Banned Destiny 2 streamer denies cheating, gets ruined by Bungie

When Destiny 2 hopped from Battle.net to Steam at the end of 2019, the number of players cheating apparently ballooned. As YouTuber Aztecross put it in the video above, "You would look at players and their record, they would go from a 0.5 K/D to a 2.5, 3.5 or higher—you're like, 'What the hell did they eat?'". According to Bungie, cheating went up by roughly 50% in the first four months of 2020. Since then Bungie has shut down cheat-seller PerfectAim and teamed up with Riot to take GatorCheats to court. 

As anyone who plays the Trials of Osiris mode each weekend can attest, Destiny 2 definitely still has a cheating problem. But Bungie may be step upping its anti-cheat efforts, and based on today's evidence, being a well-known 'content creator' isn't going to protect you from the banhammer. BakenGangsta, another Destiny 2 YouTuber, found out the hard way.

After being banned for the second time, Baken protested his innocence, tweeting that "this is kinda ridiculous" and asking for "some people at bungie to look into it. There's no way I get banned when I see mad cheaters play for months."

Bungie's senior community manager Dylan Gafner replied, "Bans are not issued without reason. Team has validated this action multiple times thanks to anti-cheat detection and investigation." He also linked to Bungie's account restrictions and banning policies page. It was a pretty mild response. 

It also wasn't enough for Baken, who continued to press his case, saying, "I'd like to see the proof of what I was doing that resulted in this ban because as of right now this is bullshit."

It's at this point I'd like you to imagine a sharp intake of breath from the crowd. This public conversation was playing out on social media, and a streamer with thousands of followers on YouTube and Twitch had just walked directly into the line of fire.

"Following up", Gafner replied. "Took some time to triple check this with the Security team. We have detected 2 accounts under your ownership using cheat suites while playing Destiny 2, and have banned 4 accounts total. (Includes ban evasion) This is our final communication on this matter."

If you aren't familiar with reading between the lines of the measured tones adopted by community managers in situations like this, a Bungie staff member—UI/UX visual designer Elliott Gray—stepped in to dramatize the exchange. In meme form. The moral is clear: no matter how many followers you have, if you're caught cheating the banhammer's going to drop.