It may actually be time to cautiously bring out the party hats and a pinata or two; Activision announced on Monday that another massive ban wave has gone out to start the newest season, with roughly 20,000 accounts banned.
This alone is admittedly old news, but the cheaters that have been affected (and have been in tears due to the ban wave) have a whole other reason to be frustrated.
The issue in the past with sending out bans on Call of Duty: Warzone is that it, like many other popular titles, is entirely free to play. Thus, users that were caught cheating could simply make a new account and begin cheating once again with relatively reckless impunity, ruining matches for everyone else because they lack empathy and integrity.
Yet the cries of the banned have been far louder this time: it appears that Activision has doled out some hardware bans, and users that attempt to make a new account are banned on their first match.
They’re currently attempting to figure out how to circumvent the hardware ban reliably and cheaply, but it’s not the easiest of tasks: players actually need to be a bit more tech-savvy than simply opening up a script that gives them every advantage possible in the title.
Ay bro, please @Activision – pull the trigger & make the investment. Warzone’s truly incredible, but it’s becoming harder & harder to play with all these hackers. Roll out the anti-cheat, show everybody ur about it. It’s gotta be worth it in the long run! @CallofDuty
— FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) September 23, 2020
Now, the deafening wails of those that were caught (and they super learned their lesson this time, honest) are spilling outside of cheating forums as players have begun attempting to rile up the fan base, arguing that the ban wave was improperly supervised and that accounts were flagged that should not have been.
It’s difficult to discern precisely how much of this is accurate, as screenshots showing banned accounts haven’t been as forthcoming as the last ban wave, where players were able to prove that they were either the most incompetent cheaters in the world, or the ban wave erroneously dinged multiple players.
The cheating subscription service used as a standard within Call of Duty: Warzone that has been caught multiple times (and resulted in some juicy Twitch drama) has stated that they’re working on further obfuscating the service so that it can’t be detected as readily.
At this point, it’s a frankly hollow statement to make as the ban waves for paying subscribers to the cheat service are consistently getting banned by Activision.
This all boils down to something relatively simple: if you’re ever been curious as to what Call of Duty: Warzone is all about, and where the hype stems from, now is the time to dive in. Before the cheaters get back into it.