"The Dumbest Person on the Planet": Activision Banned an Esports Athlete Who Publicly Sold Call of Duty Boosting Services

Nero stated that he "was forced" to break the game's rules because there are many cheaters in Call of Duty.

Professional Call of Duty player Dylan “Nero” Koch received a temporary ban in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 ranked mode after publicly advertising his account boosting services.

On September 24, Nero announced that his main account had been suspended from ranked play. When attempting to enter the mode, he saw a notification that his account or the account of one of his party members was under review and temporarily unable to participate in ranked matches. The esports athlete assumed there was an error and sought help from the official Call of Duty community team.

Call of Duty representatives responded by publishing a deleted post in which Nero advertised rank boosting services. The player offered other users to increase their rank either by playing directly on their account or through co-op matches, where the client effectively gained the opportunity to climb the ranks with the help of a stronger teammate.

Later, the esports athlete explained his decision by saying that other people were making a lot of money from similar services. According to him, he decided to try it himself, but is no longer doing it. When asked about the consequences, Nero replied that many players use such services. In another post, he noted that, in his opinion, messages from professional players looking for accounts of a certain rank often imply boosting.

Players are writing that they have never seen such a “stupid” person who not only publicly advertised boosting services but then tried to explain a direct violation of Call of Duty rules with the words “everyone does it anyway”.

Activision explicitly classifies boosting as a violation of the rules. According to the company's security and enforcement policy, exploiting the game to gain experience, prestige, game score, weapon levels, or in-game unlocks is considered a violation of the terms of use.

Nero has been competing professionally in Call of Duty for about eight years.