As the third Final Fantasy 14 Ultimate race in a row ends in MMO raiders caught using add-ons, World Race lead bans them outright: "Not everyone will be happy, but I think this is the best way forward"

The latest Final Fantasy 14 Ultimate raid has not come without its drama as players hoping to snag the top spot in the race to clear the fight first were caught and disqualified for cheating - a situation that has resulted in a controversial complete rework of the World Race's rules.

Following patch 7.1 and the arrival of Futures Unwritten, Square Enix's most recent Ultimate raid, the drama surrounding the use of third-party add-ons and tools has once again surfaced. After a static known by the community as "GRIND" cleared the latest Ultimate last week and beat other teams in doing so first, it was discovered that at least one member had been using one of the MMO's most infamous plugins while participating in the World Race.

It wasn't the first time that a World Race winner had been caught "cheating" via add-ons - last year, a similar debacle unfolded when the winning team was found to be using third-party tools after completing the Omega Protocol Ultimate raid, prompting director and producer Naoki " Yoshi-P" Yoshida to dub the situation "extremely disappointing." It also happened during Dragonsong Ultimate, the Ultimate raid race preceding Omega Protocol.

These three Ultimate-related "cheating" scenarios in a row have prompted the World Race Tracker lead himself to completely rework the rules - and they're controversial, to say the least. "No add-ons can be used and no terms of service" with Final Fantasy 14 can be broken, according to the new guidelines. This means no third-party tools, including damage-tracking software like ACT - one that a massive portion of the MMO's raiding base uses.

"No datamining attempts should be made by members of the team or someone who is trying to support the team," reads the second rule - and possibly the least controversial. This one ensures that raiders aren't able to get a head start on any upcoming content's mechanics. The third rule, however, seems just as contentious as the first: "All teams must have one player at minimum streaming live and VODs should persist."

Raiders in the World Race don't always stream for one very strategic reason - it would allow competitors to see and employ their own tactics, removing any chance of staying ahead. Fans are sharing their thoughts on the new guidelines, highlighting as much. "You do not speak for the community," reads one. "Guess they can't use ACT since it breaks TOS," reads another. "Smh. The streaming requirement is also dumb."

Players also point out that forcing raiders to follow Square Enix's terms makes no sense, as they hardly participate in the World Race: "I understand and empathize with trying to be SE aligned with the race, but they've never shown any interest in helping legitimize the race other than handwaving. I think it would be healthier to realize that the community owns the race and should own the rules" - a sentiment I'd argue many agree with myself.

The feedback has reached the World Race Tracker head, too, who hasn't yet made any changes to the rules but does reveal in a post that he wants "to make decisions that are the best for the overall community and event." He says that he's reviewing comments and has even "spoken to members from various teams today," so it's very likely that the World Race guidelines may face alterations once more in the coming days.

Final Fantasy 14 Mobile kicked off 5 years ago when "a small team of die-hard" fans proposed the idea to MMO lead Yoshi-P, "armed with a 100-page proposal"