Arc Raiders streamer aimkey wondered, in an October 20 Twitter post, "how am I not banned yet" as he posted a gameplay clip that some viewers interpreted as a sure sign of aimbotting given the unusually fast and accurate reticle work. Today, October 23, he confirmed that he has been hardware banned from Arc Raiders for aimbotting.
"I've been falsely banned from ARC Raiders for aimbotting," reads a recent post from aimkey. "I've dedicated my life to this game since release, streaming thousands of hours of my gameplay publicly. I'm willing to FLY OUT to Embark HQ and play in front of the developers to prove I'm 100% legitimate. My reputation and career are being destroyed, and I've even received death threats over this ban."
False positives do happen with anti-cheat systems, but for future reference, offering to play the same game on a different computer is not a great defense against cheating accusations. That's like an accused shoplifter saying, "Put any item in front of me right now and I won't steal it while you're watching, officer."
A shared message from Embark support agent Alan reads: "Our investigation has identified a consistent pattern of abnormal behaviors that are evidence of aimbotting, which constitutes a violation of Section V (Code of Conduct) in our Terms of Service and End User License Agreement."
On his Twitch stream, aimkey also shared a longer exchange with Embark that confirms he has been banned from Arc Raiders at the hardware level, preventing him from playing the game at all on his system.
Ahead of the game's big Frozen Trail update, which has brought a lot of life back to Arc Raiders after several dull months, Embark announced sweeping anti-cheat reforms which would see offenders permanently banned rather than slapped with temporary limitations or escalating warnings.
Over on the Arc Raiders subreddit, many players are celebrating as though the local house egger was finally caught, thrilled to at least see the new anti-cheat leading to decisive action. "With a name like aimkey... that's ironic," observes one user.
