Leveling the playing field is an expression used in sports to describe a situation that ensures equal opportunities for players. It’s a concept that can extend to other situations, like online gaming, where cheaters run rampant.
As Warzone 2 gears up for its ranked mode, it’s clear that the game will be taking steps to address cheaters. One such measure includes a minimum level requirement that’s designed to keep out low-level hackers.
Anti-Cheat System
After years of fans pleading for Call of Duty to add a ranked mode to its battle royale game, the developer has finally added the feature. As part of the Season 3 Reloaded update, the new Warzone 2 ranked mode will finally let players show off their skills against other similarly skilled opponents in a competitive manner.
However, this ranked mode is also going to be harder for cheaters to manipulate. That’s because the new update includes a number of improvements for the anti-cheat software, Ricochet. This system is designed to detect any attempts to manipulate the in-game environment or the gameplay, and it will punish those caught.
One way that Ricochet is improving the anti-cheat system is by ensuring that it’s more accurate when it comes to detecting players who are trying to hack the game. To that end, it’s now using the latest version of its anti-cheat engine and has updated the engine’s machine-learning capabilities. The result is that it’s able to detect cheating at an even higher level than ever before and will penalize repeat offenders and players that aren’t taking the necessary precautions.
Additionally, the new update has improved its detection of spoofed weapons. Ricochet is now able to detect if players are using fake weapons in matches, and it will ban them if it determines that they’re doing so. This is a welcome improvement since it will stop cheaters from using their spoofed weapons to get an advantage in a ranked match.
Players that are attempting to Warzone Cheats will be banned for the duration of the ranked match. This will prevent them from getting into future matches, and it will also keep the player from being able to cheat in any other games that may use the same engine.
Despite these efforts, Warzone Cheats are still going to be difficult to prevent. Those that want to cheat are likely going to continue finding ways around the system, and it’s not uncommon for cheaters to go on for a long time before they’re eventually detected. Nonetheless, the improved anti-cheat system should be able to catch more cheaters and help make Warzone’s ranked mode a fairer experience for all players.
Skill Rating
Call of Duty’s anti-cheat system, Ricochet, has been working hard to keep cheaters from ruining other players’ gaming experience in ranked matches since its launch. It’s a complex system that involves new server-side technology to monitor continual data to spot suspicious behavior, improved investigation processes for rooting out cheaters, and enhanced account security. It’s a multifaceted approach to prevent hackers from using third-party tools like aimbots, wallhacks, radar hacks, and ESP in ranked Warzone matches.
Regardless of how well you perform in a match, your Skill Rating (SR) will be affected based on how many wins you earn and how much you lose. Your SR will be increased by one step with every win and reduced by a single step with each loss, and your total SR will determine what rank you achieve at the end of a season.
This year, however, players will see a major change in how their SR is calculated. Instead of comparing your performance to other players on the same team, the new SR calculation will consider your overall average performance across all teams you’ve played on in any given season. It’s a more objective and more accurate way to determine your rank.
In addition to the SR changes, a minimum level requirement will be introduced for new players who want to join Ranked Play in Warzone. The change will make it impossible for players below a certain level to access the competitive mode, and it’s designed to reduce the number of newly ranked Warzone matches that get bogged down by unbalanced team compositions or the presence of cheaters.
The requirement to be at least level 45 is an effort to stop cheaters who try to game the SR system by using tools like ESP and radar hacks, which aren’t detectable by the current anti-cheat measures in Warzone. But it also gives the savvy hackers enough time to level up before the new system kicks in. That’s probably good news for the majority of legitimate players, who’ve already struggled to get into a ranked Warzone match. The current matchmaking system for the new multiplayer mode isn’t fun for above-average players, who often find themselves thrown into lobbies with highly skilled opponents.
Ranks
A big part of today’s Season 3 Reloaded update for Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is the launch of a ranked mode for the competitive battle royale. While regular Call of Duty multiplayer has had ranked play for some time now, this is the first time that the free-to-play battle royale will offer its own version of the feature.
While the inclusion of a ranked mode for Warzone 2.0 may sound intimidating to new players, Activision’s anti cheat team is prepared to make sure this mode has all of the villainy-deterring bells and whistles that you’d expect from any Call of Duty game. This includes server-side cheat detection gadgets, a toughened password reset policy, and a minimum level requirement for playing in ranked mode.
As the game is currently available in free-to-play mode, this minimum level restriction will also apply to Ranked Play when it launches. This is to ensure that the game’s built-in anti cheat Ricochet has plenty of time to analyze players’ behavior and identify cheaters before they can be put in a competitive match.
Cheaters are already rampant in MW2’s ranked mode and have been for quite some time now, which is why the developers took the extra step of introducing Ricochet to combat the issue. The problem is that this kernel-level anti cheat needs to be given time to develop before it can have the necessary impact on the game’s ranked play.
This ranked mode for Warzone 2.0 is the first time that this type of system has been introduced to a free-to-play game from a major publisher. As such, some players are unsure how much this type of mode will benefit the overall popularity of the game. But, it will certainly provide a way for players to compete against other gamers who are also serious about their gaming. In this sense, the ranked mode will be a way to give the competition a more professional feel and increase the chances of winning valuable rewards. It’s not a perfect solution, but it could go a long way in improving the quality of the game for many players.
Matchmaking
Call of Duty developers has promised to address the issue of cheaters and make the game’s matchmaking more fair. The company’s anti-cheat team has made some villain-deterring bells and whistles available for Warzone 2’s ranked mode, including new server-side cheat detection gadgets and a toughened password reset policy.
Players have long complained that the current system allows cheaters to dominate lobbies and that the game lacks a true skill-based matchmaking system. The devs have denied using a skill-based algorithm, but numerous players have tested the matchmaking and found that better players consistently find themselves in higher-level lobbies.
IceManIsaac, a high-level player, says that the problem is especially bad for beginners, who feel they have no chance against much more experienced players. The player also believes that a free-to-play game like Warzone should offer a way to help lower-skilled players get easier lobbies.
In a May 9 tweet, the team behind Ricochet, the anti-cheat system for the Call of Duty franchise, announced some safety measures to combat this issue in Warzone and Modern Warfare 2. The new security features are aimed at preventing players from using hacking tools such as Cronus controllers and account boosters. They include a new server-side hack detection gadget, a toughened password reset policy, and more.
The developer has also implemented a level requirement that will prevent newer players from entering the ranked mode until they reach Level 45. This is similar to a Level 16 restriction in MW2’s ranked mode, but it’s significantly higher.
These changes are sure to make the ranked experience in Warzone 2 fairer, but the player community will have to work hard to rate cheaters in order to make the system effective. The more players rate a player as a cheater, the more likely they are to be flagged, and too many flags can lead to a ban. The community could use a more centralized rating system that would make it easy for players to filter out dirty players, so they only play with clean opponents. This system would probably require some extra computing power, but it’s one of the only ways to guarantee a truly fair and equitable gaming experience.
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
