Team Ricochet has been fighting cheaters in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 using 'hourly sweeps and AI systems', but players aren't seeing results despite over 19,000 bans.

Giving up privacy and freedoms for a false promise of safety is very 1990s coded. With this in mind, I think it's a good time to discuss Ricochet and his ongoing struggles with the 1991 period drama Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Activision's anti-cheat software has a rocky relationship with players, mainly because of its kernel-mode drivers. This allows the publisher to access every bit of memory in your PC. Call of Duty players, however, were too tired of cheaters at the time of its release to protest.

Activision's expectations for Ricochet have been high ever since, but the game has never lived up to them. Activision promised that Ricochet could "catch and eliminate cheaters within an hour of their first match" in the first few weeks after Black Ops 6. Ricochet is still improving, although this goal has not been reached yet. Activision said it had "stood strongly against cheaters" with its behavioural mod categorising more than 4.4 million datapoints per hour during its peak, to then analyse anomalies and possible gaming cheating.

Team Ricochet has also given players an update on the ongoing work to combat cheating during ranked play. "AI systems are continuing to ramp up, with code optimizations to speed enforcement. Over 19,000 bans on ranked play since the mode was launched. Hourly sweeps are conducted to remove cheaters from ranked play mode. "Thanks for your patience while our team continues to fight cheaters."

It's better than nothing. But three years after Ricochet was born, some players want more. "But shadowbans are still in place," replies a player. "Only normal users are affected by this." Hackers create a new profile." Shadowbans may only be temporary, but they are still frustrating to people who are falsely accused of cheating. Usually by players who enjoy teasing others. They will either put them into a limited pool for matchmaking with other suspected cheaters, or simply bar them from all matches.

It's hard to keep up with Call of Duty cheaters. They are persistent, but Ricochet seems to be struggling. We hear about a new wave of bans and leaderboards being purged every few months. Despite this, I don't feel like the cheater population is on the decline.

Ricochet is still capable of some hilarious antics, despite all the problems. Ricochet used psychological warfare to afflict hackers with hallucinations as a punishment. These decoys could only be detected and used to "disorient cheaters" in various ways. If Ricochet continues to play these mind games, I could almost accept being jumped by hackers almost every time. It seems like an even and humorous trade-off.