World Series of Warzone qualifiers derailed by cheating allegations
ActivisionThe $300k World Series of Warzone event hosted public qualifiers during the weekend of August 12 and a closer inspection of the early results has caused some players to throw around allegations of cheating at their competitors.
Activision’s decision to host open-to-the-public qualifying matches for the World Series of Warzone is coming under heavy scrutiny after watchful players started examining the results and believe they’ve caught more than one instance of blatant cheating.
From players supposedly having their friends join and feed them free kills to stream sniping other teams trying to qualify, there’s a whole host of problems that are breaking the system.
World Series of Warzone cheating allegations explained
Warzone pro Fifakill has one of the most detailed breakdowns on the situation, and as one of the best players to ever hit touch the battle royale, it also comes with a veteran perspective.
“Some of the stuff I’m seeing from this [World Series of Warzone] qualifying is so sad. We got people VPNing, people stream sniping other qualifier teams, and worst of all, people getting into their friend’s games and dying to their friend repeatedly,” he explained.
This is all a problem because kills are incredibly important when it comes to securing qualification. Per the official rules on the tournament’s Gamebattles page, each kill garners a team one point, and then those points multiply in value based on placement.
- 1st = 2x Points
- 2nd – 15th = 1.5x Points
- 16th – 40th = 1x Points
Each team will have its 10 best games aggregated by this system and the Top 40 performing squads will move on to the next round. So if a friend spots another player 10 kills, it could result in 20 total points for a first-place finish.
One group, including Jaavix of notable esports organization MAD Lions, has been at the center of the boosting portion of the drama. After being called out by another player, he didn’t deny the accusations, instead responding with, “Everyone wants a spot, [this] format is the worst.”
While the tournament’s rules aren’t super specific about what is considered cheating, the Conduct and Penalties section does mention “collusion” and “any other actions or conduct that threatens to undermine the integrity of WSOW and its Squads” will not be tolerated.
It will likely take some time for the officials to sort out the tangled web that has built up over the weekends, but if Fifakill and the other players are to be believed, this will be quite the ugly ending for some of the teams that are currently leading the pack.
