Complaints about cheaters feel like they’ve been rising in Black Ops 6 in recent weeks, especially in Ranked Play, and now that feeling has been validated. In a new post, Call of Duty promises that “major updates” for its Ricochet anti-cheat will be arriving in the future and admits that its effectiveness at removing cheaters “did not hit the mark” during Black Ops 6 Season 1.
Call of Duty has been constantly working on improving its in-house anti-cheat suite, Ricochet, for a few years now. Spanning each new multiplayer release and the free-to-play Warzone, it uses a mixture of kernel-level software, human reviews, and AI tools to try and detect and ban cheaters as swiftly as possible. Whereas Call of Duty games were once completely plagued by cheaters, things have improved in recent times. However, there’s no denying that despite Ricochet’s full integration into Black Ops 6 at the start of Season 1, it hasn’t been as effective as the FPS game‘s players expected it to be.
“After a series of updates our systems are in a better place today across all modes; however, we did not hit the mark for the integration of Ricochet Anti-Cheat at the launch of Season 01 – particularly for Ranked Play,” Activision says in a new blog post. It also says that it is “focused on turning the tide” in Black Ops 6’s competitive mode, and highlights some of the upgrades it’s made, faster leaderboard “cleanups,” and how it’s “ramped up” the group dedicated to manually reviewing gameplay clips. It also says its Replay Investigation tool, which automatically spots and takes clips of suspicious gameplay, has become “highly effective at validating detections and reports” and is also helping train Ricochet’s AI systems.
Despite all those improvements, Activision recognizes more needs to be done and tees up more anti-cheat upgrades.
“Looking forward, the team is developing major updates for Ricochet Anti-Cheat systems, including our kernel-level driver and brand-new server-side protections, launching during Season 02 and Season 03. More on those updates as we get closer to those season launches.”
It’s a sad reality that no online multiplayer game will ever be able to prevent cheaters from ruining experiences 100% of the time. And given the huge volume of players that Call of Duty has to deal with across both Black Ops 6 and Warzone, players should expect to eventually run into someone who’s up to no good. However, there’s no denying that the Ranked Play experience has been seriously battered by cheaters since it dropped a few weeks ago. Not only is that disheartening to see as someone who enjoys proper competitive play, but it’s in Activision and Treyarch’s best interest to make Ranked squeaky clean, as it’s often where the most dedicated players (and often the most vocal and influential community members) will spend their time.
To make sure you get the edge in your next multiplayer match, check out our Black Ops 6 meta guide. Alternatively, if the thought of cheaters really puts you off, take refuge in the Zombies map and use our Citadelle des Morts main quest guide to help you along the way.
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