Over the past few days, the topic of shadowbanning has once again become a prevalent topic in the Call of Duty community. One of Warzone’s most controversial streamers, Nadia, was recently hit with a shadow ban. Nadia has stirred up drama in the community over the past few months, with many fans and content creators accusing her of cheating. While nothing has been confirmed either way, Nadia revealed that she felt like she was banned from Warzone earlier this week.
Naturally, some of her viewers and others in the community were confused by the term. Players who cheat in Call of Duty or any other game are usually simply banned, which prevents them from accessing the game on their regular account. However, the shadow ban works a little differently.
Shadow ban in Call of Duty
Basically, a shadow ban is given to a player when their account is flagged for violation. Being shadow-banned means that the player can still access the game and play normally, but their lobby will be full of other players who have also been flagged for possible violations. Shadow ban is the most common in Warzone as it is where most Call of Duty cheaters are located.
When a player is shadow-banned, Activision or the team at RICOCHET Anti-Cheat will check the player’s account for rule violations. If they find that a player has committed an offence, they will be banned from the game entirely. However, if the player is without any wrongdoing, then the shadow ban will be lifted and their lobby will return to normal. It usually takes one to two weeks to decide whether a player should receive a full ban or not.
How to find out if you’ve been shadow banned
If you’re wondering if you’ve been shadow-banned in Call of Duty, there are usually one or two warning signs. When you start searching for a match, your ping will increase significantly and it will probably take longer to join the lobby. This is because the game is actively trying to match you with cheaters or other shadowban players.
You can also head over to Activision’s support page, go to Ban Appeal and enter your account name and number. This will tell you if your account is under review or not. If so, then you have effectively been banned by the shadow and will have to wait for the result of the check. If you believe that a shadow ban is not warranted, you will still need to wait for the review process to complete in order to appeal a potential ban. We will explain how to do it in another article.