Activision, the multi-billion dollar company behind IPs such as Call of Duty, struggles valiantly with understanding PCs and basic security protocol.
As seen today in the match between OpTic Gaming LA and Los Angeles Guerrillas, as both teams vie for the finals in the first day of playoffs for the season, Kenny ‘Kuavo’ Williams (of OpTic Gaming) was allegedly targeted by malicious actors looking to skew the results of the playoff title. Twice he was disconnected by what early reports are naming as an external malicious actor.
It was decidedly a poor look for the league and esport of Call of Duty as a whole, and has been a thorn in the community for quite some time; IP attacks to kick players out of matches. It was reported in For Honor where malicious actors would cheat in this manner, causing opponents to disconnect, and the idea that it’s happening on a world stage for the playoffs of Call of Duty offers a bit more of a facepalm for the fans and players.
some random kids online are making a mockery of the Call of Duty League right now, pretty sad
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 19, 2020
Due to Activision, and Infinity Ward, not having more protections with masking IPs when they connect for a bout, it’s an admittedly trivial matter to target a player and remove them from a match.
@ all pro players . How much cheating booting people offline game bs needs to happen before we just take a stand and dont play until better conditions are met? How much needs to happen??? This is ridiculous
— SlasheR (@SlasheR_AL) August 19, 2020
Considering that the current payout is somewhere in the tune of a cool $4.6 million, players are begging to be targeted by attacks as Infinity Ward and Activision does the bare minimum to keep the players safe while they’re competing with a frankly life-changing sum of money.
Egged on by the YouTube Gaming Live chat, the casters again showed the rules concerning a restart in Hardpoint, which was bafflingly ill-prepared for malicious actors intervening in the matches.
Effectively, malicious individuals simply need to wait for an opportune time to disconnect primary players from the server, and the other team will win; there isn’t any form of retribution or recompense for the unfair actions.
Granted, these hard-etched rulings would bode well for adherence within professional Counter-Strike, but at this moment (and due to the alleged incompetence of PC development by the responsible studios) this skews the entire purpose of the League, and it an embarrassing look for everyone involved.
The 2020 Season culmination for Call of Duty is currently not based on which team is the best at the title, but which team could have bad actors (acting in bad faith) on behalf of their favorite team.
As this is only day one of the playoffs, it’s nearly guaranteed that this show is about to become even worse to sit through as teams continue to match up against each other in high-stake competitions. Could be an interesting statistic to figure which team results in the most ‘mysterious’ disconnects when they’re faced against.
