We want to give you an update on something frustrating: cheating. Specifically, people using software that plays the game for them. We have been working on this since the beginning and these accounts get detected and banned on an ongoing basis.

Why We’re Talking About This

We’ve wanted to talk about this topic for a long time. The reason we haven’t is because any public post about cheating also advertises it. When a studio talks about a cheat, more people go looking for it. So for a long time we’ve been doing the work quietly and tried to let the bans speak for themselves. You, the community, deserve to know what’s going on, and you deserve to know what Blue Mammoth Games and Ubisoft are doing about it.

What We’re Dealing With

Many games fight cheats like X-ray, auto-aim, teleporting, flying, no-clip, etc. What we’re seeing isn’t that kind of cheat. In Brawlhalla, cheaters are running programs that watch the game and press the buttons for them.

These programs aren’t capable of doing anything beyond what is within the design of the game. A cheater’s program’s inputs are similar to those of a top level player, which means detecting them accurately takes extra care. They aren’t playing the game. They’re sitting there watching software play a bot they’ve named after themselves.

Why This Matters

Brawlhalla has been around for 11 years, and over that time we’ve all built something special together: the developers, the pros, the content creators, dedicated community members, and every player who has ever queued up.

The crazy thing about Brawlhalla is that we spend all our time brawling each other, yet this community has some of the deepest respect and camaraderie we’ve seen anywhere. That goes for the players and the dev team. It was obvious from the very first BCX.

Looking at the level of play right now, like what we saw at the last World Championship and the recent Midseason Championship, it is incredible. Players are better than they’ve ever been, and the game’s combat has never looked better.

People who sell and use these bots are trying to undermine all of that. They are not anyone’s friend in this community and have even distributed malware capable of silently screenshotting and keylogging on the systems of those who decide to trust them.

Detection

Cheating is changing across the whole industry. Cheat-making is big business and AI is amplifying it. Studios everywhere are dealing with versions of this right now.

Our detection keeps getting stronger. We can’t go into detail on how, because cheat-makers are reading this too and will use that information to get around it. What we can tell you is that the methods we are developing to catch these bots today are much better than ever before, and we’ll keep improving them.

Lately, our enforcement has become much stricter. Cheaters are being permanently banned and people who help make or distribute these tools risk future legal action.

If you suspect someone is cheating, report them. Despite how it may seem, the in-game reports do actually help. When you report a cheater, there’s a good chance we’re already watching them and your reports help confirm it. Enforcement isn’t always immediate because we need confidence in the detection and can’t give info that would help cheat makers evade it.

Looking Ahead

No online game can make cheating completely disappear, but what we can do is make it as difficult and expensive as possible so it’s not sustainable. We’ll keep at it and keep you posted.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for playing for real.
– Blue Mammoth Games

TL;DR

We’re aware of some players using software to play for them in Ranked. We didn’t publicly address it until now because talking about cheats also advertises them, but the community deserves an update from us. There are always people trying to cheat in online games and we are always working on anti-cheat measures. Our detection is improving and our enforcement is much stricter now. Cheaters are getting permanently banned and cheat-makers risk future legal action. Your in-game reports help confirm ones we’re often already watching, so please use the in-game reporting feature when you can. We are determined to prevent these people from trying to undermine what our community has built.