Call of Duty Season 3 is bringing a wave of updates and changes to both Warzone and Black Ops 6. A major highlight is the return of the original Verdansk map to Warzone, offering a nostalgic experience with some quality-of-life improvements and visual adjustments. This comeback is scheduled from April 3rd to 15th, and players can earn cosmetic rewards just by logging in during the event.
The Ricochet Anti-Cheat team has also been hard at work, implementing new strategies to combat cheaters. A recent progress report detailed how 'shadowban' lobbies, officially called Limited Matchmaking (LMM) lobbies, isolate suspected cheaters while investigations are underway. This prevents them from disrupting the experience for legitimate players. If a player is flagged for LMM, their party members will also be placed in these lobbies to avoid circumvention.
Activision has also addressed concerns about spam reporting, confirming that excessive reports from a single account are ineffective and may even result in penalties. The report highlighted the ban of over 228,000 accounts since Black Ops 6's launch in October 2024, alongside the shutdown of over 20 cheat makers and numerous resellers.
Furthermore, a KillCam interface update coming in Season 3 will provide more context surrounding eliminations. The updated widget will display information such as whether a player was pinged by a UAV or line-of-sight, or if their position was compromised by an unsuppressed weapon. Future updates will expand this feature to include details on active perks and field upgrades used by the attacker, ultimately aiming to deter false reporting.
Players looking to level up quickly can take advantage of the Double XP Weekend running until April 2nd in Black Ops 6. It remains to be seen how effectively these Season 3 changes will curb cheating, but it’s clear that the development team is committed to maintaining a fair and competitive environment.
