Call of Duty Provides Anti-Cheat Update After Wrongfully Banning Streamer BobbyPoff
Call of Duty publisher Activision says it has made adjustments to the game's anti-cheat system after falsely banning legitimate players.
The franchise utilizes a system called RICOCHET to police its titles and detect players using in-game software to give themselves an unfair advantage. However, over the past two weeks, RICOCHET wrongfully banned Modern Warfare III and Warzone players due to a "workaround to a detection system,” Activision said from the CoD account on X. The franchise noted that the ban "impacted a small number of legitimate player accounts” and that all affected accounts have been restored.
Among those affected was Twitch streamer BobbyPoff, who had denied cheating accusations upon receiving the ban. The streamer reported earlier this month that his account was permanently banned.
“Perma banned on cod?! Never cheated for a single second in 90+ days played of Warzone,” Bobby wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the ban. “Won't tell me why either but we stay grinding!”
Perma banned on cod?! Never cheated for a single second in 90+ days played of Warzone. Won't tell me why either but we stay grinding! pic.twitter.com/Sb0UN1OMYQ
— BobbyPoff (@BobbyPoff) October 3, 2024
Bobby initially said the ban could have been because he let people use his account to level up weapons. As first reported by Dexerto, He later hired a third-party PC checker to comb through his computer. Bobby told his audience on a Twitch stream that the checker confirmed the device didn’t contain any nefarious software, shared in a video captured by HacksGrandpa and shared to X.
BobbyPoff shares the results from his PC Check he had done by a 3rd party person. pic.twitter.com/ckNF3zLf2A
— Grandpa Hacks (@HacksGrandpa) October 10, 2024
Although Bobby’s account has been reinstated, the streamer replied to Activision’s announcement on X to express his frustration over the lack of a public apology. “Imagine having your name drug through the mud for 2 weeks for something you never did and being offered 0 explanation,” Bobby wrote.
Public apology would go a long way. Imagine having your name drug through the mud for 2 weeks for something you never did and being offered 0 explanation. Oh wait that was ME the past 2 weeks!!!
— BobbyPoff (@BobbyPoff) October 17, 2024
On Friday, Activision shared a progress report on changes being made to RICOCHET, detailing its plans to revamp the system ahead of the launch of Black Ops 6 on October 25. The publisher said that it’s been working on decreasing the window between the time the cheating occurs and when the system responds. It also revealed some of the methods it uses to identify cheating, such as using machine learning to pick out abnormalities and employing third-party software detectors.
The main goal for RICOCHET in Black Ops 6 is to “remove cheaters within one hour of them being in their first match,” Activision said in the report. The publisher then explained that it was stress testing the new technology on PC players when the false bans occurred.
“Since we had to protect the game without those stress tests, our new technology was so eager to catch cheaters, that it came in a little hot,” Activision said.
Activision says it successfully caught over 12,000 confirmed cheating accounts before they even entered a match, though in the process, it seems streamers like Bobby were caught in the crossfire.
