Top Vanguard Players Are Divided By Cheating Accusations
The "Call of Duty" franchise has always had cheating issues. And the older the "Call of Duty" title the more likely it is to be infested with hackers, as has been the case with the notoriously hack-heavy "Call of Duty 4." However, the latest "Call of Duty," subtitled "Vanguard," isn't even a year old, yet there has already been an outcry from the community regarding hackers.
Although Activision has enacted a new anti-cheat software to combat the cheaters, players are still regularly caught hacking. And it's not just low-ranked players who are doing this, either. For example, pplehx, a #2 ranked player, was recently called out by CDL Intel for seemingly cheating on stream after their screen bugged out, accidentally broadcasting their wallhacks for all to see.
Now another high-ranked player is being called out for cheating, but the jury is still out about whether he's guilty or not. On April 21, famous "Call of Duty" pro Crimsix tweeted a screenshot of a notes page on his phone that read, "So I'm playing some ranked... [And I] notice that my teammate is hacking but he's moving around the map like he's showcasing the graphics of a new game at E3." He continued, "Anyways, the other team starts blatantly aim-locking back." According to Crimsix, he discovered the original offending player was apparently number 2 in the list of top "Vanguard" players.
Crimsix called out a cheater, but others aren't sure
In the replies, users quickly deciphered that Crimsix was likely talking about JoeDecieves, a rookie 17-year-old player that often hovers around the top five spots on the ranked leaderboard. In fact, just a few days ago on April 19, he reached the number one spot with a skill rating of over 6,000.
Shortly after Crismix's tweet calling the player out, JoeDecieves showed up in the replies and exclaimed, "LMAO I'm crying." He jokingly added, "I'll stop cheating my lord," accompanied by a popular GIF of Spongebob bowing in worship at the original tweet.
Not everyone agreed with Crismix's accusations. CDL Intel and Dot Esports writer Cory Davis came to Joe's defense, saying the player looked innocent. JoeDecieves explained their confusion in a reply, "I didn't even do that good against him ... [I don't know] what I could have done to have him accuse me to this level." Other replies seemed to share in the confusion or simply enjoy the drama.
There's no way to tell what really went down without hard evidence, but it's safe to say this feud may not be over.