Highlights
- Cheating in online games like Overwatch 2 ruins the competitive spirit and puts honest players at a disadvantage.
- Game developers are implementing strong anti-cheat measures like hardware ID bans to combat cheaters.
- Blizzard swiftly banned a top-ranked cheater in Overwatch 2 using lag switching during a match, showing zero tolerance for cheating. A player in the match shared a recording of the cheater in action, and watching them be removed is satisfying for anyone who has had to deal with cheaters.
While cheating remains a consistent problem in video games, an Overwatch 2 player caught some footage of a cheater who was banned for "lag switching" during the middle of an ongoing match. The Overwatch 2 player who filmed the ban shared their condensed clip on social media, and other players ridiculed the cheater for resorting to lag switching to gain an unfair advantage.
Cheating is detrimental to the spirit of competition and puts normal players at a disadvantage against players who use exploits for their gain. In many online games, such as Overwatch 2, cheating is a serious offense with punishments ranging from temporary suspensions to permanent account bans. Despite the bans, some cheaters circumvent their punishments by making new accounts or using different methods to continue playing and cheating. However, game developers such as Riot Games have taken stances against cheating by implementing hardware ID bans into their controversial Vanguard anti-cheat software.
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Although cheating is still an issue in Overwatch 2, one player caught a video of Blizzard taking immediate action against a top-ranked cheater. On Reddit, an Overwatch 2 player named Maximus captured video of a cheater getting banned during the middle of a match and shared their footage on the r/Overwatch subreddit. In their video, Maximus played as the healer Kiriko during a Top 500 competitive ranked match on the Busan map. During the first part of the match, which was won by the opposing team, Maximus sped up the footage and chatted with other players who reported a suspected lag switcher. In short, lag switching is done either by a physical device or a piece of software to increase the latency of a lobby server. This cheat can make other players lag out with degraded gameplay while the cheater moves about undeterred.
Overwatch 2 Top 500 Player Banned for Lag Switching During Match
While some games are hosted by player-run servers or use a peer-to-peer connection, Overwatch 2 uses dedicated game servers, which makes cheating detectable on their side. At the end of the Busan match, a message popped up that Blizzard abruptly ended the fight due to cheating. Since the cheater was removed, all other players did not receive a win or a loss on their records. In response to Maximus' video, other Overwatch players made fun of the cheater and compared their experiences to titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
While Overwatch 2 continues to make updates to its heroes, the fight against cheaters continues alongside it. Only time will tell how Blizzard will keep improving the game for all players.
Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 is Blizzard's free-to-play team-based first-person shooter. The title features some new heroes like Junker Queen and Sojourn, as well as returning favorites.
