A German streamer plays Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 like John Wick and makes countless kills without dying himself. But how he does it is actually forbidden.
Who is it about? Falaxii is a Twitch streamer and YouTuber who is considered one of the best German CoD players and impresses with strong gameplay.
However, there is a catch: Falaxii uses a forbidden “trick” when playing.
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We have asked Falaxii for a statement on the topic, which we will add to the article if there is a possible answer.
Streamers manipulate matchmaking
What does the streamer do? Falaxii, like many other content creators around the world, plays with a so-called nephew account. This is an account that intentionally plays very poorly so that Skill Based Matchmaking (SBMM) will classify him as a bad player and build the lobby accordingly.
The principle behind it is called reverse boosting and Activision sees it as a violation of its guidelines. Players can be suspended for this (via activision.com).
If you are looking for a match with such an account, the rating of the nephew account will be taken into account when creating a lobby. You will then get opponents whose skills are estimated to be somewhere between that of your nephew’s account and yours.
These mixed lobbies can have good players, but there can also be a round in which every opponent is much worse. In such lobbies, Falaxii can have spectacular rounds in which he dominates his opponents like John Wick.
Not an isolated case, but still forbidden
Is Falaxii an isolated case? No! This article is specifically about Falaxii, but reverse boosting is used by many YouTubers and streamers worldwide. We use Falaxii as an example because in his videos he illustrates the controversy surrounding “nephew accounts” by being significantly better than his opponents.
We have asked Falaxii for a statement on the topic, which we will add to the article if there is a possible answer.
Why is this forbidden? Reverse boosting involves manipulating matchmaking. This means that you then play against players you wouldn’t normally play against – because they are noticeably worse than you.
For a lesser player, playing against a player like Falaxii can feel very unfair – after all, he has no chance and will probably lose every gunfight mercilessly. The SBMM protects these players from this “bad” gaming experience.
“Anyone can do it in your lobbies”
Can anyone really do that? No. Of course, reverse boosting makes the lobbies easier and less “sweaty”, but very few players would still achieve 100 kills without death.
For example, Falaxii had a viewer play along in a video (via YouTube) who wrote that anyone could do this in his lobbies. The streamer then consistently had around 100 more kills in the rounds played together than the viewer, who barely left the match with a positive K/D. So not everyone could do it.
How should the whole thing be assessed? Critical. First and foremost, it is a policy violation that can potentially deprive other players of the fun of the game. Nothing changes if the videos or streams are entertaining and the player shows impressive skills.
Activision is primarily responsible here – but not to punish the players. That would only address the symptom, not the problem. Reverse boosting is a direct result of the much criticized SBMM.
Many players wish the matchmaking was back before SBMM existed. In order to have a comparable gaming experience, they then resort to “nephew accounts”. The recently banned YouTuber Haptic also uses such an account: German YouTuber is banned in CoD: Black Ops 6, says his friend is to blame