A $25,000 Call of Duty: Warzone tournament was derailed as a number of competitors got struck down by shadow bans out of nowhere. Reacting to their bans on Twitter, the pros seemed absolutely shocked.
For the first major Warzone tournament of 2022, BoomTV decided to host a $25,000 Code Red 2v2 event. With a number of top-tier competitors and a co-ed team format, the event was highly anticipated.
Unfortunately, that excitement soon turned to concern as the tournament was beset by a number of issues. While players enjoy the Duo Quads format, allowing for teams of two to run rampage on public lobbies, there are some drawbacks.
One issue that popped up early involved stream sniping, but the second was even more troublesome. Several of the event’s duos had their games ruined by seemingly random shadow bans.
Warzone tournament derailed by shadow bans
Thank you for the shadow ban mid tournament I'm only playing for 25gs its no bother hahahahhaha @Activision
— Li (@Jukeyz) January 5, 2022
Competing for a cut of $25,000 is no small deal, and players understood the gravity of that situation. This was sarcastically reinforced by Jukeyz, one of Warzone’s all-time highest earners, when he tweeted about his shadow ban.
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In Jukeyz’s tweet, he thanked the devs for his “shadow ban mid-tournament,” continuing on to say he’s “only playing for 25gs, it’s no bother.”
got put out unfortunately, love @boomtv for the invite and grateful at the opportunity but it’s very saddening when things are out of my hand like acti having all the issues today. we regain i guess 👊💜
— Overgirl (@Overgirl) January 5, 2022
While Jukeyz tried to laugh through the pain, other competitors tried to focus on their gratitude despite unfortunate circumstances. As Overgirl explained, she is “grateful at the opportunity, but it’s very saddening when things are out of my hand like Acti having all the issues today.”
In the replies to Jukeyz and Overgirl, a number of users reacted with shock at the bans. There were also some since-deleted tweets from other pros, who weren’t thrilled with the spontaneous punishments.
Raven Software have yet to respond to these bans or explain them, but they typically haven’t done that in the past anyway. Fortunately, it seems that each player was able to resume play after the morale-breaking problems.
