Cheating complaints are piling up in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 just days after the launch of its ranked multiplayer mode on Nov. 21.

Activision responded with details about its anti-cheat efforts, but players are voicing frustration over what they see as persistent issues undermining the game's competitive integrity.

Activision Responds To Cheating Concerns

In a recent tweet, Microsoft Corp.‘s MSFT Activision said its anti-cheat team, Team Ricochet, is conducting "hourly sweeps" to remove cheaters from ranked play and leaderboards. The company reported over 19,000 account bans since the mode went live and announced improvements to its AI systems to speed up enforcement.

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"Thanks for your patience as our team continues to fight against cheaters," the tweet stated.

📢 #BlackOps6 #RankedPlay #TeamRICOCHET with an update on the ongoing work to combat cheating in Ranked Play:

• AI systems continue to ramp up with code optimizations to accelerate enforcements
• Over 19,000 Ranked Play bans since the mode launched
• Hourly sweeps to remove…

— Call of Duty Updates (@CODUpdates) November 26, 2024

Despite these claims, skepticism has been widespread among the community. Nadeshot, founder of 100 Thieves, took to social media to criticize the company, calling the statement "complete propaganda."

"I have played the same cheaters since day one and not a single one has even a scratch on ‘em," he tweeted. "How could there possibly be 19K accounts banned when the most egregious abusers are giving us the middle finger on the leaderboard? Are we crazy? What is going on?"

A Longstanding Problem For Activision

Cheating has been a thorn in the side of the Call of Duty franchise for years, especially since the explosive popularity of Warzone in 2020. Activision has poured resources into combating the issue, from introducing the Ricochet anti-cheat system to taking legal action against cheat developers.

Before Black Ops 6 launched, Activision promised faster detection and removal of cheaters, aiming to remove offenders within an hour of their first match. Ricochet's kernel-level driver, paired with machine-learning systems, was designed to detect and neutralize cheats such as aim bots more effectively.

"The people behind cheats are organized, illegal groups that pick apart every piece of data within our games to look for some way to make cheating possible," Activision said in a statement last month. "These bad guys are not just some script kiddies poking around with code they found online. They are a collective who profit from exploiting the hard work of game developers across the industry."

Despite these measures, ranked play has already become another battleground for cheaters, prompting many console players to disable crossplay to avoid PC opponents.

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