I think I found the Bug in the Ban Detection Software (Jun 2025)

So... I read through a couple of post and saw this comment:
"Bruh, literally Saw Banned accounts because their phones had Game Booster activated, this is a Kabam huge problem incoming" (REF: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2820701/#Comment_2820701)

---

I think that's the problem. The UX Game Experience software that many manufacturer include with their devices. The ban detection software thinks that anything that is running concurrent that isn't the OS is cheat software. I'm using a Motorola phone which comes with "Moto Gametime". It's an overlay that disables light sensor, blocks calls, blocks notification, allows screen capture, screen recording, twitch streaming, among other things.

From other manufacturers beside Motorola that comes bundled from the device manufacturer:

Samsung has Game Booster: Optimizes performance, manages notifications, allows for screen recording, and provides tools like "Priority Mode" to dedicate more resources to gaming. Some models also have features like "Pause USB Power Delivery" to bypass battery charging and directly power the phone, reducing heat.
Xiaomi/POCO/Redmi (Game Turbo).
OnePlus (Gaming Mode/HyperBoost Gaming Engine).
ASUS (ROG Phone series - Armory Crate/X Mode).
Apple (Game Mode in iOS 18+).

REQUEST/QUESTION: I'm curious, for the people that are NOT banned, do you have one of the above things running (or something similar)? From those people, I'd like to know the manufacture of the device and any "game experience" enhancement that is or is not running from the device manufacturer. Perhaps you HAVE the UX software but don't run it.

REQUEST/QUESTION: And for people that ARE banned, I like to know the same. What device you are running and if you are running any "game experience" enhancement software from the device manufacturer.

Format:
Banned (Y/N)? //UX Enabled (Y/N)? // Manufacturer // UX Software from the device manufacturer

Examples:
Y // Y // MOTOROLA // Moto Gametime
Y // Y // SAMSUNG // Game Booster
Y // Y // Google Pixel // Game Dashboard
N // N // SAMSUNG // Game Booster

If you're using a UX Game enhancement software that was not made by the mobile device manufacturer, please clearly state so.

Comments

Average_Desi

Game mode does not alter the game. Kabam couldn't care less about whether or not your phone blocks app notifications when you're playing mcoc.

I'm on a OnePlus and will always have a game mode on when I play. I didn't get banned

willrun4adonut

From about three comments below where you pulled the game booster comment and he's not banned right now

DarkQuake

I use samaung and im pretty sure game booster runs automatically. I am not banned.

Avacado

As a prediction - I don't think Google or Apple users were banned if they used the UX Game Enhancement since it's much more tightly integrated with the OS instead of an "add-on".

Furrymoosen

The bans/suspensions would be in the hundreds of thousands, not just 10k. It is absolutely not a contributing factor.

Avacado

I use samaung and im pretty sure game booster runs automatically. I am not banned.

Does it overlay on top (floating icon or something similar) or completely hidden?

Avacado

Game mode does not alter the game. Kabam couldn't care less about whether or not your phone blocks app notifications when you're playing mcoc.

I understand. However, my point is that perhaps the ban software is incorrectly identifying the UX game enhancement s/w as cheating software.

Does it overlay on top (floating icon or something similar) or completely hidden?

Avacado

The bans/suspensions would be in the hundreds of thousands, not just 10k. It is absolutely not a contributing factor.

Well... from my point of view, something is obviously broken and I'm just trying to figure out what it could be.

BTW, how many people signed up for the pre-registration for the PC version?

BringPopcorn

I use samaung and im pretty sure game booster runs automatically. I am not banned.
Does it overlay on top (floating icon or something similar) or completely hidden?

Samsung Game booster, its not the problem.
I mean you are saying this as if they didn't have devices of their own to know this stuff, as if the game booster that comes with most Samsung was some obscure app gotten from the deep web.

DarkQuake

Game mode does not alter the game. Kabam couldn't care less about whether or not your phone blocks app notifications when you're playing mcoc.
I understand. However, my point is that perhaps the ban software is incorrectly identifying the UX game enhancement s/w as cheating software.

Does it overlay on top (floating icon or something similar) or completely hidden?
I can view it on the side of my home button. Ill show screenshots of with my phone when im not on a game and im when on mcoc.

ahmynuts

Bro literally didn't scroll down on the thread hes referencing

Avacado

I use samaung and im pretty sure game booster runs automatically. I am not banned.
Does it overlay on top (floating icon or something similar) or completely hidden?

Samsung Game booster, its not the problem.

Thanks for the information. I'm not entirely convinced without more data points. It could the version of the UX Game Enhancement S/W. I know that between my Moto Stylus 5G 2020 (cracked phone that I use to play MCOC 98% of the time) and Moto Stylus 5G 2022 (voice phone), the software changed. It's called the same thing but the features and designs are different.

Avacado

Does it overlay on top (floating icon or something similar) or completely hidden?

Samsung Game booster, its not the problem.
I mean you are saying this as if they didn't have devices of their own to know this stuff, as if the game booster that comes with most Samsung was some obscure app gotten from the deep web.

For some reason, and I'm probably wrong, but what I'm getting out of the various recent threads about this recent ban wave is this:
You're banned because you are violating TOS (side load, using third party, cheating, etc.) and there's no other reason why you were banned. We know this because Kabam said so. And Kabam used software to ban pick which players to ban.

Software is only as good as the software engineer. The engineer can only design code around what they know and can "guess". Going to to your comment about "devices of their own"... Do they have every single Samsung device made? With every UX enhancement S/W by Samsung?

Going full circle, Kabam's software doesn't have bugs right? Event quests, animation, nodes -- every month that new software comes out, there are no bugs, right? So this software used to find TOS violator must also be as good?

But remember, I'm from the outside, I'm not a test engineer on their team, so I can't say for sure what the issue is here. I'm trying to get data points to look for patterns.

BringPopcorn

Does it overlay on top (floating icon or something similar) or completely hidden?

Samsung Game booster, its not the problem.
I mean you are saying this as if they didn't have devices of their own to know this stuff, as if the game booster that comes with most Samsung was some obscure app gotten from the deep web.
For some reason, and I'm probably wrong, but what I'm getting out of the various recent threads about this recent ban wave is this:
You're banned because you are violating TOS (side load, using third party, cheating, etc.) and there's no other reason why you were banned. We know this because Kabam said so. And Kabam used software to ban pick which players to ban.

Software is only as good as the software engineer. The engineer can only design code around what they know and can "guess". Going to to your comment about "devices of their own"... Do they have every single Samsung device made? With every UX enhancement S/W by Samsung?

Going full circle, Kabam's software doesn't have bugs right? Event quests, animation, nodes -- every month that new software comes out, there are no bugs, right? So this software used to find TOS violator must also be as good?

But remember, I'm from the outside, I'm not a test engineer on their team, so I can't say for sure what the issue is here. I'm trying to get data points to look for patterns.

The only thing I can tell you for sure is that it takes 1 or 2 people to create doubt for 50 or more to jump on the train.

Demonzfyre

So... I read through a couple of post and saw this comment:
"Bruh, literally Saw Banned accounts because their phones had Game Booster activated, this is a Kabam huge problem incoming" (REF: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2820701/#Comment_2820701)

---

I think that's the problem. The UX Game Experience software that many manufacturer include with their devices. The ban detection software thinks that anything that is running concurrent that isn't the OS is cheat software. I'm using a Motorola phone which comes with "Moto Gametime". It's an overlay that disables light sensor, blocks calls, blocks notification, allows screen capture, screen recording, twitch streaming, among other things.

From other manufacturers beside Motorola that comes bundled from the device manufacturer:
Samsung has Game Booster: Optimizes performance, manages notifications, allows for screen recording, and provides tools like "Priority Mode" to dedicate more resources to gaming. Some models also have features like "Pause USB Power Delivery" to bypass battery charging and directly power the phone, reducing heat.
Xiaomi/POCO/Redmi (Game Turbo).
OnePlus (Gaming Mode/HyperBoost Gaming Engine).
ASUS (ROG Phone series - Armory Crate/X Mode).
Apple (Game Mode in iOS 18+).

REQUEST/QUESTION: I'm curious, for the people that are NOT banned, do you have one of the above things running (or something similar)? From those people, I'd like to know the manufacture of the device and any "game experience" enhancement that is or is not running from the device manufacturer. Perhaps you HAVE the UX software but don't run it.

REQUEST/QUESTION: And for people that ARE banned, I like to know the same. What device you are running and if you are running any "game experience" enhancement software from the device manufacturer.

Format:
Banned (Y/N)? //UX Enabled (Y/N)? // Manufacturer // UX Software from the device manufacturer

Examples:
Y // Y // MOTOROLA // Moto Gametime
Y // Y // SAMSUNG // Game Booster
Y // Y // Google Pixel // Game Dashboard
N // N // SAMSUNG // Game Booster

If you're using a UX Game enhancement software that was not made by the mobile device manufacturer, please clearly state so.

None of those have anything to do with what the ban detection software looks for. It's only looking for changes to the client. What you're describing isn't making change that. It's running alongside the app. Google has a game center and I can open it to screen record and things.

CheeseMaster482

No, using any overlay will not trigger the ban. If you are on Android which is what most modders are on, the game uses the Play Integrity API.

This API allows Kabam to see if the game was installed from the Google Play store or not. If it wasn't then I am assuming it tells them what vendor the game was downloaded from. Kabam has a list of authorized download sites so if the website you downloaded the game from isn't on that list, you were flagged and given the suspension.

On the mcoc discord someone said that Aptoide is one of the approved alternative websites where you can download mcoc.

willrun4adonut

No, using any overlay will not trigger the ban. If you are on Android which is what most modders are on, the game uses the Play Integrity API.

This API allows Kabam to see if the game was installed from the Google Play store or not. If it wasn't then I am assuming it tells them what vendor the game was downloaded from. Kabam has a list of authorized download sites so if the website you downloaded the game from isn't on that list, you were flagged and given the suspension.

On the mcoc discord someone said that Aptoide is one of the approved alternative websites where you can download mcoc.

Someone posted the screenshot of the approved sites, and it did have Aptoide. In this case, though, I wouldn't be surprised if support had inaccurate information, as has been the case prior with support not having all the info provided to them correctly.

Avacado

No, using any overlay will not trigger the ban. If you are on Android which is what most modders are on, the game uses the Play Integrity API.

This API allows Kabam to see if the game was installed from the Google Play store or not. If it wasn't then I am assuming it tells them what vendor the game was downloaded from. Kabam has a list of authorized download sites so if the website you downloaded the game from isn't on that list, you were flagged and given the suspension.

On the mcoc discord someone said that Aptoide is one of the approved alternative websites where you can download mcoc.

If that is the reason for my suspension, then SOMETHING is wrong with the detection software because it is 100% wrong. I have only EVER downloaded MCOC from the Google Play store.

Inhibiter

Does play integrity api work on older android devices not running the latest android version? I see play integrity had an update in may 2025, but was this rolled out to older devices who cant update android versions (like an older samsung running android 8 or 9) with out jail breaking the phone?
If that's what kabam have used then the system would be flawed from the start.

CheeseMaster482

Does play integrity api work on older android devices not running the latest android version? I see play integrity had an update in may 2025, but was this rolled out to older devices who cant update android versions (like an older samsung running android 8 or 9) with out jail breaking the phone?
If that's what kabam have used then the system would be flawed from the start.

Yes, the API does work on older devices, however, the minimum version for mcoc to run is android 8. This could mean that older devices are more likely to be using side loaded apps if they are on Android 8 but don't have the official app appear on their Google play store

Terminatrix

Wouldn't Kabam know that phones have game boosters, since phones are the main devices for the game? It doesn't make sense and would be poor judgement, and a bad look for Kabam to punish players for something that's out of their control.

Abspain101

Wouldn't Kabam know that phones have game boosters, since phones are the main devices for the game? It doesn't make sense and would be poor judgement, and a bad look for Kabam to punish players for something that's out of their control.

If it was boosters then 100 of thousands would have been banned not just 10k

Inhibiter

Does play integrity api work on older android devices not running the latest android version? I see play integrity had an update in may 2025, but was this rolled out to older devices who cant update android versions (like an older samsung running android 8 or 9) with out jail breaking the phone?
If that's what kabam have used then the system would be flawed from the start.
Yes, the API does work on older devices, however, the minimum version for mcoc to run is android 8. This could mean that older devices are more likely to be using side loaded apps if they are on Android 8 but don't have the official app appear on their Google play store

Good to know. I use a samsung s7 with android 8 (cant get any newer firmware / OS updates) and mcoc still shows in my google play store which I've always used to download the game. I got the 7 day ban despite this so I'm wondering if it's an issue with the early android version and its policies rather than the game itself. Interesting to think about anyway.

spiderknight616

I have a Motorola with Game time on, not banned

Terminatrix

Wouldn't Kabam know that phones have game boosters, since phones are the main devices for the game? It doesn't make sense and would be poor judgement, and a bad look for Kabam to punish players for something that's out of their control.
If it was boosters then 100 of thousands would have been banned not just 10k

Right! And there would a lot of pissed off players.

Too close to 4th of July deals lol

Razorlord7

Game mode does not alter the game. Kabam couldn't care less about whether or not your phone blocks app notifications when you're playing mcoc.

I'm on a OnePlus and will always have a game mode on when I play. I didn't get banned

I can second Desi. Same thing. Use gaming mode but not banned.

Razorlord7

So... I read through a couple of post and saw this comment:
"Bruh, literally Saw Banned accounts because their phones had Game Booster activated, this is a Kabam huge problem incoming" (REF: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2820701/#Comment_2820701)

---

I think that's the problem. The UX Game Experience software that many manufacturer include with their devices. The ban detection software thinks that anything that is running concurrent that isn't the OS is cheat software. I'm using a Motorola phone which comes with "Moto Gametime". It's an overlay that disables light sensor, blocks calls, blocks notification, allows screen capture, screen recording, twitch streaming, among other things.

From other manufacturers beside Motorola that comes bundled from the device manufacturer:
Samsung has Game Booster: Optimizes performance, manages notifications, allows for screen recording, and provides tools like "Priority Mode" to dedicate more resources to gaming. Some models also have features like "Pause USB Power Delivery" to bypass battery charging and directly power the phone, reducing heat.
Xiaomi/POCO/Redmi (Game Turbo).
OnePlus (Gaming Mode/HyperBoost Gaming Engine).
ASUS (ROG Phone series - Armory Crate/X Mode).
Apple (Game Mode in iOS 18+).

REQUEST/QUESTION: I'm curious, for the people that are NOT banned, do you have one of the above things running (or something similar)? From those people, I'd like to know the manufacture of the device and any "game experience" enhancement that is or is not running from the device manufacturer. Perhaps you HAVE the UX software but don't run it.

REQUEST/QUESTION: And for people that ARE banned, I like to know the same. What device you are running and if you are running any "game experience" enhancement software from the device manufacturer.

Format:
Banned (Y/N)? //UX Enabled (Y/N)? // Manufacturer // UX Software from the device manufacturer

Examples:
Y // Y // MOTOROLA // Moto Gametime
Y // Y // SAMSUNG // Game Booster
Y // Y // Google Pixel // Game Dashboard
N // N // SAMSUNG // Game Booster

If you're using a UX Game enhancement software that was not made by the mobile device manufacturer, please clearly state so.
None of those have anything to do with what the ban detection software looks for. It's only looking for changes to the client. What you're describing isn't making change that. It's running alongside the app. Google has a game center and I can open it to screen record and things.

Aptly explained. Hope this makes it clear to a lot of people out there.

SirGamesBond

Ran the game in xiaomi, oneplus and Samsung.
Yes I use game booster. No ban.
I also ran the game in iPad mini for a year.

I dont think a single default game booseter app triggered it. The untrusted booster apps downloaded from the appstores seems to be the culprit.

captain_rogers

I used redmi game turbo and I'm not banned.

Torque_24

I had game turbo on my phone and touch wood wasn't banned. I really hope this is right as I was going to look for ways to turn it off if not, but that would lose a lot of functionality. It's just an easy nice overlay of fast clearing memory, adjusting display settings (which afaik are default), deeper cleans things, show FPS, allows screen recording and other settings.

How exactly that can be construed as "cheating" I'm not sure. It at best optimises the hardware you have by limiting resources elsewhere, turns notifications off so they don't interrupt gameplay. All of these (such as clearing memory) can also be done by other means just taking more than one click to do and usually on my phone I'll switch windows and say I went to the cleaner and boosted its ram and/or cleared/ optimised cache there it would achieve similar results I would think. However when switching windows my game often has to reload which is a pain, especially if you're trying to show the ally something or nodes to help plan for a run on AW.

So is it just the 3rd party stuff, excluding boostsrs that came with your phone? It really does limit what you can do otherwise. Whether there's something different about the 3rd party ones idk. Say they're side loaded then I believe that's a no no. There's a lot of speculation and just trying to wrap my head around this. I've heard vpns were mentioned but I use them on and off and it's never mattered a nd iirc Kabam said they don't matter, yet some still list them as possible causes.