Warzone Companion is a third-party app that provides in-depth stats for Call of Duty: Warzone players. The problem is some players have been using those stats to cheat the game’s skill-based matchmaking system. According to Eurogamer, app owner Dmitry Shymko has made changes to the app to stop cheaters from taking advantage of the service it provides.
Amongst the stats displayed in the companion app is the K/D ratio of all players in the lobby, information not provided by the game itself. Those waiting in a lobby have then been backing out of it if they felt their chances of success were unfavorable. This rendered the matchmaking system completely pointless. Other uses for the app have been stream sniping. As such, many competitive Call of Duty players have become concerned over the app’s prevalence.
The patch will mean that during a match, some of the stats the app displays will now only have relative values and not absolute values. Shymko explained some of the other changes, particularly to K/D ratio, and why the app was patched:
Cheaters are one of the worst problems of Warzone and online gaming overall. We wanted to help the community and highlight those players that are having extremely high metrics in their previous matches and at the same time give an instrument for players to see that they just might die to the lucky shot. Also, such players can be spectated during the match more precisely so users can report them if they will detect real cheaters. The app also has a lot of features that will track player dynamics, every skill and will help him to get better.
Still, by understanding the importance of discussion we decided to make a change in our app to cut the place for any kind of abuse. Information about lobby players will be shown only after the warm-up, and the average lobby K/D value will be displayed only at the end of the match.
Ironically one of the app’s intentions was to flag cheaters within a Warzone lobby, but the changes Shymko has made won’t make that possible any longer. As such, he’s asking for feedback from app users as to what they think about potentially adding some of this information back into the app further down the line.
Recently Raven Software made their own changes to the game to nerf overpowered weapons, more specifically the DMR 14, Type 63, Mac 10, and dual pistols. The weapons had become overused due to their increased power ever since the game was integrated with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The game will also get a playlist update today. Plunder Quads, Rebirth Island Mini Royale Duos, and Rebirth Island Resurgence Trios will be added. Those leaving the game are Plunder Blood Money Trios and Rebirth Island Mini Royale Quads.
[Source: Eurogamer]
