These Cheaters Really Sucked At Cheating

Gaming fans tend look down on cheating and believe the act stains associated accomplishments. For instance, when the final boss of "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice" proved too much for PC Gamer's James Davenport, he used a cheat to make the fight easier. As Davenport explained at the time, he still enjoyed the game and didn't want to let the game's intense difficulty overshadow that enjoyment or sense of accomplishment. However, it seemed like the full force of the internet crashed down on him after the article. 

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The blowback from this article spawned the famous "you cheated not only the game, but yourself" tweet that deemed his success a "hollow victory" and became a meme in its own right. Whether or not you agree with this statement, at least Davenport had the decency to cheat within the closed system of a single-player experience. Not everyone is that honorable.

Cheating is a plague on many online multiplayer games. Some players use cheats to win online matches, while others just use cheats to just mess with other gamers. But, while the hows differ, many agree on the whys: Many heaters cheat because that's the only way they can succeed. Because of this, the internet is full of instances where cheaters get their comeuppance.

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Whether it's an example of cheaters forgetting to hide their iniquities, being outplayed by gamers who actually took the time to grow and improve, or cathartically failing even with their unfair advantages, audiences love seeing the hammer of fair play slam down on cheaters.

Unnamed Fall Guys Cheater

Unlike most other competitive games, "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout" tries to keep players anonymous. Every balance-challenged jellybean looks like every other one in the game — costumes notwithstanding — so the only way to identify a cheater is to see them circumvent obstacles either by sprinting past them (as opposed to waddling) or by hovering. But, if you spend all your time neglecting obstacles, you will never learn the mechanics necessary to actually win.

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One of the most common final challenges in "Fall Guys” is a mad dash up a boobytrapped hill towards a floating crown. This mode doesn't give prizes for second, third, or even 36th place, so speedhacks give cheaters an even more unfair advantage than normal — much like the one Twitter user CinderSlash witnessed. This unnamed hacker dashed past obstacles at speeds faster than any "Fall Guys" jellybean should ever travel, and they reached the crown before anyone could come close. Victory seemed assured in CinderSlash's eyes when the cheater jumped for the crown... only to bump off it and onto the treadmill below.

This cheater was so bad at the game, they couldn't grab the crown their first go (which many players can and will do), so they tried again. And they fell onto the treadmill again. By the time the cheater had climbed back up, a legitimate player had already grabbed the crown and won.

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Maybe if this cheater had practiced playing the game normally, they would have been skilled enough to grab the crown the first try, and without speedhacks.

FranKoR6 looks through walls in Rainbox Six Siege

When you see someone cheating in a game, your first thought probably is  "Gee, this person must not be very bright if they aren't willing to learn the game's mechanics and become skilled on their own." During one stream in 2020, "Rainbow Six Siege" streamer GMZ tricked a cheater into streaming their underhanded tactics live, proving that not every cheater is especially bright.

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During a stream in 2020, GMZ was playing against a team with a suspiciously knowledgeable Bandit player, FranKoR6. GMZ accused FranKoR6 of wallhacks, but the player predictably pleaded innocence and boasted that he had a stream to prove it. GMZ was willing to accept the stream as evidence, but only on the condition that FranKoR6 used display capture mode. FranKoR6 took the bait, and when his stream resumed, it showed the telltale green boxes of wallhacks (which let cheaters see the positions of opponents through walls, hence the name). By the time FranKoR6 realized he had been duped, he had already been eliminated, and his cheating ways had been streamed for the entire internet to see.

After viewers saw that FranKoR6 was a cheater, he tried to salvage his reputation, but not by apologizing or anything. No, as noted by YouTuber Tobie, he apparently changed his username multiple times, but the damage had been done. FranKoR6 hasn't streamed since 2020.

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But the question remains: What did the most damage to FranKoR6? Was it the knowledge that he cheated, or the ease with which he exposed himself? Sometimes, it's better to just plead the Fifth.

Tekken 7's Devil Kazumi users

"Tekken 7" players have plenty of characters to choose from. There are mainstays such as Heihachi and Yoshimitsu, newcomers like Lucky Chloe and Gigas, and even guest characters, including Negan from "The Walking Dead" (which will never not be weird). The total roster comes to 54 balanced fighters, which is plenty for most players. But cheaters don't want a fair fight; they typically want to unfairly walk through the competition, preferably with an overpowered character never meant for multiplayer.

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If you've played a few online "Tekken 7" matches, odds are you have bumped into a few Devil Kazumi users. Since the character was designed to be a cheap final boss, odds are even more likely you've lost against these players, who have used cheats to gain access to the character. However, some players are so skilled that they've come out on top. One such warrior is two-time EVO champ Jae-Min "KNEE" Bae. He likes to stream his online matches, and the highlights of these videos are his various fights against Devil Kazumi cheaters — which he usually wins, by the way.

Depending on the skill of the cheater, KNEE might lose a few matches, but once he has grasped the cheater's strategy (other than using an overpowered character, that is), he typically triumphs. If KNEE is especially lucky, he might catch the cheater rage quitting live on-stream. KNEE demonstrates that putting in the effort to master a skill trumps shortcuts every time.

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Teams Dignitas and Curse

Not all cheats come from manipulated code or programs running behind the scenes. Sometimes, gamers cheat with some good old-fashioned match fixing. On paper, that sounds like a "safe" way to cheat with minimal risk. If everyone keeps their traps shut, nobody will ever know, right?

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During the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit 2012, audiences expected great things from the match-up of Team Curse vs. Team Dignitas. Who would be crowned the best "League of Legends" team? Viewers hoped to witness tightly-knit strategies and general MOBA chaos. Instead, the teams selected random champions and turned the middle lane into a mosh pit battlefield. Once that travesty started, there were only two kinds of people in the audience: those who suspected collusion and those who were in on the not-so funny joke that it was collusion.

According to a now-deleted tweet from MLG executive Adam Apicella (via Kotaku), Team Curse and Dignitas conspired to throw the match and divvy up the prize money — and they agreed to do so in public, no less. "The entire venue was aware of it," claimed Apicella. Curse and Dignitas were both subsequently disqualified for "misconduct," and the first and second-place prizes were instead awarded to the teams that came in third and fourth, respectively.

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While Team Curse eventually apologized, members maintain they only collaborated with Dignitas to "have fun." If that's true, nobody's laughing.

Zamarath isn't so invincible in GTA Online

When people talk about cheats in multiplayer video games, they usually mean a program that gives players x-ray vision or laser precision. While unfair, those cheats aren't necessarily unbeatable. More unscrupulous cheaters like to make victory impossible for opponents by using invincibility hacks. However, just because someone is immune to damage in a game, doesn't mean they are immune to the physics engine of the game itself.

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You might not have heard of Pluxar. They're a small YouTuber who plays and uploads whatever they feel like. As such, they have plenty of worthwhile videos, such as what is essentially a how-to guide for dealing with "Grand Theft Auto Online" griefers. Several years ago, Pluxar was harassed by a "GTA Online" player called Zamarath, who turned on "God Mode" and couldn't be killed. The cheater peppered Pluxar with rockets, which thankfully didn't scratch their Insurgent vehicle. Pluxar returned the favor by continuously tossing grenades at Zamarath and running them over, stun-locking them in a continuous loop of ragdoll animations they couldn't straighten out.

Pluxar spent several minutes using Zamarath as their own personal punching bag, which eventually got on the cheater's nerves. They got in one lucky shot and eventually killed Pluxar (with some help from the in-game police), but Pluxar bounced back with rocket-launcher in hand. Several rockets later, Zamarath finally rage quit.

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All is fair in love and war, especially when the opponent doesn't fight fair. And even invincible players are no match for good old fashioned determination and willpower.

Ryut uses an aimbot in Valorant

Particularly skilled cheaters can often hide their cheats. However, the more eyes that are on them, the more likely it is that they will be discovered. This is why you should never cheat during a tournament.

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During the quarter-final "Valorant" match of the 2020 TGS Signature Series, Team Tokyo went up against Vancouver Elated, and all eyes were on the action — and that was the last thing Team Tokyo player Ryut wanted. When Ryut rounded a corner, he saw an opponent, but opened fire on a completely different opponent hidden behind a door. According to the replay, Ryut aimed dead center at this second opponent's head, even though Ryut could not have known they were there, let alone the exact pixel where their head was. This incident screamed of wall and aim hacks.

Forbes reported that Ryut's cheating was so blatant that Riot banned their account via the "Valorant" proprietary anti-cheat system Vanguard. Gamers have decried the program as invasive malware, but it's hard to argue with the results, since Vanguard strips cheaters of their accounts and blacklists their PC hardware. In other words, Ryut can't play "Valorant" without buying a new computer.

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In the tournament and ban aftermath, Ryut reportedly deleted their social media accounts. After such a public display of unsportsmanlike behavior, Ryut might never resurface.

Another unnamed Fall Guys cheater

The biggest problem with cheaters is their unfair advantages; the second biggest is you usually can't do anything about them. You can hope the anti-cheat software kicks in and boots the offending party or report the player's username to the proper authorities, but that's about it. That's easier said than done for titles like "Fall Guys," which hides player names behind random labels, but even that game isn't without its fallbacks — assuming, of course, you are willing to rely on the kindness of strangers.

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Early in 2020, Twitch streamer TeosGame was playing what should have been a friendly session of "Fall Guys," but a hacker decided to drop in and spoil the party. The unnamed cheating jellybean floated above obstacles in flagrant disregard of the rules and physics. This irritated so many players that when the team-based Egg Scramble match was selected, literally everyone conspired against the cheater, including his own teammates.

Instead of trying to collect the most eggs, the hacker's teammates did everything they could to keep eggs out of their goal. They tossed eggs from their scoring pit and even ferried some into other players' areas. Thanks to this improvised sabotage, the cheater was deftly eliminated. Sure, everyone else on his team lost with him, but their sacrifice rekindled TeosGame's faith in the "Fall Guys" community.

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Some cheaters don't recognize when they're not wanted. And no matter how many cheaters there are, there will always be some players who stand up for fair play.

Atuun's impossible DOTA 2 play

In a competitive video game, the player with the fastest reflexes usually wins, but no matter how fast competitors are, they are still only human and limited by their bodies. Anyone who exceeds these biological limits is either a demigod or a cheater.

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During the 2018 South American qualifiers, Thunder Predator's Juan "Atuun” Ochoa used Meepo, a "DOTA 2" character who is notoriously difficult because players need to basically babysit him and his clones to bring out their full potential. Meepo is essentially the epitome of the phrase "United we stand, divided we fall," and during the match, Atuun was on point. He juggled Meepo's clones and abilities with mechanical precision ... too mechanical, actually. 

Reddit users who dug through the match's combat log noticed that Atuun used abilities such as Poof (which lets Meepo teleport to his clones and vice versa) simultaneously with multiple characters, which is humanly impossible. Many concluded that the only possible explanation was that Atuun used macros — a bannable offense.

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Although Atuun's team won the match, event organizers dug deeper into his previous fights and found that this use of Meepo wasn't Atuun's first offense. It turns out that he had used macros with a different character in a prior round. The evidence was overwhelming, so not only was Thunder Predator's victory deemed invalid, but the entire team was disqualified (via Kotaku).

Thunder Predator tried to defend Atuun's actions by claiming they were the result of "special button bindings” on his mouse, but it seems nobody bought the explanation.

Hiko's Valorant opponents, whoever they were

Cheats in video games give many players unfair advantages, but they are no replacement for skill or common sense. What good is the ability to hit your opponent 100% of the time if they hit you first?

When he's not winning pro "Valorant" competitions, 100 Thieves' Spencer "Hiko" Martin can be seen winning online matches with randos. That's exactly what happened during an online streaming session – or at least how it started. At one point, Hiko went up against a team consisting of users Paincakes, immorant, atlas, Jakee, and im2quik. For some reason, one of them started firing at Hiko while he was hidden behind a wall, even though they shouldn't have known Hiko was there. Being the expert he was, Hiko honed in on their position, and figured out they were using wallhacks to locate him.

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Since the cheater ruined the element of surprise, Hiko knew they were closing in on him. While he didn't expect the entire opposing team to box him in, he still demonstrated why he's one of 100 Thieves' top players and Aced them (a "Valorant" term for when one player kills all five of their opponents). And after taking a moment to bask in his victory, Hiko identified immorant as the likely cheater.

Had immorant held their fire, maybe things could have ended differently, but audiences should be thankful they jumped the gun; it gave Hiko an opportunity to demonstrate that even cheaters are no match for him.

Azubu Frost peeked in League of Legends

Esports tournament organizers try to guarantee a nice, clean competition. Usually, this only requires anti-cheat software, and tournament stages should only factor into the spectacle. But imagine if players could cheat merely by peeking over their shoulders. Surely the organizers of competitions with millions of dollars on the line would go all-out prevent such tactics, right? And surely nobody would attempt to cheat like that in front of others. Don't be so sure.

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The second "League of Legends" world championship featured many teams that would go down in esports history, including Team SoloMid and Team Dignitas, but the most infamous was Azubu Frost. They handily won their fight against Team SoloMid, but several members of that team accused them of cheating. Video evidence clearly shows Azubu Frost member Jang Gun Woong looking over his shoulder several times to peek at the big screen meant for audiences. One major piece of evidence unearthed by redditors shows Azubu Frost placing a warning ping on the top lane right after Woong turned his neck. And the ping was (you guessed it) right where all five SoloMid members were standing.

Even though Azubu Frost went on to the finals, the team ultimately lost against the Taipei Assassins. Tournament organizers ultimately agreed with SoloMid's allegations. Azubu Frost was fined $30,000, but they weren't even the only perpetrators. Organizers also issued warnings to Team WE, Invictus Gaming, and even Team SoloMid for similar unsportsmanlike behavior. Just goes to show you that some people will cheat if they think they can get away with it, even when there are millions of witnesses.

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Dream's accidental Minecraft cheat

World records are serious business. If you want a shot at the history books, you'd better make sure your efforts are legitimate. Cheating in a game is one thing, but cheating when fame is on the line? Whoever does that will be lucky if they just get an asterisk stamped on their record.

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Few video game records are held in as high regard as the speedrun. Speedrunners use encyclopedic knowledge of games to finish them in mere minutes, and one of the most (in)famous "Minecraft" speedrunners is the YouTuber Dream. He tries to set a new record each time Mojang updates the game, and when Version 1.16 launched, he completed the game in only 19 minutes and 24 seconds. However, he experienced suspiciously good luck with loot drops during this run, so much so that the team at speedrun.com that moderates official "Minecraft" records put together a 29-page document that tried to mathematically prove he cheated. This team used binomial distribution, modular arithmetic, and all the other complicated formulas you might have slept through during college.

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Initially, Dream maintained his innocence and purportedly hired a Harvard astrophysicist (via Ginx.tv) to mathematically refute these claims, but he eventually admitted that he cheated. Accidentally, that is. His defense (per PC Gamer) was that prior to 1.16, he had used a mod to increase spawn and drop rates when not on the speedrunning clock, but he thought the mod was disabled during his speedrun.

Fans were split on whether or not they bought Dream's explantion, but he's still speedrunning and playing "Minecraft" to this day.

Forsaken runs a cheat program in CS:GO

While many major esports organizations recruit players from countries such as Denmark and South Korea, some have scouted talent from India. In 2018, OpTic Gaming announced it would expand into India with a new team, OpTic India. OpTic held tryouts for the opening roster, and one of its most notable inclusions was Nikhil "Forsaken" Kumawat. His inclusion turned heads not because of his skill, but because he had been previously banned by Valve Anti-Cheat. 

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While Forsaken pleaded his innocence in order to participate in tournaments — and made it to the ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia finals — audience goodwill evaporated when team organizers stopped the match to examine Forsaken's computer (via ESPN). And as seen in clips of the event, Forsaken refused to cooperate at first.

While examining Forsaken's computer, tournament officials found a command prompt, which Forsaken tried to close and delete right in front of them. The program, unsubtly titled "word.exe," was an aimbot that was eventually traced back to a "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" cheat site. EXTREMESLAND organizers had more than enough evidence to boot Forsaken and the rest of OpTic India from the tournament. Forsaken was terminated — along with his teammates — and issued a five-year ban from all esports competitions (via Variety).

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Forsaken disappeared from the esports scene, and all of his ex-allies have since retired.

Anyone who uses ScriptKid's cheats

Cheaters aren't exactly known for their common sense. Many cheat-users would rather take a shortcut — any shortcut — than put in the effort to learn how to play properly. If something seems too good to be true, then it usually is, but cheaters tend to grab onto any advantage, risks be darned. This mindset makes them ideal targets for malware, particularly when it's malware designed to punish cheaters.

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ScriptKid is a relatively obscure YouTuber who has made a decent side gig out of coding fake cheats. His modus operandi is simple: create a Trojan designed to mess with anyone who uses it, dress it up like a "legitimate" cheat, advertise the program to would-be cheaters, and then let them make fools of themselves whenever they try to use it. Oh, and upload the results to YouTube, of course.

So far, ScriptKid has produced Trojan cheats for "PUBG," "Minecraft," and "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," and his videos show the creative bag of punishments his programs use to make cheaters own themselves. These include automatically dropping grenades to blow up in users' faces, automatically shooting allies whenever they move in front of crosshairs, and dropping cheaters into a private server populated by a giant toilet — and subsequently drowning them in it. And yes, the giga-toilet has a brown clump at the bottom that you don't need explained.

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Though it's been a while since ScriptKid has posted a video, they are still working hard on baiting cheaters and posting the resulting self-owns online.

H1Z1 Developer forgot to turn off his console commands

When games let players roam all over an open map, those players will often find ways to get themselves stuck. These bugs and glitches are often impossible to fully iron out for development teams, so a band-aid solution for these problems is required. This is where console commands come in. Typically, player-side console commands consist of "/unstuck"-style inputs that do not directly affect gameplay, but rather exist as a debugging tool. However, the game developers have their own set of empowered console commands that allow them to test the game in more robust ways.

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One of these commands, as seen in a clip from "H1Z1" developer Autenil, can grant invisibility to the developer's character model. In the clip, Autenil stalked down a group of players trying to use a car to get away from shotgun sprays they couldn't see. Apparently without realizing it, he had the "hidden" console command activated, granting him invisibility in a live multiplayer lobby.

Over the in-game proximity voice chat, Autenil learned that the players he was shooting point-blank couldn't see him — right around the time they all started remarking, "A dev is hacking!" Clearly embarrassed, Autenil turned his console command off and apologized to the team and his viewers. 

Eventually, according to commenters on Reddit, Autenil even let the wronged team get free revenge kills on him. While more of an honest mistake than deliberate cheating, this incident is nonetheless a funny moment for fans to remember. 

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Zuhn isn't even trusted by his own audience

Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) constantly scans the servers of the games it services, like "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive." VAC bans often come in sweeping waves for accounts that have utilized new flavor-of-the-month exploits. Additionally, there is an "Overwatch" system that allows players or developers to report a suspected cheater after watching a game from their perspective.

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Popular "CS:GO" YouTuber Zuhn is no stranger to accusations of cheating, as he has boasted in the past about using exploits and uploading the resulting gameplay to YouTube. On May 27, 2019, Zuhn received an Overwatch ban that he was quick to deny on Twitter. In a tweet that has since been deleted (per Dexerto), Zuhn remarked, "its obvious I don't cheat. But we'll see what happens."

Immediately after receiving this ban, Zuhn posted a poll on his Twitter account that asked his fans if they believed he was a cheater or not. To his surprise, about 80% of responses believed that he probably was a cheater. Reputations within the gaming community matter, and when Zuhn was banned there was not much surprise from other players Zuhn's two Steam accounts are still banned today, and he mostly sticks to playing "Valorant" now.

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KQLY falls to temptation

"Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" is host to one of the most competitive esports scenes in the entire gaming market. However, this competitive edge has brought rampant cheating to its esports scene over the years.

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As reported by Kotaku, a "CS:GO" cheating scandal in 2014 unearthed an aimbot that was able to get past Valve's anti-cheat software. Upon updating its anti-cheat measures, Valve uncovered a dark underbelly of pros using this previously undetectable aimbot.

Of these newly-found cheaters, Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian was the highest-profile player on one of the better teams of the era, Titan. After swiftly receiving a VAC ban (courtesy of Valve Anti-Cheat), KQLY admitted that the ban was justified. In his confessional Facebook post (translation via Google Translate), KQLY said that after learning of the software and its widespread usage in the pro scene, he was tempted to use it, because he wanted to see how effective it would be in public matches.

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Claiming that his cheating only dated back a week (which has been contested by Reddit investigators) was not enough to spare him from a lifetime ban from competing in "Counter Strike" tournaments — until 2018, when he was added to a professional "CS:GO" roster. This return was thanks to controversial rule change that turned lifetime VAC bans into 2-year professional competition bans. Despite getting a second chance, his teammates refused to play with him (via Kotaku).

Shiv gets exposed and turns on his colleagues

In September 2021, a $7,000 "Call of Duty: Vanguard" tournament based on the "Search and Destroy" game mode birthed some very unexpected results. OpTic Gaming, a titan in FPS esports, was taken down by a non-professional team headed by the stellar performance of Twitch streamer, Shiv (also known as ShivGTK).

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Further inspection of his monitor-broadcast stream — set up specifically to quell any suspicion of cheating — revealed that Shiv was using a new type of wallhack (via Barstool Sports). Most wallhack cheats outline every character on the map in a red outline making the cheat obvious to any observer. The hack used by Shiv, however, used only small white blips on the screen to indicate the location of players, making it much harder for observers to know he was cheating.

After being called out for this behavior, Shiv chose a scorched-earth tactic, throwing 14 other players under the cheating bus in a list published to Twitter. He claimed that these players had been cheating since "Call of Duty: Cold War" had been released. While these claims haven't been substantiated, FaZe Clan's NickMercs chimed in on Twitter to rail against the toxic culture of the gaming community. 

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LemonSnipezz feeling invincible

"Call of Duty: Warzone" is no stranger to hackers. There are countless websites offering subscriptions services to cheating scripts that update even faster than the anti-cheat software used in "Call of Duty: Warzone." As a result, just about anybody can use these simple-to-install scripts at the cost of a subscription service.

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One of these cheating subscription users, LemonSnipezz, was called out for this practice while streaming. According to the a Reddit post about the incident, LemonSnipezz initially denied the claims. When proof was sent to him, however, he flipped the script and started boasting about it, saying over and overm, "You know what, I'd do it again!" 

Not only did LemonSnipezz boast about his cheating, he went to the website from which he'd bought the cheats to show everyone watching his channel that his ban only lasted for 14 days. According to Dexerto, he claimed he would be right back at it again, just as soon as that ban expired.

It takes a certain type of person to use cheating subscriptions in the first place, but to brag about it and self-incriminate live on-stream for the whole internet to see? That's a whole other level of shamelessness. It's also maybe the worst way to go about cheating in a public setting.

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