– NetEase bans about 500 unscuurpulous Marvel Rivals players for using unauthorized third-party enhancements, with most accounts permanently banned and some being device-banned for more severe infractions.
– Many cheaters were in the Bronze tier; a few egregious cases faced harsher device bans that are not easily bypassed.
– Anti-cheat bypass rumors were confirmed false: launching parameters don’t disable anti-cheat, only bypass a notification screen.
– The crackdown is praised by players as a effective action, contrasting with Riot’s approach to hardware-based cheating.
NetEase Games crushes cheaters in Marvel Rivals with a massive ban wave
NetEase Games has announced a massive ban wave for unscurpulous Marvel Rivals players who were caught “deploying unauthorised third-party enhancements”. About 500 players have been permanently banned. To add insult to injury, portions of their names and account IDs have been revealed, so there’s a non-zero chance of at least one person finding out they got banned via a blog post. So, if you happened to stumble upon a cheater and reported them, now would be a good time to confirm if your actions resulted in consequences.
Account bans and the path forward
Most of the players only have their accounts banned, meaning there’s nothing stopping them from creating a new account and starting over again. Most of them were in Bronze, the lowest bracket possible (surprise surprise). Four particularly egregious cheaters, on the other hand, have received a much harsher device ban. While not impossible to bypass, spoofing the serial number of components is not for everyone and can result in unforeseen consequences.
Anti-cheat clarification and user experience
The developers have also dispelled rumours that Marvel Rivals’ anti-cheat system can be bypassed by manipulating launch parameters, calling them completely false. It merely bypassed a screen that notified users that anti-cheat was running, without disabling the anti-cheat itself. This may have inadvertently led players to falsely believe they could go ham without consequence.
Comparisons with other publishers
NetEase’s approach to tackling cheaters is the diametric opposite of Riot, which boasted of reducing third-party DMA cards to paperweights. Unsurprisingly, it has resulted in virtually no backlash, with most players applauding NetEase for taking the trash out.