Sure, offering a million dollars to a lucky SOB who plays your game often doesn’t pan out (see Advent Rising and their recently deceased contest). But it’s got to be doubly embarrassing to cancel it, and have to state as the reason it’s because you can’t eliminate cheating.

Over these past few months, we have spent considerable time and effort trying to develop failsafes that would negate the cheating that originally lead to the tournament’s suspension.

Unfortunately, the game developer has been unable to correct these technical issues in a way that we feel is foolproof. As a result, the company cannot assure the fairness and equity of the tournament.

Ouch, little bitchslap in there. Note to other developers: there is always something that someone could consider cheating in a video game, especially in an MMO. So don’t offer enormous cash prizes you know you’ll have to retract later. There is such a thing as bad publicity.