Since the launch of Season 1 in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone, cheating has been a real headache, even with the RICOCHET anti-cheat system in place. Activision had previously mentioned that a data outage had hampered this system’s effectiveness when the new content dropped. Recently, TeamRICOCHET came forward in a blog post, admitting that while the anti-cheat worked well for the Black Ops 6 launch, it fell short during the Season 1 integration, especially in Ranked Play.
Now, despite the presence of this problem, TeamRICOCHET, the crack squad behind Call of Duty’s anti-cheat tech, has been on the offensive. They’ve banned 19,000 accounts, mainly targeting the nefarious activity in Ranked Play. To keep up with the explosion of dubious accounts, they’re ramping up ban waves on an hourly basis, deploying their updated detection strategies.
The rise of cheating in the playlists of Warzone and Black Ops 6 has forced TeamRICOCHET to swell the ranks of its human moderation crew. They’ve also enhanced their AI-powered Replay Investigation setup to deal with these sneaky players. Upcoming tweaks to the RICOCHET anti-cheat, along with the AI systems backing it, should help identify troublemakers before they even join a game. New detection strategies poised for implementation in Seasons 2 and 3 for both games show promising progress.
TeamRICOCHET has acknowledged the long road ahead, expressing their eagerness to roll out major updates next year. However, they’re cautious about revealing too much, as it might tip-off the very cheats they aim to thwart.
Despite announcing these heightened anti-cheat efforts, the Call of Duty community has had mixed feelings. Activision has been somewhat secretive about the inner workings of their anti-cheat methods, which has historically spurred rumors and theories. In recent times, however, there has been a shift toward more openness, especially concerning the RICOCHET system. Nevertheless, certain key details remain under wraps to avoid giving hackers a leg up.
One of the biggest conspiracy theories swirling among players is about the repercussions for those wrongly accused of cheating. TeamRICOCHET clarified that suspected cheaters might find themselves in restricted matchmaking, fueling some players’ suspicions about being victims of spam reporting every time they encounter a suspect game or experience latency issues.
Nevertheless, Activision and TeamRICOCHET have been clear that spam reports carry minimal impact in their cheat detection process. While reporting players is critical to catching evaders, TeamRICOCHET has systems in place to stop players with a grudge from abusing shadowban mechanics through false reports.
The cheat enforcement process leans heavily on AI detection rather than on false reports. Players complaining of high latency probably have more to blame on server stability which has seen some rocky periods since Season 1’s release.
For players concerned about falling into limited matchmaking or being banned, even by mistake, it’s worth noting that with tools like AI and human oversight, some errors can happen. In fact, early in Modern Warfare 3’s cycle, RICOCHET anti-cheat mistakenly banned some PC players due to misflagging RGB control software. If you think you’re unfairly caught in the dragnet, Activision’s support page can confirm your account status and guide you through appealing a ban if necessary.
Ultimately, if you haven’t been shadowbanned yet, maybe you’re not pushing your gameplay far enough. Consider tweaking your controller settings or find ways to level up swiftly with certain loadouts. This way, you sidestep the urge to rely on any dodgy unlock tools during the prestige grind. Or, check out hardcore multiplayer to sharpen those skills on the battlefield.
