The sixth season of "Call of Duty: Warzone" started today, but roughly 20,000 players will miss it, and Vice reports that Activision handed down a major hammer yesterday to cheaters who detected the use of a popular cheat. According to the report.

People "familiar with the matter" told the site that one of the users banned from the game, Twitch streamer Nick Wagner, was given a gate pass because he was using EngineOwning, a subscription-based cheat service. He was told that he was not allowed to use the service.

While it has not been confirmed whether other cheaters caught in the BAN wave were using the same thing, EngineOwning's website currently lists a cheat for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019" that also targets Warzone as "detected" It is listed as "detected," which means that the developer, Infinity Ward, is aware of its use and can probably take some action.

Complaints about the ban and a certain amount of jubilation (which seems to be coming from non-cheaters) are currently buzzing around the EngineOwning forums.

At least this person maintains some perspective on the whole matter.

EngineOwning is the same cheater that streamer MrGolds was using when he was found to be cheating on Warzone in August and subsequently lost his Twitch channel. (11]

InfinityWard brought down the ban hammer on roughly 70,000 Warzone cheaters in April and warned in July that "more ban waves were coming," a statement that drew derision from players who saw it as toothless. In August, however, Activision took legal action against cheat maker CxCheats, forcing it to stop selling software and apologize for the trouble it had caused.

An Activision representative confirmed Monday that the company has begun issuing bans, while EngineOwning is not yet ready to give up: site administrator AimBRoT said the developer will continue to "work on detection."

Update: Infinity Ward said on Twitter that it has banned over 200,000 accounts for cheating.