NetEase permanently bans nearly 500 Marvel Rivals cheaters and warns repeat offenders could face hardware bans

NetEase has permanently banned nearly 500 Marvel Rivals accounts after a recent wave of cheating in the popular hero shooter. The studio said it investigated players who were using or distributing unauthorized third party tools and confirmed that 488 accounts had violated the game’s rules.

The bans came after a weekend update, when NetEase said a group of players began promoting and using what it called unauthorized third party enhancements. In simpler terms, they were cheats. The studio responded by tracking the accounts, confirming violations, and permanently removing them from the game.

NetEase says the anti cheat cannot be disabled through launch settings

The studio also addressed rumors that Marvel Rivals’ anti cheat system could be bypassed through launch parameters. NetEase said that claim is false. According to the company, the anti cheat starts at the same time as the game client and cannot be turned off separately.

The confusion appears to come from a launch parameter that hides a pop up window. NetEase said that setting only hides the notification and does not disable the anti cheat software itself.

The list of banned accounts is also notable because many of the players caught cheating were still ranked Bronze, the lowest rank in the game. According to the report, 184 of the banned accounts were Bronze players. Only three had reached One Above All, the game’s highest rank. Grandmaster and Diamond each had 65 banned accounts.

That detail makes the situation look even worse for the cheaters. Cheating in a competitive game is already unfair, but failing to climb out of the lowest rank while using cheats shows how little those tools guaranteed success. Some of those accounts may have been new alternate accounts created to avoid risking main profiles, but NetEase’s warning suggests that will not protect repeat offenders for long.

The studio said any verified account using cheats, illicit assist programs, or client tampering will face permanent bans. It also said repeat offenders can be hit with stronger action, including IP bans and hardware bans. That means players who keep cheating may not be able to simply create another account and return.

NetEase’s message is clear. Marvel Rivals is a competitive PvP game, and the company wants to protect fair play before cheating becomes a larger problem. Online shooters can lose player trust quickly if cheating feels common, so visible enforcement matters.

The public naming and shaming approach also sends a warning to the wider player base. NetEase did not directly expose personal details, but it listed banned accounts with censored names and rank information. That gives the community proof that action was taken without fully doxing players.

Marvel Rivals now joins other major online shooters that are taking a strict stance against cheating. Apex Legends and Marathon have also made it clear that cheating can lead to permanent bans.

For normal players, this is good news. A competitive game only works when matches feel fair. NetEase still has to keep improving detection and enforcement, but nearly 500 permanent bans show that the studio is willing to act quickly. For cheaters, the message is even simpler: hiding a pop up does not turn off anti cheat, and getting caught can cost the account permanently.