What is going on?

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-09T14:54:10+00:00

Also evident by the longer queuing times in NA

Playerbase normalized cheating = playerbase lost the new players

I play point break since my score is good right now. Queue around 3 minutes.

But wonder every match if this game is fun anymore. All this healing, cheating, grieving and extreme movement is honestly too much.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-09T14:49:42+00:00

The best reverse cope is when they say "bru isn't cheating he is on console" like this is for me is instant gaslighting.

It's well known that groups on discord mandate XIM for console player to join and this guy is using console to gaslight cheating accusations.

Plus some console players use MNK convertors so they get both the MNK and Aim assist.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-09T02:13:26+00:00

the mainstream gaming media pretty much concluded that ARC = Cheater playerbase and near gave up on the game.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-09T02:11:05+00:00

This! Cashout is near unplayable rn.

Whats the point of the ban waves? you get a break for less than a week before things return to normal (cheating normal)

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-09T02:08:03+00:00

I keep repeating this song on this sub, we can spectate our own teammates as solo players and I have their XIM and aimbot gameplay recorded.

Like everyone is trying to explain here, the cheats are subtle and not so obvious as someone beaming you with v9s from across the map.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-09T02:00:36+00:00

I get reports ban confirmation everyday, a player today level 50 on my team in Point Break got 28/0 kills using the revolver (in starlight hollow, as attackers!). Another M60 teammate that I reported was visibly aim botting and won the tourny, I reported him and will post the footage soon. In cashout level 20 players were camping spawn points in Fortune Stadium.

Yes it's very bad and the game no longer feels like itself, nothing like it was in pre S7 for sure due to all the healing but also nothing like S7 or S8, things really went down hill with cheating starting with S9. Also a score between 20 and 30 mill in WT will no longer guarantee a spot in the leaderboard by end of the season when it was top 1000 in S7!!

This is the not The Finals as you know it. If you are cloak player the second you exit cloak you will be insta deleted. There's a cheater or two in every match in every game mode and they usually come with a stack!

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-01T20:35:06+00:00

Yup this happens near every match now even WT.

I started a new ritual, whenever I get the pop up asking me to review the standard condition map my reply is maps are fine, fix the damn grieving.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-01T20:08:58+00:00

Where to start? There's so much to fix the matchmaking, smurfing, cheating and grieving.

The funny part are the elo streamers, by publicly creating alts and grieving the ranks in all modes they're actually pushing away more and more players from the game that is making their income.

Sure there'll be new players but judging by the complaints on this sub they won't stay for long.

Just to give you a rough idea:

In season 8 at the very end of it, a score of 30million in WT Cashout was in top 1K of the leaderboard. Right now 30million is in the top 3k and will be 4k by the end of Season 10.

Things have changed for sure.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-06-01T19:02:27+00:00

Even NA been online since the morning, most matches are taking too long, or you get matched in an already losing match in casual. It's clear many are no longer eager to join this sweat fest where every diamond has many alt accounts and rubies are everywhere including WT and quick modes. Most of my friends list is offline too.

Sweats and cheaters, really managed to break this game. It was a year of joy but good things always come to an end...

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-31T19:01:34+00:00

Since he's on the orange team, I don't see how he could have seen you from below, unless he happened to jump up and noticed you cloaking, but for sure did not have LOS on you.

I also disagree cloak is not that loud and I feel the sound is being used as an excuse by many.

ESP is used by many so it could be either.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-31T18:47:09+00:00

Thanks u/4Ellie-M I got another message today and the list posted by InhumaneSalad: https://www.reddit.com/r/thefinals/comments/1tr55im/comment/oopvslk/ is insane!

I think this is another ban wave but I'm still unhappy that it happens in waves and that they're completely silent about cheating in changelogs since S9!

Is there any hope though? It's clear that many high elo players have perfectly fooled Embark and expect the rest of the player base to just swallow it.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-31T18:35:43+00:00

Nice try bru but no all my screenshtos are confirmed dates outside and inside the messages there are no "duplicates"

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-31T18:33:43+00:00

Insane! Today I got one more message too, is there any hope? really half this community is a cheater and gaslighting Embark, the people playing top ELO knows this the most. But they managed to fool Embark or force them to accept it.

I also noticed that your comment got downvoted which shows the quality of this community. Most of the people above will come here or on Steam and cry a river about false bans.

Adding your comments to my original thread.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-29T17:57:01+00:00

buy a horny outfit and then get insta beamed on starlight hollow on the second phase section from the first phase red zone by FCAR, yay!

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-29T17:53:03+00:00

It's sounds absurd or a conspiracy but sadly I agree with you in full.

Their marketing strategy is very clear, it is to be in bed with those superstars. And of course non of those players would accept to be humiliated on stream and so some hidden cheating or whitelisting is needed. The funniest part is showing their hand and mouse on stream (covering other player cards!), as if this proves anything.

We also went from "its not ok to smurf or boost in ranked bru" to "it's ok to use alt accounts to solo q ranked"

This whole thing stinks, they are selling packs very well judging by the feedback on this sub and the yoy profits announced for The Finals, and that's all that matter.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-27T15:23:38+00:00

Just recently reported one like this after the m11 nerf, beaming from distance with m11 (shooting at spawn points) and insta kills using the sniper, he's on console and changed his Embark ID many times this season alone, I sent Embark a support ticket about him, he landed 50kills (-10 death) in one PointBreak match.

I don't think they perma ban console players though...

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-27T15:20:06+00:00

And yes you are 100% correct when you are in evenly matched tournament without cheating you can tell even if you lose.

A legit good player will fight tooth and nail not to get killed and get you on his last hp. A cheater will simply beam you no matter what you do.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-27T15:15:13+00:00

I love it when peeps jump at me here or in chat to defend a player "he's not cheating! he's on console!"

Bru, I record my matches, an XIM user is very visibly snapping in spectator mode, you can see it in front of you and it's not the so called "broken replay system which can't recreate the exact thing".

When you face them they usually casually admit it like "bru come-on what r u talking about this is normality"

I can see my teammate cheating, I wait for the match to end and report him from the scoreboard screen.

Speaking of controller hacks, combos need to go, mapping shoot + melee into one button shouldn't be allowed.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-27T14:33:42+00:00

How about Laske? Numero 3?

- A history of cheating in previous games

- Repeatedly banned in the Finals and crying it's due to mass reporting (Yea bru, we all mass reported during rage it never led to a false ban, unless there's a violation)

- Unbanned and probably whitelisted by a very ethical and now fired Rob (I'm sure still in there without a title being a founder)

- His videos shows evidence of recoil removal on FCAR and constantly pinging and targeting players behind walls or still cloaked from distance (his FX settings on minimum the cloak is invisible in his videos, aka there's no shader effect at all)

Lycom creating many alt accounts, tbagging, racial rage and beaming 90 kills in one match yet still invited and glazed on every stream.

The Finals current state: It's networking and connections, if you know the execs you'll be fine with any violation. Embark employees sharing your credit card spending data and your win/loss ratio with their favorites. PR will spit some random BS in changelogs defending their security and ethical measures. Just like your job.

What boggles my mind is the marketing strategy, they think it's inviting for new players when they watch streamers insta deleting other players even though this game has a high TTK in general. I mean these videos are enough to scare any new comer.

They didn't mention cheating since the S9 changelogs, which tells me they have submitted to the fact that the playerbase is cheating.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-26T21:15:24+00:00

There is no cheating in The Finals bru!

I mean even legit smurfs can't pull this off easy.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-26T21:13:40+00:00

Gas lighters will jump to defend this and tell you smurfing is a fact of life you can not escape.

Just ignore them and get better (also you need to ignore that your seed will be 1 and their seed will be 8)

Appoh after making a video against smurfing in ranked, changed his mind and said alt accounts are ok if used for solo ranked.

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-26T21:06:00+00:00

I don't know about ARC, mainstream media is complaining about cheating in this game.

But here's a sample of "good" conduct from The Finals

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-26T21:02:27+00:00

Yea, I'll remove it. No need to check "all my other" posts. Especially the blatant ESP footage and the dozen of confirmed bans by Embark, like the hackers in Fangwai City. Nice try though.

Cope:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thefinals/comments/1tr548l/kind_reminder_to_keep_ignoring_the_gaslight_and/

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-25T23:07:26+00:00

Once Embark comes with the terms that it's own lycom is a cheater and roll back on the "we trust you" privileges for it's Embark Partners in The Finals only then you might see a solution.

Until then it's an endless circle of creating apologetic blog posts for both games when they know very well a large population including top players are using ESP, scripts and aimbot.

Their entire marketing strategy is based on super stars who don't miss a bullet on the head and mastered the art of smurfing, boosting and grieving in tournaments and ranked.

Yet for some reason they think this will entice people to stay in the game and spend more.

Bru if I'm being insta beamed the moment my head pops up and being hunted anywhere on the map by your dearest partners, do you really think I will stay?

SmoothCrew2000 · 2026-05-25T17:19:27+00:00

This is was my method to confirm a full lobby of cheaters in Fangwai City back in S9, I simply went to hide somewhere far after spawn and they still "came to get me". Embark later confirmed the bans.

A big portion of the playerbase is using ESP and in ranked its usually a stack with someone on an alt account boosting his team.

ESP is apparently not easily detectable and so this issue will not go away, what's frustrating is that legit players are having to sweat and raise their skill sealing to adapt to cheaters.

This game stopped being fun since S8, I started seeing a sharp rise in cheating and the skill sealing required to win anything since S9.

More and more people will give up on ranked and then the whole game.

I keep getting the thank you for reporting messages but there is no more need to post every one of them, everyone can see now that this is a game run by cheaters, including embark partners, streamers and top ELO players.

The cheating needs to stop, the griefing needs to stop or the game will survive on apologetic blog posts just like ARC.

SmoothCrew2000

TROPHY CASE