Treyarch put measures in place to prevent cheating in Black Ops 6 Ranked Play, but they weren’t enough to hold the floodgates.
To access BO6 Ranked Play, you must first win 50 multiplayer matches so the RICOCHET anti-cheat system can build a match history that can be used to weed out any discrepancies in Ranked Play.
In addition, RICOCHET uses a replay investigation tool to watch back completed matches as part of the investigation process. But these preventative measures weren’t enough.
Just hours after the game mode launched, clips circulated, exposing cheaters for using aim bot and other external services to take over high-rank lobbies.
The 100 Thieves founder took to social media and said, “The cheating in Ranked Play on Black Ops 6 is the worst it’s been. I’m actually disgusted. Don’t know how it’s gotten to this point, but the game is completely chalked.”
Call of Duty League pros also spoke out about the game mode not doing a good enough job of banning cheaters.
“Ranked play turned my brain to mush tonight. The hackers are winning,” Atlanta FaZe star Simp said.
In response to the issue, LA Thieves’s Ghosty suggested, “Kernel-level anti-cheat is the only effective method I know that’s worked, but I’m not versed enough about how hard it is to implement.”
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Why isn’t RICOCHET anti-cheat working?
As Ghosty suggested, Kernel-level anti-cheat is a technology that detects cheating by identifying malware and hacks on the user’s computer.
Ironically, RIOCHET already uses anti-cheat uses Kernel technology, but that still hasn’t been enough to properly stop cheating in high-rank lobbies.
And, without kill cams, it’s challenging to gather evidence to report cheaters. Players on PlayStation and Xbox also can’t avoid cheaters on PC because turning off cross-play is not an option.
This isn’t the first year cheating has been a problem for Ranked Play. CDL pros slammed Ranked Play hackers in MW2, and players also reported an uptick of cheating in MW3.
So, although we have seen similar complaints before, frustration continues to mount amongst pro players and creators who rely on Call of Duty to make a living.
In the November 21 update, Treyarch addressed a few glitches in Ranked Play, but the development team has yet to an issue a statement on the overflow of cheating reports.