Hack Allegation as one of the worse behaviors from the Admins' side.
