The anti-cheat system of Call of Duty: Warzone 2 analyzes statistics and checks the hardware and software of its players. However, the report system contributes to the evaluation of who is supposed to be a cheater in CoD Warzone 2, which could become a problem for some really good players.
The story of Call of Duty: Warzone is also a story about cheaters. Especially in the first two years, the free battle royale suffered from a cheating plague that only began to diminish with the introduction of the specially developed anti-cheat system RICOCHET.
However, even a good anti-cheat system is not a perfect solution these days: cheat developers find new methods to bypass the technology, and anti-cheat solutions must evolve every single day to avoid losing control.
That’s why RICOCHET can be supported by you. Through the report system, you can report suspicious players. While the reported players are not permanently banned, they may receive a “shadow ban.” For really good players, this can sometimes be a problem.
CoD Warzone 2: Reports can ruin gaming enjoyment
What is a shadow ban? Since permanent bans in Call of Duty are only lifted in major exceptional cases, suspicious accounts initially receive a shadow ban.
Imagine 2 football fields:
- On one field, all normal players are playing, passing the balls to each other, having a great day.
- On the second field, players with a shadow ban are playing. Here, half of the players are using cheats, while others are using forbidden studded shoes or are firing super shots on goal like in Captain Tsubasa.
Players with a shadow ban enter their own matchmaking and play only with and against each other. This is how Activision Blizzard wants to separate the suspicious players from the non-suspicious ones.
You can even check at any time if you have received a shadow ban. Typical signs are:
- Long matchmaking
- High ping
- No chance in the match
For more information, you can find it here:
Good players say: Losers report them as cheaters, ruining their CoD Warzone
What is the problem here? There are constantly reports of false bans in CoD Warzone. After the release of Warzone 2, there was even a small “unbanning wave” because false accounts were affected by a perma-ban.
Reports of false bans in Call of Duty are always a double-edged sword. If cheaters hide their cheats or only use weak aids, it is rarely possible to say for certain if cheating is taking place.
Permanently banned accounts are only manually handled by the security team at Call of Duty. While errors can occur here as well, this aims to reduce the risk of permanently banning the wrong accounts.
Shadow bans work differently. Theoretically, any one of us can trigger such a ban and this is exactly where the problem lies.
If a player is reported too often via the report function in the game, it can lead to an automated shadow ban. For really good players, this can cost them their entire gaming enjoyment. Because good gameplay is sometimes hard to distinguish from cheating.
There are also two additional disturbing factors:
- Rage
- Killcam
Sometimes players are reported because one is upset about their own performance in that moment. The report button gets pressed quickly when something seems off in the killcam.
The killcam itself also leads to problems, as it is inaccurate. What may look like cheating in the brief replay can arise from small inaccuracies in the creation of the killcams. In reality, it is clean gameplay.
Currently, the shadow ban issue is heating up again. A Warzone streamer has been stuck in a shadow ban since Christmas, was unbanned, and immediately received another shadow ban.
His tweet on the subject went through the roof and was seen and commented on by significantly more users than his usual tweets:
The streamer writes: “Letting the public decide who a cheater is through a simple reporting system, after they have taken hits [in the game], is the dumbest thing I have ever experienced.”
Some users ask if he has any evidence of his innocence? Others support the streamer and also find the reporting system problematic. Some even say the shadow ban system is currently broken and not functioning correctly.
What do you think about this topic? Which anti-cheat measures do you consider sensible, which perhaps over the top? Leave a comment on the topic.
If you would rather read more about Call of Duty, check this out: CoD MW2: Players discover the worst sight in the history of CoD – “Thermal sights are noob traps”
