One Black Ops 6 feature is forcing console players to face off against hackers in Ranked Play

Black Ops 6 developer Treyarch made many Call of Duty players happy with yesterday’s surprise announcement that Ranked Play was going live earlier than scheduled, but the joy was short-lived.

It didn’t take long for CoD players to begin posting clips of and complaining about players that they thought were cheating, a situation exacerbated by the fact that crossplay cannot be turned off in the competitive ladder mode. In the past, players on console have been able to largely avoid cheaters by turning crossplay off, leaving PC players to fend for themselves against those who install cheats like aimbots or wallhacks on their computers. But now, there’s nothing to prevent all players from being grouped together, regardless of platform.

Last night, a clip of OpTic Texas player Dashy popping off on three hackers he ended up beating in a Hardpoint match was posted by the official OpTic account, drawing attention to the issue. But that was just one of many that have appeared on social media in the time since Ranked Play went live around 3pm CT yesterday.

What worsens the situation is that killcams are currently disabled in Ranked Play, so if players feel as though they are being cheated against, they aren’t able to see what the other player’s perspective looked like unless it’s shown in the postgame Best Play, like in the additional clip below. Killcams include the ability to report players directly, so it’s sorely missing thus far.

In BO6’s Ranked Play mode, players can group up to climb through several Skill Divisions to earn exclusive rewards, higher ranks, and bragging rights. But if the hacking issue continues to persist despite RICOCHET Anti-Cheat’s best efforts, the leaderboards may be compromised.

Before you decide to head into Ranked Play, make sure to equip one of our best loadout weapons to give yourself a fighting chance in case you run into some hackers.