Use Case
DDoS Protection Built for
Esports Platforms
Millions are watching. Prize money is on the line. When a DDoS attack hits during a live tournament, the entire match is compromised, your brand takes the hit, and sponsors question their investment. Flowtriq detects attacks in under 1 second and auto-mitigates before a single player drops.
The Problem
Esports tournaments are high-value DDoS targets
Attackers know your match schedule. Tournament brackets, start times, and server IPs are often public information. A well-timed DDoS attack during a grand final does not just cause lag. It compromises the competitive outcome in front of hundreds of thousands of live viewers, and the footage lives on the internet forever.
The stakes go beyond gameplay. Prize pools reach millions of dollars. Sponsors pay for visibility during peak viewership moments. Broadcast partners commit to air time. When a match goes down, every stakeholder in the ecosystem takes a hit, and they all look at your platform for answers.
Betting manipulation adds another layer of risk. Targeted disruption of specific matches can influence outcomes for gambling markets. Player IP leaking through voice comms, lobbies, or peer-to-peer connections gives attackers direct access to individual competitors. Your platform needs protection that operates at the speed of competition, not the speed of a support ticket.
21:42:18 UDP flood begins targeting match server
21:42:24 Server tick rate drops from 128 to 14
21:42:31 Players rubber-banding, comms cutting out
21:42:45 Match server unresponsive
21:42:46 Stream goes down · 247k viewers see failure
21:43:00 Chat erupting · sponsor logos on error screen
21:48:00 Admin begins manual investigation
21:55:00 Match declared void · reschedule announced
Integrity disputes filed: 2
Sponsor complaints: 3
Community trust: damaged
How Flowtriq Helps
Attacks absorbed silently. Matches continue uninterrupted.
The FTAgent runs on each match server, reading kernel-level network statistics every second. When attack traffic crosses a dynamic threshold, the agent opens an incident, classifies the attack vector, and fires nftables rules to drop malicious packets at the kernel level. All within the same second.
Players never notice. Ping stays stable. The stream stays live. The 247,000 viewers watching the grand finals see nothing but clean gameplay. When the attack subsides, firewall rules are automatically withdrawn so legitimate traffic flows normally.
Your tournament operations team gets instant alerts through PagerDuty and Discord with full attack classification. If a match integrity dispute arises later, you have timestamped PCAP evidence showing exactly what happened, when, and from where. No guesswork, just data.
21:42:19 PPS=128,000 BPS=4.8Gbps THRESHOLD
T+0.1s Incident opened · UDP Flood · 98%
T+0.3s Auto-mitigation · nftables rule applied
T+0.4s PCAP capture · forensic evidence saved
T+0.5s Alerts fired · PagerDuty · Discord
21:42:20 PPS=4,380 BPS=13Mbps MITIGATED
21:42:20 Player pings: 18ms stable
21:42:20 Stream: uninterrupted · 247k viewers
Matches disrupted: 0
Viewers who noticed: 0
_
Key Features
Purpose-built for competitive esports
Tournament server protection
Deploy the FTAgent on every match server in your tournament infrastructure. Each server gets independent detection and mitigation. A DDoS attack targeting one match in the bracket does not affect any other active match, keeping your entire event running cleanly.
Per-match monitoring
See real-time traffic metrics for every active match server. Monitor packet rates, bandwidth, and connection counts as matches progress. Your operations team gets a live overview of every game in play, with instant visibility into any anomaly the moment it appears.
Auto-mitigation
When an attack is detected, kernel-level firewall rules drop malicious traffic instantly using iptables or nftables. Rules are applied in dedicated chains that never conflict with game server networking. When the attack ends, rules auto-withdraw so legitimate player connections resume normally.
Player connection protection
Protect individual player connections from targeted attacks. When attackers obtain player IPs through voice comms, lobbies, or peer-to-peer connections, per-node detection ensures that attacks against one player do not cascade to the match server or other competitors.
Live event alerting
Instant notifications through PagerDuty and Discord the moment an attack is detected. Custom escalation policies ensure your tournament admin team is paged for critical events during live broadcasts while routine incidents are handled automatically without human intervention.
PCAP forensics
Every incident includes full packet captures starting from pre-attack traffic. Use PCAP evidence to support match integrity disputes, league rulings, or legal proceedings. Timestamped forensic data shows exactly what happened, when, and from where with no ambiguity.
Multi-server tournament infrastructure
Monitor your entire tournament server fleet from a single dashboard. Group servers by event, bracket stage, or region. Scale from a handful of match servers for a weekly league to hundreds of nodes for a major championship without changing your monitoring workflow.
Custom escalation for live events
Define escalation policies that adapt to your event schedule. During live broadcasts, route all incidents directly to your tournament operations team with maximum urgency. Outside of event hours, let auto-mitigation handle everything silently with summary reports delivered afterward.
API integration with tournament platforms
Use the Flowtriq REST API to integrate attack data directly into your tournament management platform. Automate server provisioning with protection enabled by default. Pull incident data into your match administration tools for real-time decision support during live events.
Real-time spectator dashboard
Give your broadcast production team a read-only view of server health and attack status. They can see at a glance whether match servers are clean or under mitigation, enabling faster decisions about broadcast delays, pauses, or server switches during live production.
Getting Started
Deploy across your tournament servers in minutes
Setting up Flowtriq on your esports infrastructure takes less time than resolving a single match integrity dispute. Here is how it works from signup to full tournament coverage.
Create your workspace
Sign up at flowtriq.com and create a workspace for your esports organization. Add your tournament operations team with admin access. Invite broadcast partners and league officials later with read-only roles. The 7-day free trial starts immediately with no credit card required.
Install the FTAgent on each match server
The agent installs with pip install ftagent and runs as a lightweight systemd service. It reads kernel-level network statistics with near-zero CPU overhead, so it will not interfere with game server performance. Deploy it across all match servers with your existing configuration management tools.
Configure alert channels
Connect Flowtriq to your tournament operations workflow. Send alerts to Discord for your admin team, PagerDuty for on-call engineers, and webhooks to your tournament management platform. Set escalation policies so live event attacks get immediate human attention.
Enable auto-mitigation
Define mitigation policies for your match servers. Configure which attack types trigger automatic firewall rules, set rate limits appropriate for game server traffic, and tune how long rules persist after an attack ends. Start with conservative settings and adjust based on real traffic during practice matches.
Run a pre-tournament test
Before your next live event, verify that detection and mitigation are working correctly during practice matches. Review traffic baselines, confirm alert routing, and ensure your broadcast team has read-only dashboard access. Flowtriq learns normal game traffic patterns and sets dynamic thresholds automatically.
By the Numbers
The impact on your tournament operations
Before & After
How Flowtriq transforms your event security
Without Flowtriq
- Attacks detected minutes after match server degrades
- Manual investigation while players and viewers wait
- Match declared void, rescheduled hours or days later
- No forensic evidence for integrity disputes
- Sponsors see their logos on error screens during broadcast
- Community trust eroded with every disrupted event
- Betting manipulation through targeted match disruption
With Flowtriq
- Detection in under 1 second per match server
- Automatic mitigation with zero player-visible impact
- Matches continue uninterrupted through attacks
- Full PCAP evidence for every incident
- Broadcast stays live, sponsors get clean airtime
- Community sees a platform that handles adversity
- Forensic data available for betting integrity reviews
Pricing
Simple per-node pricing. No surprises.
Unlimited team seats included. Protect 5 match servers or 500 at the same price per node. No bandwidth fees, no overage charges, no contracts. Cancel anytime. Flow sources (sFlow/NetFlow/IPFIX from routers) available from $19/source/month with volume discounts.
Compatibility
Works with your existing game server stack
The FTAgent runs on any Linux server with kernel 3.10 or later. It supports all major distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Fedora. Whether you run dedicated bare-metal match servers, containerized game instances, or cloud VMs, the agent works the same way.
The agent runs alongside any game server software without interference. It monitors kernel-level network statistics independently of the game process, so there is zero impact on server tick rate, player latency, or game performance. CPU overhead is under 0.1% on a typical match server.
Integrate Flowtriq with your tournament management tools using the REST API. Export incident data via webhooks to your admin platform. Pull real-time metrics into Grafana for your broadcast operations center. Build automated workflows that provision match servers with protection enabled by default.
• CS2 / Valorant / Overwatch dedicated servers
• Custom game engines & proprietary servers
• Containerized (Docker / Kubernetes) instances
• Cloud VMs (AWS, GCP, Azure, OVH, Hetzner)
Firewalls
• iptables / ip6tables
• nftables
• ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall)
Integrations
• Discord / PagerDuty / Slack
• REST API & webhooks
• Prometheus / Grafana
• Tournament platform APIs
FAQ
Common questions from esports platforms
Can Flowtriq protect individual match servers?
Yes. Deploy the FTAgent on every game server in your tournament infrastructure. Each agent runs independent detection, so one server being attacked does not affect detection or mitigation on others. You get per-server visibility across your entire tournament bracket, from group stage to grand finals.
How fast is detection during a live match?
Sub-second. The agent reads kernel-level network statistics every second and triggers mitigation within the same cycle. Players experience zero noticeable lag from the mitigation process itself. Firewall rules drop malicious packets at the kernel level before they reach the game server process, keeping tick rate and player pings stable.
Can we use PCAP evidence for competitive integrity disputes?
Yes. Every incident includes full packet captures showing exactly what happened, when it happened, and where the traffic originated. This is court-grade forensic evidence that can be presented in integrity reviews, league rulings, betting investigations, or legal proceedings. Timestamps are precise to the millisecond.
Does it work with our existing game server hosting?
Yes. The agent runs alongside any game server software. It is compatible with dedicated servers, containerized deployments, and cloud VMs. Whether you run your own bare-metal infrastructure or lease servers from a hosting provider, the FTAgent installs the same way and works identically across environments.
White-Label
Brand it as your own platform security.
Run Flowtriq as an internal tool for your tournament operations, or white-label it and present DDoS protection as a branded feature of your esports platform. Same technology, your identity.
Internal use: Deploy the agent across your match servers at $9.99/node. Your operations team monitors everything from one dashboard. Players and teams never see the tooling behind the scenes.
White-label: Rebrand the entire platform under your organization name for a one-time $200 deposit (applied as billing credit). Custom domain, logo, colors, fonts, and login page. Per-node cost drops to $7.99/node/month. Present it to teams and sponsors as your own security infrastructure.
Your league officials and team managers log into security.yourleague.com, see your branding, and interact with your support contact. No mention of Flowtriq anywhere.
Domain security.yourleague.com
Logo ✓ Custom uploaded
Colors ✓ Brand primary + accent
Login ✓ Custom heading + text
Branding ✓ All Flowtriq refs removed
Cost $7.99/node/month
Deposit $200 (applied as credit)
Seats Unlimited (no per-user fee)
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