Developer Sledgehammer Games has issued a stern warning to those players who have been taking advantage of an exploit known as “reverse boosting” in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
In deliberately killing themselves during the course of a match, thus resulting in them ranking lower than normal, users have opened up a loophole in the skill-based matchmaking system that pairs them up with a group of relatively weaker players. Thereafter, these tricksters are able to wreak havoc on future matches, but the studio has condemned such tactics, and warned that those who continue to do so run the risk of being banned from the game’s online component.
Taking to Sledgehammer’s dedicated blog, the company’s Michael Condrey outlined the glitch and stated that the studio will operate a zero tolerance policy when it comes to reverse boosting.
“Playing at home, I’ve been randomly matched with players doing this and it’s incredibly frustrating to lose based largely on my team being down a contributing teammate.
“No one wants to lose an objective based match by effectively being outnumbered while their teammate shoots grenades into their own forehead 100 times in the corner. It’s not right, and it hurts you and your team’s online experience. Call of Duty is both social and competitive, and we respect and honor that. Part of the competition that is core to our values is that players do not adversely degrade their team’s ability to compete fairly.
“However, we have a low tolerance approach to people who ruin the experience for others through cheating, boosting, reverse boosting or being caught with toxic emblems in game. We don’t like seeing any of these happen, and we’re pushing to eliminate these behaviors from the game.”
Tell us, have you noticed this exploit when playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.