Ranked Play is officially live in Black Ops 6, but it hasn’t taken long for the mode to become overrun with cheaters — and even console players aren’t safe.
On November 20, Treyarch surprised the community by releasing Black Ops 6 Ranked Play a day early. This competitive playlist brings the same modes and maps that professional CDL players will have to contend with, as well as many of the strict rules and regulations.
In many ways, Ranked should be Black Ops 6 in its purest form, with nothing to carry you other than your own skill and teamwork. However, it didn’t take long for fans to realize that this isn’t exactly the case.
Just hours after it went live, reports came flooding in that cheaters were already ruining the experience in high-rank lobbies.
A clip from streamer ‘LunchTime’ began doing the rounds on social media, showing how severe the issues were. Hackers on the opposing team appeared to be using an aimbot, as they were able to snap onto him from seemingly impossible positions.
He went on to test this further by hiding in unusual corners to see if the enemies would find him. Right on cue, each time the hackers knew exactly where he was camping and swooped in to take him out easily.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Hit Diamond and immediately ran into a 4 stack of hackers…Crossplay remains forced on for console players… pic.twitter.com/BL4niWSkWL
— LunchTime (@LunchTime_YT) November 21, 2024
He definitely wasn’t alone either, as OpTic star Dashy also ran into hackers on day one. Although, unlike many players, he was still able to secure the win.
Dashy CRASHES OUT after Beating HACKERS in Ranked Play and Decides to INVESTIGATE in Theatre Mode 😭"3 F****ING HACKERS AND YOU GUYS BROKE DOWN? YOU GUYS ARE DOGSH**" pic.twitter.com/ElmOgXjggJ
— Breakdown Clips (@BreakdownClips) November 21, 2024
While hacking is a common issue on PC, Black Ops 6 Ranked Play also exposes console players to cheaters. As announced before launch, competitive doesn’t allow you to turn off crossplay, so even those on PlayStation and Xbox aren’t safe from players using cheats.
Treyarch announced that they had put measures in place to try to make the Ranked rollout as smooth as possible. This included “enhanced AFK detections to battle against account boosting,” and “adjusting ping thresholds” to stop players from abusing VPNs.
However, it appears that RICOCHET is still letting plenty of cheaters slip through the net, as social media is abuzz with complaints.
With Warzone Ranked Play due to return in the Season 1 Reloaded update too, fans will be hoping that the devs can address the problem sooner rather than later.