Videos have surfaced showing amateur CoD players potentially cheating during the CDL’s first Challengers Cup tournament of the season, and now several Call of Duty League pros have expressed worry about the state of the competitive scene.
When the Call of Duty League first announced that PC would be used for competitive play in the upcoming season, many immediately showed concern about the potential emergence of hacking issues – maybe not at the pro level but certainly in the Challengers amateur circuit.
Now, they might actually have something to worry about, as several clips from the season’s first Challengers Cup have popped up on social media showing some players performing very suspiciously.
Of course, while no one’s technically been proven to be cheating, the community isn’t waiting for the court to be adjourned; Call of Duty has always been played a certain way, and when some previously-unknown players begin to distinguish themselves as outliers suddenly after using a PC is an option, everyone takes notice.
https://twitter.com/Serveris__/status/1335308872639135744
“LMAO Online PC s**t is a joke with no anti-cheat,” New York Subliners star, Clayster, said in response to the clips above. “Apparently this dude dropped 71 kills in control too, ahahahaha.”
“Boy dropped 71, 19 kills from winning three rounds by HIMSELF,” said former Seattle Surge starter, Pandur. “Y’all thought last year was bad, we in the PC realm now boys. Can’t trust nobody.”
Surge head coach JoeyNubzy also chipped in with a similar sentiment: “Useless admins and blatant cheating – we have to do better to help the Challengers scene thrive and keep players around.”
Here are some more reactions to potential hackers in the Challengers Cup, as clips are spreading around social media like wildfire after many top-name players started sharing them for awareness.
Please watch this please https://t.co/ph2RvIOorB
— Chris (@Parasite) December 5, 2020
No Anti cheat pc competition what could go wrong
— Chris (@Parasite) December 5, 2020
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Guy playing HP Checkmate, comes off spawn, this dude tries to shoot him thru the wall then preaims top tower? I've never predicted someone like this and I'm a 3 time world champion.. https://t.co/N5jv6MgQZK
— Clayster (@Clayster) December 5, 2020
If you hack you’re wack
— FaZe ZooMaa (@ZooMaa) December 5, 2020
you gotta be a special kind of herb to cheat in these Challenger tournaments
your mom would be disappointed smh
— 100T Enable (@Enable) December 5, 2020
Already seeing clips of cheaters in the early rounds of the AM Challengers Cup, we desperately need some sort of anti-cheat or this is could scale and take a very bad turn for the scene.
— JP (@JPKrez) December 5, 2020
What can be done about this?
Challengers is meant to be a pipeline for future pro-level players while also giving everyone else an official platform to compete for prize money and recognition. Needless to say, something definitely has to be done about this before the competitive integrity of the amateur division is compromised beyond repair.
While it’s unlikely for the league to revert its decision allowing Challengers players to use either PC or console, they could require all those playing on PC to stream their POV, which is currently not the case.
Hackers are laughing rn https://t.co/2V3fXcvZXt
— Chris (@Parasite) December 5, 2020
Not counting the first Challengers Cup, which is still currently ongoing, there are three more such tournaments scheduled up to mid-January, all of which could definitely lose their validity if hacking & cheating continue to be a major issue.
As always, we will continue to bring you the latest on this topic as things develop, so make sure to follow us on Twitter, @Dexertointel, for all the latest news, updates, and more.