Call for Action Against Warzone Ranked Play Exploit
Prominent YouTuber IceManIsaac has called for game developers to act on an exploit that allows players to earn free Skill Rating (SR) without any punishment in Ranked Play for Warzone.
Warzone's Competitive Mode
After achieving considerable success with Modern Warfare 2 Ranked Play, Treyarch introduced the same model to Warzone. This model made a debut as a first-of-its-kind competitive mode for the battle royale sequel in Season 3.
Not unlike in any multiplayer games, Warzone players start in the Bronze Division and earn SR points to progress through seven different divisions, ending with a much-coveted Top 250 spot. SR points are awarded based on a wide range of performance metrics including placement, kills, assists, and squad kills.
However, the road to the top is not all easy. Entry into a match requires a deployment fee that deducts SR from a player before the start of every game. This fee increases as players advance through the multiple divisions, raising the stakes for each game. Nevertheless, some cheaters have reportedly found a way to avoid losing their SR, by exploiting a loophole in the system, propelling them into undeserved Top 250 spots.
Major Cheating Epidemic
Known for his contributions to the Warzone community, IceManIsaac cited a 'major cheating epidemic' in the Ranked Play. Using the leaderboard provided by WZ Ranked, he scrutinized the match history of some of the highest-ranked players.
Remarkably, Isaac pointed out that in the past seasons, top players would typically reach around 30,000 SR. However, in Season 5, some players have already surpassed 65,000 SR with several weeks remaining before a reset.
Claimed as an exploit by IceManIsaac, players have been using the Alt+F4 command, a common way to close an application on a PC, to exit a Warzone game without losing SR. This has allegedly been used by cheaters to avoid incurring SR deductions after losing a game, thereby manipulating the system to earn more SR.
Using match data from WZ ranked, Isaac highlighted players with an unbelievable streak of up to 28 SR gaining matches. Normally, matches take around 30 minutes, but the data reviewed revealed hour-plus-long gaps without negative SR losses. The YouTuber also drew attention to various instances of top players intentionally closing out their game on stream immediately after a loss, as further proof of this exploit.
This abuse of SR gains is problematic as at the end of each season, players earn rewards based on the division they finish in. This unjust situation could leave deserving players without their fair share of rewards such as unique weapon skins and operator camos. IceManIsaac's revelations have shed light on this issue in hopes of an imminent resolution from the game developers.