Ahead of Call of Duty Season 3’s launch, the Ricochet Anti-Cheat development team posted a progress report that covered how cheaters are sorted out via shadowban lobbies and how spam reporting can prove detrimental. The Call of Duty progress report also covered how Season 3’s KillCam user interface will be updated to show active perks and weapon changes.

Call of Duty‘s next season will bring back the original Verdansk map to Warzone, which is stated to be a mostly faithful recreation of the 2020 map. Verdansk was confirmed as the main focus of Season 3 during the final days of Season 2. However, some changes in the 2025 Verdansk rebuild include lighting adjustments, quality-of-life improvements, and Metro Station entrance adjustments. Ergo, the upcoming return to Verdansk should feel familiar to players looking for nostalgia. Return to Verdansk runs from April 3 to 15, and players will receive various cosmetic rewards for logging in while the event is active.

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Days before the launch of Season 3 in Warzone and Black Ops 6, the Call of Duty development team posted an update on their efforts to combat cheating. In a Ricochet Anti-Cheat progress report blog, Activision clarified some player questions about how spam reports and Limited Matchmaking (LMM) lobbies, also called shadowban lobbies, are handled in Black Ops 6 and Warzone. Activision stated that LMM lobbies allow suspected players to keep playing while an investigation is conducted. If a party member is flagged for LMM, other party members will be forced to play in the same lobby to prevent circumventing the system.

Call of Duty Addresses Ongoing Anti-Cheat Measures

• Activision clarifies that Call of Duty Limited Matchmaking lobbies filter suspected players during a cheating investigation.
• Parties with a player flagged for limited matchmaking will be forced into the same lobby until the investigation ends or the suspect leaves.
• Spam reporting will not be weighed heavily by Activision and can be punished instead of heeded.
• A new KillCam UI update in Warzone will give players more details about their attacker’s loadouts.

Activision also confirmed that spam reporting from the same account is ineffective in combating cheaters and may instead draw punitive measures. Activision’s report confirmed that over 228,000 account bans across multiple platforms have been administered since Black Ops 6 launched in October 2024. Additionally, Activision shut down over 20 cheat makers in that span, and dozens of cheat resellers were put out of business.

Starting in Season 3, a KillCam interface update in Warzone will show more details about what led to a player’s elimination from a match. The new KillCam widget will tell if a player has been pinged via line-of-sight or a UAV or if an unsuppressed weapon gave away their location. Other KillCam changes will be made in later updates to give players more information about their attackers, including active field upgrades and perks, to deter false reporting.

With Season 2 drawing to a close, Black Ops 6 players now have until April 2 to participate in a Double XP Weekend. How effective Call of Duty Season 3’s changes will be in the unending battle against cheaters remains to be seen.

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