Basketball star cheats at Halo 3

By Robert Purchese Published 12 October, 2007

He's only cheating himself etc.

Tall basketball star Gilbert Arenas has cheated at Halo 3 by playing against dummy accounts to bump his skill level up.

His untrustworthy behaviour was discovered by Bungie.net forum posters and picked up by The Washington Post newspaper.

But when approached about it he was far from repentant, and claimed because he was only playing against friends that he wasn't hurting anybody.

"It's a glitch in the game," he told Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post. "It's two dummy players playing against each other. It's not messing with anybody."

"There's nobody involved. I can see if we were playing against other people, [but] it's not ranked games, it's social games."

Arenas is an avid gamer and features on the cover of NBA Live 08 from EA. He is also tall and cheats at Halo 3.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Benno #1 5 years ago

    halol!!

  • Yaster #2 5 years ago

    You'd think that with the amount of money he has he'd had a life.

  • Putty-Man #3 5 years ago

    ...or a PS3...

  • The-Bodybuilder #4 5 years ago

    You can't buy publicity like that.

    All MS need is for fabregas to admit he too cheats on halo 3.

  • The-Bodybuilder #5 5 years ago

    >"You'd think that with the amount of money he has he'd had a life. "

    That's right.

    /Doesn't see the irony in us mocking a rich and famous american athlete about having a life, on a gaming board.

  • chicknstu #6 5 years ago

    That's a non-story

  • Kiigan #7 5 years ago

    His skill level wouldn't go up (that only goes up in ranked play) but his EXP would. Pretty pointless exercise though.

  • kangarootoo #8 5 years ago

    Seems to me the people outraged at this need to get some context. Seriously, who gives a f*ck.

    Whether or not he is sad for doing this is not really the issue for me. I am just surprised anyone cares either way.

  • xTinyDancerx #9 5 years ago

    great closing sentence.

  • jack_klugman #10 5 years ago

    How would rate the opener?

  • Dizzy #11 5 years ago

    You can't reach the high skill levels by playing non-ranked games.

  • Squire #12 5 years ago

    That's hilarious

  • promoted2001 #13 5 years ago

    \o/

  • Altrezia #14 5 years ago

    Who cares...

  • makememoo #15 5 years ago

    next: more news from the department of backhanders to name-drop halo 3 in specific contexts.

  • Fab4 #16 5 years ago

    Oi Cescy doesnt need to cheat at anything ;) :p

  • The-Bodybuilder #17 5 years ago

    >"Oi Cescy doesnt need to cheat at anything ;) :p "

    Ofcourse he doesn't, he's too great of a player.

  • Twincoil #18 5 years ago

    In other news: I really couldn't give a fuck E(winner of news award)G

  • thepiedpiper #19 5 years ago

    Oi Cescy doesnt need to cheat at anything ;) :p

    Although he likes to pay £3000 to get the hair on his chest and legs removed....that robot from futurama springs to mind.

  • Avenger1324 #20 5 years ago

    slamdunk!!

  • xTinyDancerx #21 5 years ago

    >"How would rate the opener? "

    average

  • Thornhillboy #22 5 years ago

    If people don't care about the news reported, why do they A) Read it, and B) go to the effort of telling us about how little they care?

  • The-Bodybuilder #23 5 years ago

    >"If people don't care about the news reported, why do they A) Read it, and B) go to the effort of telling us about how little they care? "

    Because they are elitist hypocrites who can't see the error and irony of thier ways?

  • rhinoxious #24 5 years ago

    He's a rather odd character for a sports star, though maybe not as odd as rodman!

    from his wiki page, this is his perfect sneaker advert:

    You know how I always throw my jersey into the stands after a game? In Washington, they just go crazy for it. So in this commercial, that's what I'm gonna do with my shoes. I've just hit a game winner, and I throw these shoes. Everyone starts to react, and you see everything in slow motion. Everyone's pushing, shoving, doing whatever it takes to try to get to these shoes. People from the 400 level, they're jumping off the ledge, they're missing the pile, hitting nothing but chairs, and you can just see in people's faces like, Ooooh, that hurt. While all this stuff's going on, one of the shoes pops out of the crowd, and a little girl gets it and she takes off. A couple of people see she has it, and they start chasing her, and she's looking back running—and then she gets clotheslined by a kid in a wheelchair. So he picks the shoe up and says—he's gonna have the only line in there—"They said I couldn't get it. Heh. Impossible is nothing." And then he rolls off.

  • afghan_jones #25 5 years ago

    Thats be the best ad ever.

  • JayeM #26 5 years ago

    That is class.

  • The_Inquisitor #27 5 years ago

    His rank may go up but that means he gonna get his ass handed to him when he plays a proper ranked match, doesn't it.

    It would be worse if he was keeping his level low so that he could constantly win online matches.

  • DUFFKING #28 5 years ago

    > "All MS need is for fabregas to admit he too cheats on halo 3."

    Would be far more apt for Ronaldo Cheating at FIFA 08

  • The-Bodybuilder #29 5 years ago

    >"Would be far more apt for Ronaldo Cheating at FIFA 08 "

    It would be funny is he admits to using the dive function in both fifa and pro evo to win freekicks.

    It would be even more funny if JT admits to berating players over LIVE on the mic, or gerrard admitting to talking into the mic to try and influence the referee to giving him a free kick. heh.

    And as for that trainer ad, my respect for the guy has dramatically escalated atfer reading that.

  • miiiguel #30 5 years ago

    If the games aren't ranked, I see no problem with that. It's like playing chess with oneself, no ?
    But to do that he must have more that one 360...
    Anyway it seems a bit dumb, as I think Halo match players up based on EXP, and if he gets it high by "spanking the monkey", he'll get raped when playing for real.
    Edited by miiiguel at 12/10/07 @ 17:37

  • Coughthulu #31 5 years ago

    >"Although he likes to pay £3000 to get the hair on his chest and legs removed....that robot from futurama springs to mind."

    Most expensive razor ever! This man's so rich, he has no idea how much a pack of Gillette and a bottle of King of Shaves is!

    I bet he smokes $100 notes with his $500 breakfast, too...

  • Kazzahdrane #32 5 years ago

    Best closing sentence I've read in ages. Good stuff! Cheaters should be mocked and humiliated.

  • Twincoil #33 5 years ago

    ">"If people don't care about the news reported, why do they A) Read it, and B) go to the effort of telling us about how little they care? "

    Because they are elitist hypocrites who can't see the error and irony of thier ways? "

    Because pointing it out MIGHT have an effect on future (non) news

  • Negotiator #34 5 years ago

    "You'd think that with the amount of money he has he'd had a life"

    Yaster, can you see anything wrong with your sentence?

  • john_m #35 5 years ago

    Halo 3 is already full of people boosting. I keep getting messages from people asking me to stand still so they can get some headshots! Where's the fun in cheating?!

  • The-Bodybuilder #36 5 years ago

    >"Because pointing it out MIGHT have an effect on future (non) news "

    And that bothers you because???????

  • Vice.Destroyer #37 5 years ago

    First Marion Jones and now this fella. And I used to think that professional athletes competed fairly/.

  • vane101 #38 5 years ago

    Good story!

  • DFective #39 5 years ago

    Haha. Amusing.

  • VMerken #40 5 years ago

    If it is possible, people will do it. Never forget that.

    As for the "it's like playing chess with yourself" argument, that is only correct to some level. Playing chess with yourself, for example, does not result in a statistic which others can see and gives them the impression that you're actually very good at it.
    Edited by VMerken at 14/10/07 @ 00:17

  • PapaSmurf630 #41 5 years ago

    "Arenas is an avid gamer and features on the cover of NBA Live 08 from EA. He is also tall and cheats at Halo 3."

    Haha!

  • Tyronne #42 5 years ago

    Do you take one story about halo into the shower ? I take one involving EA as well and just post and go.

  • drumm23 #43 5 years ago

    It seems plenty of the Gears Of War DICKHEADS have stayed there, I'm playing loads of Halo 3 Ranked matches, and 99.99% of the people are really nice... it's almost weird!

  • squeakyg #44 5 years ago

    I don't see how it would help his game at all to cheat that way. He can't earn Skill in unranked games, so he wasn't doing it to become an Officer. Matchmaking will put him against people who earned their experience by learning to play better for real, so it will be harder for him. The only reason for getting friends to let you kill them is to pick up some Achievements.

  • doragor #45 5 years ago

    @drumm23
    word. gears is the worst for trash talking nimrods . halo 3 seems to have a cooler group of people playing on xbl. relief.

  • drumm23 #46 5 years ago

    tell me about it buddy - Gears online is BAD for your bloodpressure! Hope they stay there!

  • Twincoil #47 5 years ago

    ">"Because pointing it out MIGHT have an effect on future (non) news "

    And that bothers you because??????? "

    I'm an olympic news warrior. Duh.

  • MouzerMalti #48 5 years ago

    Arenas is an avid gamer and features on the cover of NBA Live 08 from EA. He is also tall and cheats at Halo 3.


    hahaha that line was hilarious!

  • agparrot #49 5 years ago

    @squeakyg

    "The only reason for getting friends to let you kill them is to pick up some Achievements."

    Except he was only playing social games, and the achievements are awarded for ranked playlists and campaign games, aren't they? The only thing he'd really earn are social playlist medals. Bully for him!

    Closing line of article is quality humour, but can't see it really ruining Gilbert's career.

  • Diabeu #50 5 years ago

    who the hell is Arenas?