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Being surprised at seeing cheating in online competitive multiplayer games is like being surprised at seeing a fish in the ocean, you're going to encounter some every now and then, that's just how it goes. But Marvel Rivals has had a particularly rough time with cheaters as of late. To stretch out the above analogy as far as it'll go, it feels like the salmon rush right now.
It got so bad even, with cheaters boasting about exploits, streaming and posting their crimes, alongside bad mouthing high elo players for their lack of skill that NetEase stepped in with a ban wave and confirmation that its anti-cheat system will be getting a hefty update. But some didn't think that was enough, and to be fair, it didn't massively address the issue many players are having in-game right now.
So to help ease things just a bit, NetEase announced a new anti-cheat rank compensation system that will rollout later this week: "We're sending the TVA to prune the cheaters! Our new Anti-Cheat Rank Compensation System will begin its trial run this week. If you encounter a cheater in your match, successfully report them, and the system verifies the cheat, you will be fully refunded ALL Ranked Points lost during that match. (Note: Placement Matches do not award points and are therefore excluded from this compensation)."
We've seen something similar just a few months ago with the "Victim Compenstation Protocol" system which NetEase greenlighted after a 'throwing' epidemic meant that players were becoming collateral for those purposely throwing comp games. Systems like this are also commonplace in other online multiplayer games such as Overwatch or Valorant.
It's certainly a good temporary measure, but it doesn't address the root of the problem: how to dissuade cheaters. There just aren't enough meaningful punishments to deter the vast majority of cheaters. Unfortunately, with Marvel Rivals being a free-to-play game account bans aren't enough as new ones are so easy to make; instead, harsher restrictions are needed like hardware or IP bans. NetEase is dishing a few of these out as we speak, but it's such a small proportion of the ban waves that I doubt it's making that much of a difference.
