Activision Cracking Down on Call of Duty VPN Users

Activision’s Team RICOCHET has published changes on Black Ops 6 and Warzone to combat account boosting and VPN users. For the longest time, gamers worldwide have accused streamers of abusing ‘VPN lobbies’ to get better clips while playing in regions with a less talented pool of players.

In the latest round of changes, RICOCHET has confirmed how it’s tackling that practice, and while it’s not eradicating the use of VPNs, it’s ‘cutting down’ VPN abuse.

Wherever You Will Go

Using a VPN in Call of Duty has been a thing for several years. Typically, players will use a VPN to get away from highly competitive regions like the United Kingdom, North America, and some European countries. It reached a point where some VPN providers were marketing their products directly at Call of Duty players trying to circumvent ‘tougher lobbies’.

In a recent update, it was confirmed that Team RICOCHET (and Treyarch) has deployed two new changes:

• Enhanced AFK detections to battle against account boosting
• Adjusting ping thresholds to require players to play matches in their region to cut down on VPN abuse

If you’ve got awful internet, then the latter change might impact you regardless of whether you have a VPN active or not. One thing that users insist Activision needs to address is the number of players taking part in the practice of ‘2 boxing’.

Black Ops 6 is yet to have a serious issue with cheaters, so something is being done right at Team RICOCHET. In the latter months of its lifecycle, Modern Warfare III was plagued by cheaters, particularly the Ranked Play platform. In the coming days, Ranked Play will hit Black Ops 6, so it could just be a matter of time before this game also suffers.

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