This blatant disruption of our fair battlefield has sparked widespread concern” – Hundreds of Marvel Rivals cheats named and shamed in “targeted purge

Nearly 500 Marvel Rivals players have been named, shamed and banned in “a targeted purge” by NetEase following their exploits after a recent game update.

In a blog post highlighting NetEase’s “zero tolerance on cheats”, the company partially shared the associated names, user IDs and Marvel Rivals ranks of the players involved, which is something I’ve never seen before. The ranks of the players involved stretch from Bronze right up to Celestial.

Said NetEase: “Recently, our telemetry detected that following the weekend update, a faction of rogue players began promoting and deploying unauthorized third-party enhancements. This blatant disruption of our fair battlefield has sparked widespread concern across the Chronoverse. In response, our security teams have initiated an immediate, targeted purge.”

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Slightly concerningly, the cheats were caught by Marvel Rival’s “automated penalty system”, it sounds like, which is trained by the security team that monitors the game for cheats in multiple ways. There is a chance, then, that some people might have been “unjustly penalised”. “If you believe you were unjustly penalised, you may submit an appeal through our official Customer Support channels for review,” NetEase said.

“We urge all rivals: do not download, purchase, distribute, or use any cheats, scripts, game modifiers, or illicit third-party tools,” the company added. And: “Please note: rumors circulating online claiming that the anti-cheat system can be bypassed using launch parameters are completely false.”

If you are caught cheating, you face a permanent ban from playing the game, and if you repeatedly break the rules, you face a potential device ban or IP ban to stop you.

Marvel Rivals was one of last year’s big successes, using an Overwatch-like hero shooter framework, alongside the immense and appealing Marvel catalogue of superheroes, to produce a mainstream hit. Its playerbase is still strong, but it’s been elbowed aside slightly by a resurgent Overwatch (formerly Overwatch 2) this year, which puts the pressure back on NetEase to compete. But with new Avengers film Doomsday due at the end of this year, Marvel Rivals has the pop culture power it needs to catapult back up.