Garena Free reported that they had banned over 1.1 million accounts and over 3.5 million devices in the last two weeks for cheating. 51% of these accounts were banned after being reported by other players. The move comes after Garena's continuous reassurance to reduce hacking in their game and sustained efforts over the last few months to crack down on cheaters.
A break down of the reasons as to why most accounts were banned has also been provided:
17% - Teleport Hacks - Allows players to move much faster than others and teleport to far away locations and elevations.
35% - Auto Aim - Helps players to win gunfights as the hacks allow the cross hair to quickly snap onto enemies.
19% - Wall Hack - Allows players to perceive information through walls and objects. This can include both players and loot.
21% Antenna Hack - This allows you to see enemies over a long distance by positioning an antenna on your character. Players can use it to surprise enemies and make safe and faster rotations.
As per the report, nearly 200K accounts were also banned for playing with hackers intentionally.
Free Fire's Hacking Problem
Free Fire has had numerous issues with hackers and cheaters in the past. These are not just limited to the casual player base but notable past incidents include pro players from various regions getting caught hacking in official tournaments. on June 2, the developers announced Operation Cut Cord in a bid to cut down on hackers. Initial activities included detecting over 3.8 million cheaters and banning over 700,000 accounts. A month later in July, the developers launched a new patch withimprovements to their ant-cheat system.
In May 2020, to professional teams, Entity Gaming and TSG Army came under the scanner after players were detected by Garena's anti-hack system. Players involved in this incident and another one following this were subsequently banned for a period of one year. Later in the month, Global Esports also released their Free Fire roster after concerns that the players were involved in suspicious activities.
