About [2], yeah, that's the way it could happen without a 0-day, but it really does seem very, very impractical, risky and unlikely.
Out of sf, KQLY and Emilio, it does seem likely that both sf and Emilio would cheat online in order to qualify, but KQLY whose team almost always passed online qualifiers? I have no idea.
If I recall correctly, Emilio was banned months prior to the others though, and he hardly played any major LANs. sf and KQLY were using the same cheat, but there's nothing which makes it seem like it happened on LANs.
Either way, it's impossible to say what happened years ago, but if it did happen, I doubt it kept happening.
Out of sf, KQLY and Emilio, it does seem likely that both sf and Emilio would cheat online in order to qualify, but KQLY whose team almost always passed online qualifiers? I have no idea.
If I recall correctly, Emilio was banned months prior to the others though, and he hardly played any major LANs. sf and KQLY were using the same cheat, but there's nothing which makes it seem like it happened on LANs.
Either way, it's impossible to say what happened years ago, but if it did happen, I doubt it kept happening.