I hate to jump on these things, but why not.
I have only dueled haley a few times, sometimes on other names. I think to start he is a good player, and I think also that at times, but not all, an autoblock was in use.
I really have never thought for a moment that someone was using it except for a time I was dueling haley a bunch of times in a row. As people said, what really got me is the machine like blocks as opposed to more 'natural' blocks people have. What really tipped me off were times when he was caught in a very distinct process of attacking to watch the weapon snap back to block extremely late in the attack.
Now other times I have dueled haley and she behaved normal, but there have been times I've dueled and the blocks were too machine like, consistently blocking everything except unblockable hits such as kick slash or a close range chamber thrust attack. The other times she played very much like a 'normal' good player blocking most but not all of the attacks without any of the machine like snap blocks.
I have always called neih a human wall but I've never really seen any GOOD players call him a hack after dueling him a bit, while I repeatedly see good players calling haley a hack because his blocking itches people the wrong way, the same way it itched me the wrong way. Not to mention the disparity between his playstyle when 'normal' playing is happening vs the times she is a human wall seems too distinct.
So, my guess is that haley is a good player, who sometimes used the autoblock to catapult her to 'great' player status when using it. I think he stands out because he is already good to begin with and regularly used it, vs someone who is new, and it is obvious their footwork/timing doesn't match the blocking abilities .
Eh either way, no big deal unless I guess its a clan match, and as leo said too dueling a human wall can really help you improve and understand the game in a slightly different way while you look for methods to penetrate the autoblock. I guess it is the reason I was never too upset in the older servers when autoblock was enabled, it gave you a reason to try out new stuff.
So yeah I am not trying to throw him under the bus but I did want to weigh in that I have had similar thoughts as the other people here about it.
