On January 21, the final round of a large “Twitch Rivals” tournament took place for Call of Duty: Warzone. However, one participating team was kicked from the competition – one of them was allegedly a cheater.
What is Twitch Rivals? The format of the streaming platform Twitch brings together well-known streamers to compete against each other in often highly rewarded tournaments. Currently, Twitch is hosting larger tournaments for the games:
- Fortnite
- League of Legends
- and Call of Duty: Warzone
On the night of January 21 to 22, the final round of a major Warzone tournament – the “Twitch Rivals: Doritos Bowl ft. CoD Warzone” – took place. In total, there was a prize pool of $250,000 (approximately €205,000). Popular Warzone streamers like “Tfue”, “Swagg”, and “Aydan” were involved. But also Warzone players known for their outstanding performances, like “its_iron”, “JoeWo”, or “SuperEvan”, competed for the victory.
However, the event was overshadowed by a cheating incident. Shortly before the end of the final round, the organizers decided to kick a team from the tournament.
Twitch Rivals takes suspicion seriously and kicks team out
What was happening? Over two game days, a large Warzone tournament took place as part of “Twitch Rivals” with thousands of dollars in prize money. 24 teams were able to secure one of the coveted spots in a qualifying round on Day 1. In addition, 25 teams with well-known streamers were added, who only participated in the final round on the second day.
For the competition, 49 teams each with 3 players faced off in private Warzone lobbies. In total, 5 Battle Royales were played, and points were awarded based on placement.
During the competition, suspicions began to rise against the streamer “METZY_B”. Viewers and streamers sent the organizers videos & clips with suspicious gameplay from the player. One of these clips from the tournament, which is particularly striking, is embedded here:
“METZY_B” is only seen in the killcam here. However, even before the cam, the victim “Liteshott” suspects that a hacker is at work. The killcam can sometimes be quite inaccurate, but his previous suspicion is further strengthened by the kill replay. Because the attacker’s crosshair moves in an abnormal manner towards the eliminated “Liteshott”. Such movements, which almost directly align the crosshair on the opponent, are typical for cheat programs that interfere with the control of cheaters.
A match before the end sees alleged cheater team kicked
What happened next? After 4 of the 5 final matches were played, the organizers took about half an hour to analyze the clips and suspicions regarding the alleged cheater “METZY_B”. In the end, they concluded that based on the data available to them, they removed the streamer and his team from the tournament:
Tweet Translation:
“During the final games of the “Twitch Rivals: Doritos Bowl ft. Call of Duty Warzone”, Metzy_B was classified as a cheater. Therefore, his team was removed from the event. We take the behavior of ‘Twitch Rivals’ players very seriously. We will continue to investigate all allegations of cheating.”
Thus, according to the tournament management of “Twitch Rivals”, cheaters have officially arrived in the big Esports tournaments of Warzone. The team was excluded from all prize money.
It is currently unclear whether the action will have further consequences for the alleged cheater. Twitch has previously banned the channels of proven cheaters, and if a player is kicked from a tournament under the banner of the video platform for cheating, it could also affect their channel. At the time of this article, however, his channel is still accessible.
Warzone esports loses fans’ trust
How is the Warzone esports scene doing? The trust of viewers and fans in the processes among the best players of the battle royale has significantly suffered in recent weeks. Before there were private lobbies in Warzone, tournaments were held in public lobbies.
Here, placements were counted, but the number of kills also factored into the evaluations. Through manipulations of matchmaking, players who delved deeper into the game could find easy lobbies and gain an advantage.
Even this has disturbed trust in the processes of Warzone esports. Now, it seems that engine-cheaters are also roaming in competitions, and the image of the competitive Warzone scene is likely to suffer further. One of the most well-known players of the battle royale, “Nickmercs”, is currently completely staying out of tournaments (via Dexerto – in English). He thinks that too many professional and semi-professional players are cheating in tournaments.
Criticism also continues regarding kill records. Just recently, a professional player accused a record holder of having cheated in a tournament. Due to such charges and the suspicious behavior of the accused, trust in Warzone esports is dwindling. For many players, there is only one solution: the introduction of a real anti-cheat system in Warzone.
