Call of Duty: Warzone streamer allegedly cheats during a Twitch event and gets banned

Call of Duty: Warzone
(Image credit: Activision)

A Call of Duty: Warzone streamer has been banned from Twitch after allegedly using hacks during a live tournament event.

The Twitch Rivals event earlier this week invited challengers across Europe to compete in custom lobbies, and get into the running for major cash prizes. Unfortunately, as you can see in the video shared below by eSports streamer Jake Lucky, it also seems to have admitted some less-scrupulous participants.

The first video shows the streamer's aim snapping to enemies heads and tracking them, even through obstacles, letting them tear through an opposing squad even as they largely stick to cover. The second, slowed down version of the video puts the perspective of the accused hacker and one of their targets side-by-side, showing how the attacker's aim stays perfectly locked in for headshots even as the target moves through parts of the environment which block vision,

One or two incidents like this could be down to somebody just knowing the game and their opponents very well, but all together it's tough to believe that this is evidence of anything but hacks - and particularly brazen hacks, considering it's all being streamed for an official Twitch competition.

The streamer was removed from the tournament and banned by Twitch, according to Charlie Intel, but it's a high-profile reminder that hacking is still a pressing issue at all levels of the Warzone community. Activision recently shut down a Warzone cheat that used machine learning to give players an advantage by analyzing their opponents in real-time. The company stated that it had banned more than 500,000 Warzone cheaters as of May.

Unfortunately, you don't always have to use hacks to get an unfair advantage in Warzone. Players recently discovered a way to turn themselves invisible by using the mysterious Red Doors, presenting the latest in a long line of invisibility and invincibility glitches which can be exploited to match-ruining effect.

Warzone Season 5 | Warzone Red Doors | Warzone Special Weapons | Warzone Assault Rifle Golf | New Warzone map | Call of Duty Warzone tips | Warzone Error codes | Is Warzone down? | Warzone best guns | Warzone Patch notes | Best Warzone FARA 83 loadouts | Warzone best MAC-10 loadouts | Best Warzone MG82 loadouts | Best Warzone C58 loadout

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Read more
A player wearing a gasmask and holding a gun during the shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
136,000 Call of Duty accounts have gotten banned since ranked launched for Black Ops 6: "We’re not slowing down in our mission to shut down cheaters"
Venom, Spider-Man, Peni Parker, Scarlet Witch, Magneto, and Storm pose in artwork for Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals devs lift bans on players mistakenly banned for cheating: "We do not and will not ban players who are playing fairly"
Invisible Woman in her Marvel Rivals character reveal trailer, surrounded by projectiles
Marvel Rivals bans popular third-party plugin: "We deem this program as cheating," but "fear not" if you've been using it
Marvel Rivals Iron Man
Marvel Rivals devs threaten keyboard and mouse adapter users with permanent bans: "On PC or console, we will take measures to vanquish this nefarious behavior"
Fortnite character Jonesy looks shocked in the story trailer for Season X.
Fortnite is now giving cheaters "second chances" with 1-year bans that allow you to use the battle royale like it's Discord and do absolutely nothing else until you're freed from the void
thor looking into the camera with a steely stare
It took a whole team to put an end to this unstoppable Overwatch streamer's 210-kill streak in a Marvel Rivals tournament
Latest in Call of Duty Warzone
soldiers dropping in from the sky and looking over verdansk
Warzone's original map is returning next month, but it's still not enough: "We don't just want Verdansk back. We want everything back"
A man riding a motorbike and shooting a gun during the upcoming game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Rumored Warzone 2025 map Avalon appears to be fully explorable in Black Ops 6 spectator mode, and with it comes a classic Call of Duty: World at War map
Black Ops 6 Separation Anxiety code
Black Ops 6 Separation Anxiety code and puzzle guide
Warzone's Area 99
There's no sign of Call of Duty's beloved Nuketown map in Black Ops 6 - except for its "birthplace" in Warzone's Area 99 and a nuked version in Sandhouse
Warzone 2
Activision is open-sourcing one of the biggest Call of Duty maps ever for AI development and to "expand the knowledge base of the gaming industry"
Warzone 2
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 averages five million new players a day
Latest in News
Baldur's Gate 3 screenshot of a boss turned to gold surrounded by blood
5,000 gold, 2,500 hours, and one priceless scroll: Baldur's Gate 3 player cooks up a "Midas run" by turning the RPG's bosses into solid gold trophies, because "why not"
Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield in Stranger Things 4
Stranger Things star Sadie Sink joins Spider-Man 4 and fans are already theorizing she might be X-Men’s Jean Grey
The Witcher 3
Resident Evil and Witcher 3 mocap director says video game industry layoffs have made it so "nothing is guaranteed," but AI won’t be replacing real actors "anytime soon"
Rift Apart
Retiring Insomniac boss says developers should still tackle new genres, but it's much riskier these days due to time and money
Atomfall screenshot
Atomfall dev doesn’t understand how massive development teams manage to keep organised: "How do you organize a game that has 2,000 people working on it?"
Stardew Valley Baldur's Gate 3 mod Baldur's Village
Stardew Valley player bringing a bit of Baldur's Gate 3 to ConcernedApe's farming sim, now with Larian's seal of approval, says they've played over 1,500 hours and will improve the mod