Dedimania forum

TL;DR:

bellasam remains banned and its records were deleted.

(Apologies for the length of this, but this needs to be a complete and balanced assessment, and was not a decision reached lightly.)

A year ago login bellasam was first reported here and via email. It produced WRs and top-5 entries within very short timeframes on highly hunted tracks since July 2024. It first submitted (uncontroversial) results on 2022-10-27.
The login's activities were monitored until a new report last June about an unbelievable A12-Speed entry got the ball rolling.
Several players connect this login to syos. who exhibited the same behavior since 2015. In March 2020 that player contacted me, referred to as M. in the following. M. claimed his login was hacked and he didn't drive several suspect entries. This continued on and off into 2022, reporting records that weren't his, at one point also claiming that his server had been hacked.
By August 2022 he got his third strike for a definitely cheated record, and a ban. Initially, I deleted only his top-10 entries, later the remainder. This happened two months before bellasam started, whereas an overlap would have made a connection less plausible.

So, to provoke a response from bellasam, the login and associated server highfunzone2 were banned on July 15, but not blacklisted and no records deleted.
On July 28 the player contacted me under the name of Dave, which matches the nickname for bellasam that was changed to ѧғ©«Dave» between the ban and the mail.
Dave couldn't sign up for the forums because it wasn't clear where to get the community code (that problem was since fixed). Therefore Vrba set up a Discord server where this situation was discussed with Dave and several other players.

I'm providing this public report in the interest of transparency to the TM community, and because if it had been discussed in the forums like similar cases, it would have been public as well.

Dave provided a number of implausible or unbelievable explanations:
- that bellasam was shared between a friend and himself;
- that the friend used two different computers but doesn't have replays on either, nor does Dave;
- that the friend drove the majority of records, and Dave only a few;
- and that the friend is now in a hospital.

On Discord we asked how so many WRs were driven in such short timeframes, but got no answer. If he drove them fairly so quickly due to being an excellent (but seclusive) player, then he should be able to replicate that. This proposal was ignored.

We asked for replays on a list of 15-20 tracks with suspect times. Dave claimed to have driven only one, and provided a new replay for 7jxUpbrEqY0WZXiZPIIoVepX0m7 . But despite claiming it was a manual save, the filename was in autosave format.
The time was 0.01 s faster than his #2 Dedimania entry, and no issues were found in it, but it is a short no-CP track, so it provides no insight into a valid/suspect sector pattern.
Nor does it mean anything with respect to the other requested replays.

Dave drives on "our server on the local network", so his friend could be as well. While it is unlikely that autosaving doesn't work on one computer, it is unbelievable that it doesn't work on the friend's two systems either.
Sharing accounts is dumb to begin with, but bellasam is a Nations account and there's no sensible reason to share free accounts, whether on the same LAN or not.

We asked for a movie of him traversing in Explorer to his autosave folder, to see whether it really is empty and because the last-modified timestamp of the folder itself would show whether it had been recently changed (i.e. by saving the new replay, or deleting all the existing older ones). A timestamp of a year or more ago would have supported Dave's claim that autosaving didn't work.
This was ignored and instead, Dave re-installed the game (twice), and then said autosaving finally worked. No further replays from the list were provided however, despite several requests, because he "didn't drive them."

We asked for proof of his identity, and proof of his friend's existence and identity (if Dave isn't M. then his friend could likely be). After repeating this request several times, the former was rejected, and the latter ignored. There are acceptable ways to provide this evidence while maintaining sufficient privacy, but he would not cooperate.

We repeatedly asked about his second account (without naming it), but this too was ignored.
That's because we already knew login ewing87 (also Nations) was involved, driving only on private server Track-LOL-Hunter. Quite a few times, once a time by bellasam was beaten by another player, ewing87 would come in and beat that time again.
We know also they are connected because highfunzone2 and Track-LOL-Hunter are running off the same IP, also the IP from which Dave mailed me, so he should know what we asked about.
And finally, JR.EWING was at one point an alias for the syos. login.

ewing87 was banned on July 15 together with bellasam, and its records deleted a week and a half ago, but no other player came to the forums to ask about it. Yet Dave kept ignoring this topic altogether, which I find very strange.
Instead Dave kept repeating the same few explanations (occasionally mixed with insults), and asking us why other players weren't required to provide replays -- but they are, when sufficient suspicions arise. And here we are not dealing with other accounts anyway, only with bellasam and ewing87.

There are differences in communication, and ultimately it isn't very important whether M. is Dave, or his friend, or neither. What's relevant, is the behavior in the game and during the investigation being very similar for both:
- driving suspect WRs and top-5 entries within implausibly short timeframes;
- driving with multiple accounts that one-up eachother;
- driving on private servers and not uploading replays to TMX as proof;
- claiming suspect entries were not driven by them (first by hacking, now by account sharing, but in both cases the player remains responsible for their login);
- claiming autosaving doesn't work on their computers;;
- not willing to provide additional evidence that could exonorate them when asked, or pro-actively;
- sticking to the same few unconvincing arguments and trying to divert the focus to other players;
- generally giving us the feeling they're holding back instead of being cooperative, and not doing everything they can to clear up the validity of their records.

My takeaway is that they exhibit this behavior because the suspect records were driven unfairly, which (except for one) cannot be repeated, and the players do not want to be held accountable for them. For that reason, both logins and both servers remain banned, and bellasam's records are now deleted like those of ewing87 and syos. were.

For bellasam that's 5042 entries, of which 1100 #1 and 1084 top 2-5; for ewing87 it's 414 entries, of which 80 #1 and 113 top 2-5.
In comparison, for syos. the total was 7762, of which 2023 #1 and 1712 top2-5. Working out whether these are reasonable or implausible proportions for players who don't want to prove themselves, is left as an exercise for the reader.

Let this be the message of this report: when a half dozen experienced players consider your records suspect or impossible, you better be ready to back them up with evidence (i.e. replays) or you risk losing them.
At one point Dave asked about the "general terms and conditions here" (lol). Dedimania isn't a company. Dedimania was created by Slig as a free community service, and since 2009 I am trying to maintain it with fair and valid record lists for free. But that does not mean as a player who happened to create a new login, that you have an indefinite right to use this service. If you drive honestly and can prove it if requested, then yes, but if you do not want to answer for your actions here, then you could forfeit that access. Fair play is important in the TM community (see also the Riolu & Fabi scandals), and probably in all gaming communities.

Fortunately for the last few years, the vast majority of players are doing okay with fewer and fewer bans annually, contrary to the first decade with thousands of banned logins. But situations like the above take me more hours than an entire year of dealing with obvious cheaters, so you could say I am a bit miffed...

Anyway, happy driving, TrackManiacs.

P.S. To recap, the current list of related/banned logins is:
michaelundmartina
capsogel
forceair
loft-room
gallaga
devil-93
hubertkah
ger_mischa
_proraceteam_
domol1122
tera_xyz
corsakoff_live
syos.

And now:
bellasam
ewing87