Marvel Rivals Issues Apology for Unjust Bans

NetEase, the developer of Marvel Rivals, recently issued a public apology for mistakenly banning a significant number of innocent players. The unintentional bans occurred during a crackdown on cheaters within the game.

Accidental Bans Affect Non-Windows Users

The mishap primarily affected players using compatibility layers on non-Windows operating systems, including macOS, Linux, and Steam Deck. On January 3rd, community manager James announced on the official Discord server that these players were incorrectly flagged as cheaters due to their use of compatibility software. NetEase has since reversed the bans and apologized for the inconvenience. Players experiencing future issues with cheaters are encouraged to report them, and those wrongly banned can appeal through in-game support or Discord. The Steam Deck's Proton compatibility layer is known for triggering anti-cheat systems.

Calls for Universal Character Bans

Separately, the Marvel Rivals community is calling for a change to the game's character ban system. Currently, character bans—a feature allowing players to remove specific characters from selection—are only available at Diamond rank and above. Players in lower ranks express frustration, arguing that the lack of this feature in lower tiers creates unbalanced gameplay and limits strategic options. Reddit users highlight the disparity, suggesting that implementing character bans across all ranks would improve the overall gaming experience, introduce newer players to the mechanic, and foster more diverse team compositions. NetEase has yet to publicly respond to this feedback.