Competitive Warzone players are reportedly using routers to get into "bot lobbies"

A report has surfaced that claims competitive Call of Duty: Warzone players are utilizing a special router to get into easier lobbies for tournaments.

Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) in Call of Duty has been a hot topic for years. The vocal community is against the feature but developers clearly see a reason for keeping the matchmaking system in every new title.

Unfortunately for Warzone players, the feature has been steadily ramping up since the game's release in March. Lobbies are getting tougher and players are noticing, as many high-profile creators call out Activision on social media.

However, it appears the SBMM has gotten so bad that competitive players are utilizing any method to avoid it. This apparently includes using a Netduma router to change regions and get into lobbies with less-talented players.

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Warzone players avoiding Skill-Based Matchmaking in competitive play

The competitive side of Warzone has really heated up since the summer. Huge esports organizations like 100 Thieves have signed players specifically for competing in tournaments on the game. While there's no official scene yet, some real cash can be made by winning these tournaments.

However, since there's no real private match feature yet, players are forced to go into regular lobbies and play against players who are close to their skill level (thanks to SBMM). Obviously, this creates some frustration among the competitors.

Up to this point, few viewers suspected that competitive players could avoid these kinds of lobbies. Now, a report has come to light that puts everything in doubt.

Competitive #Warzone players have been using routers that allow you to force your region to wherever in the world you want to get “bot lobbies.”This has been going on since Warzone tournaments gained popularity.Between hackers, Cronus, and this’d comp Warzone is in a bad spot

— ModernWarzone (@ModernWarzone) December 27, 2020

Also, to further add evidence to the claims we are making here’s a tidbit of info. We work with multiple tournament platforms for advertising and partnerships, and the best one we’ve worked with thus far is looking HEAVILY in to combatting netduma routers being exploited.

— ModernWarzone (@ModernWarzone) December 27, 2020

According to the well-respected Twitter account @ModernWarzone, competitors are using a special kind of router, Netduma, to change regions and get into easier lobbies.

The Netduma router allows you to simply ping whatever region you want to play in. As such, players can hop onto a server that they have no business playing on.

This is clearly a huge dilemma and although there's no concrete evidence to support this claim right now, ModernWarzone states tournament sites are looking into this matter.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an easy way to tell who is exploiting the Netduma router. While the lobbies could be a dead giveaway, most competitive players are so talented that it's hard to gauge the skill level of their opponents.

It remains up in the air whether this issue will have a resolution or not. However, at least the report is out in the public now.