Serious flaws have been exposed in Battlefield 1’s automated anti-cheat system, after it emerged that a number of legitimate players have been banned from playing the DICE-developed shooter online – apparently for being too skilled.
The issue was brought to light today by kL-Spazmo, a Battlefield 1 player who has put in over 2800 hours into EA’s flagship first-person series since the FairFight anti-cheat system was introduced.
The FairFight system, developed by GameBlocks, “evaluate[s] players’ real-time gameplay actions” in order to determine whether or not a player is cheating. According to its official website, FairFight “combines algorithmic models that assess an array of statistical markers to identify possible cheating, and cross-checks these measurements using objective gameplay reporting to Make it a FairFight for everyone.”
It seems, however, that the ceiling for the deviance from ‘normal’ statistics that is used to determine legitimate play in Battlefield 1 has been set too low, with a number of skilled players being hit with suspensions and outright bans recently.
Back on January 4, Spazmo was permanently banned following the lifting of a previous suspension, due to being considered a cheater by FairFight:
It has also emerged that the player currently ranked number two in Battlefield 1’s global leaderboards, Minidoracat, was also hit with a temporary ban by FairFight last month – despite streaming and recording all of his gameplay sessions for all to scrutinise. Similarly, BF player SpartanHoplite was hit with a suspension for racking up over 200 bomber kills in a game (see video below), while grubsi123 also received a one-week ban after going 77-1.
To its credit, it does seem that DICE is aware of the issue with FairFight and is looking to resolve the situation with affected users; producer Al Hassoon reached out to Spazmo over Twitter earlier in a bid to discuss the ban privately.
We will keep you informed as to any updates on this story as soon as we get them.
