On Twitter, Florian Le Bihan, a core gameplay designer for Battlefield V, shared a story about playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. It was all fun and games until Le Bihan was banned from Treyarch’s new shooter. The developer shared an image of an error message that popped up explaining that “DRUNKKZ3 has been banned from playing on the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 servers,” adding that Le Bihan would have to “sign in with another profile” in order to play online.
A video of recorded footage uploaded by Le Bihan (titled “TreyarchPLS”) seems to explain why the Battlefield V developer was banned from the game. It shows the developer slaying Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 players like it’s nothing, utilizing quick reaction times and impressive aiming skills to rack up some tremendous kills. The most popular theory is that Le Bihan was banned from the game simply for being too good, as Treyarch’s systems must have suspected that the developer was using cheat programs.
For Le Bihan, who has previously played Call of Duty at a competitive level and was a professional player on Fnatic’s Battlefield team, this ban isn’t all that surprising. In another tweet (translated from French), the developer jokes that “I think I have more [bans] in all games for suspicions of [cheating] than tournaments won now”. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is far from the first game to ban Le Bihan for skill, then.
It doesn’t seem that Treyarch’s support team has reached out to the developer yet, but fans in both the Battlefield and Call of Duty communities are responding to Le Bihan’s tweets in a lighthearted way. Some have replied to say that Le Bihan’s skill is disgustingly good while others have joked that this is “karma” for supporting Call of Duty, given that Call of Duty and Battlefield have a fierce rivalry.
Moreover, while many are sympathetic with Le Bihan over the ban, some may argue that it’s good that Treyarch’s anti-cheat system is so proactive. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 already has a problem with players using aimbots and while Le Bihan is not one of those cheaters, at least the anti-cheat measures are keeping a watchful eye on things.
