FaZe Kalei threatens to quit public Warzone events as cheating crisis continues

FaZe Kalei has announced that she’ll no longer be competing in public Warzone events and has urged other popular streamers to follow suit amidst the ongoing cheating crisis.

Despite more than half a million Warzone accounts being banned to date, the presence of cheaters and hackers in Verdansk has only reached new heights.

We’ve already seen many of the biggest names like NICKMERCS and CouRage abandon the title— often to arch-rival Apex Legends, to boot — due to the recent cheating surge. With hackers appearing in almost every lobby, even xQc has bumped into a few during his rare Warzone streams. Despite warnings from popular figures, many of the latest Warzone events have still taken place in public lobbies, as the cheating crisis rages on.

Now, another huge name is “done” competing in these events altogether, with FaZe Kalei revealing she’s taking a step back.

In a public kill-race format, teams must drop into regular matchmaking. With the prominence of cheaters, this format leads to its fair share of issues. If teams encounter a suspicious player, they’re often allowed to restart and search for a new lobby to keep things fair.

Kalei and her team were interrupted by 11 cheaters during a July 29 event. This led to three full hours of constant resets.

Admins eventually stepped in and announced no further resets. However, they fell victim to yet “another cheater” in their final game, bringing their run to an unceremonious end.

“I’m so heartbroken with what this game has become,” Kalei shared in a since-deleted tweet after the unfortunate loss. “I’m done with public tourneys,” she added. Moreover, she “[hopes] other streamers follow.”

• Read More: CouRage: Apex Legends is “way better than Warzone”

The FaZe star continued: “I just want people to understand the current state of Warzone and what us competitors are dealing with.”

In order to run more appropriate events, Kalei demanded that private lobbies become the norm moving forward. Public events are “killing us,” she stressed: “I would’ve stopped a long time ago but my channel grew on Warzone. Warzone is going to get worse if nothing is done.”

• Read More: Viral Warzone TikTok reveals Ghost perk is broken

While Raven Software has been fairly quiet amidst the ongoing Activision lawsuit, it remains to be seen if a more effective anti-cheat is actually in the pipeline.