Valorant anti-cheat dev explains how CoD can fix hacking problem
ActivisionAn analyst from Riot Games that focuses on its anti-cheat software, Vanguard, has spoken out on what Activision can do to finally get a hold of the Call of Duty hacking problem that their Ricochet software has failed to address.
Since the launch of Black Ops 6 and, in particular, Ranked Play, the hacking problem in Call of Duty has once again become out of control. Players in the upper ranks simply can not find a match that doesn’t include someone cheating, and that has leaked into Warzone once again like it always has.
The situation is so bad that some have simply given up attempting to play, and despite Activision confirming they had banned 19,000 accounts in a ban wave, the issue has not subsided at all.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Riot’s anti-cheat Vanguard is used in their hit games like League of Legends and Valorant and, while never perfect, has a far superior success rate. Now, one of those Vanguard analysts has shared their thoughts on Ricochet and how it could be fixed.
They said: “If it were up to me, I’d shift focus away from over-reliance on AI systems for solving these issues. While AI has its place, it’s clear that it’s not fully addressing the core problem. A more effective approach might be targeting the cheats directly rather than relying solely on data heuristics or aim models to identify suspicious behavior.
“With a kernel-level driver in place, it should be feasible to detect cheats running locally on the machine without needing a boot/start driver. The tools are there, and it’s a matter of deploying them effectively.”
They went on to speak about something many players have taken issue with, in that console players can not disable crossplay in Ranked, meaning everybody has to deal with the same problem.
“I find it concerning that console players are forced into an unsafe competitive environment,” they explained. “If crossplay is going to be required, perhaps enforcing certain Windows security features at a level comparable to Xbox or PlayStation would help create a more fair and balanced playing field for those who care about competitive integrity.”
They concluded that “when cheating heavily impacts top players and the competitive ecosystem… a new approach may need to be considered.”
While there were concerns at Vanguard’s launch over the privacy aspects of a kernel-level anti-cheat, it is impossible to deny that it has been far more effective that Ricochet in weeding out hackers.
Whether Activision do decide to change tact and introduce something that high level remains to be seen, but at this point players are desperate for something to give them some rest from cheaters.