The Call of Duty community is reeling after a three-year undercover investigation seemingly uncovered rampant cheating among the game’s elite.
Call of Duty, a staple in the competitive gaming community, boasts a player base dedicated to climbing the ranks in the franchise’s latest titles, such as Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. However, a dark shadow has been cast over its Ranked mode, in particular.
A three-year-long undercover operation carried out by a user known as “NukeJesus” has exposed a staggering level of cheating among top-ranked players.
Navigating through the murky waters of secretive Discord servers, NukeJesus revealed that about 60% of the top players could be using cheats to maintain their positions.
The revelation comes from a detailed 30-minute video uploaded to YouTube, where NukeJesus shares evidence of top players participating in cheat-related activities.
This includes discussions on bypassing Activision’s anti-cheat systems, selling hacked accounts, and distributing cheating tools.
“Out of the top 10 players in the world for ranked multiplayer for Call of Duty, five out of those 10 names are confirmed cheaters,” NukeJesus disclosed in the video, highlighting the gravity of the situation.
NukeJesus also highlighted another name they could confirm as a cheater, meaning that six out of the ten players in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s rankings were “not legit players.”
“That leaves us at a 60% hacker rate,” NukeJesus concluded. “What does that tell us about the other 240 players? Is there also a 60% hack rate throughout the rest of the top 250 players? Possibly. There’s a very good chance there is.”
“It could even be worse than that. That means there are potentially 150 players in the top 250 that are hacking, stealing spots from legitimate players that are working hard to try to secure a top 250 spot.”
Despite the introduction of anti-cheat measures like RICOCHET, cheaters have found ways to circumvent these protections. One method involves cheat tools that can temporarily disable during automatic screenshot checks, a technique known as “screenshot cleared.”
“Screenshot cleared is basically when you get a bunch of reports on your account, the anti-cheat is taking pictures of you constantly, screenshots of your game,” NukeJesus explained.
“And what some of these tools do, that these cheat providers have, is that it can detect when you’re about to get a screenshot taken and it will literally turn off your cheats mid-game for a millisecond, take the screenshot, and then your cheats will turn back on.”
The community response has been one of shock, anger, and calls for action.
One player suggested, “They should require a form of verification on each account that engages in ranked playlist that is unique to each account and person on it. IMO.”
Another voiced a more drastic measure: “I’ll say it till I’m blue in the face. make it a crime to cheat in video games. its time. we got people making thousands of dollars / taking money from people who deserve it.”
Meanwhile, some players are considering a return to simpler times: “Let’s all mobilize back to console, crossplay off. Back to 2009 we go.”
But at the end of it all, NukeJesus warned, “This isn’t the end-all-be-all for cheaters and hackers in Call of Duty. Once these players see this video, this Discord will most likely be deleted, and a new one will be made.”