Warzone Pro Player Banned Mid-Game During $20,000 Tournament

Pro player Stukawaki was banned, reportedly by mistake, in the middle of the $20,000 Code Red Freedom Warzone tournament Wednesday.

As such is the current state of Call of Duty: Warzone, the regulation of hacking and cheats is so out of control to the point that it appears clean players competing in official esports events are receiving bans on accident.

In what was a bizarre sequence of events filled with confusion by the players involved and the chat watching it all unfold live, Stukawaki was sent back to the lobby mid-game and was greeted not by a some sort of connection error, but instead by three of the worst words in gaming—"Account permanently banned."

Stukawaki would go on to remain banned for the rest of the Odd Man Out tournament as his trio partners in Tommey and Newbz went on to finish tied for Top 6 with Nickool filling in.

Soon after, Stukawaki received confirmation that his ban was triggered by mistake. Contrary to much speculation, however, it was not linked to the max-level hack that had been running rampant in Verdansk '84 leading up to the Season 4 Reloaded update.

Post-phone call with an Activision rep, Stukawaki cleared the air and explained that the ban was due to a prior incident when his account got hacked and someone played with cheats on it.

To all the people who thought I was banned for cheating, you can go and f--- yourselves. ... Hope everybody that tweeted some dumb s--- got their jollies off from some impressions and likes.

- Stukawaki via Twitter

Suffice to say, the whole situation was a headache to unpack, but Stukawaki is definitely glad he can get back to frying in Warzone.