A Destiny 2 World’s First winner says they were banned with no explanation from the developer.
Bungie has been cracking down hard after the Desert Perpetual Contest Mode raid, issuing bans against players who cheated and even those who ran with cheaters. The studio publicly warned that completions earned alongside cheaters could be punished, then followed with a ban wave that appears to have wiped a large chunk of Contest Mode clears from third-party trackers.
Speaking of bans, last year, Bungie banned a four-time World’s First raider, known as Cruz, after finding out he had memory-editing/debugging software on his PC; the decision was upheld after appeal and kicked off a heated community debate about what software is allowed to run alongside Destiny 2.
Now, another World’s First winner says they’ve been banned with no reason given, and they’re publicly contesting it.
Destiny 2 Vesper’s Host World’s First Winner Banned
On August 12, Pine, a player who was part of the team that claimed the World’s First title for the Vesper’s Host dungeon, revealed they had been banned from Destiny 2 with no explanation from Bungie. Pine took to X (Twitter) to share their frustration, tagging Bungie directly:
“No troll literally, how am I banned?,” the post reads. “Genuinely oblivious to how this could happen to me. Must be a false ban because I’ve literally been cleared before by Bungie for our Vesper run.”
Pine later added they were “an open book” and would share any evidence needed, stressing: “For a quick update, no, I have not received any communications about a reason for my ban yet. All I can hope for now is that they are reviewing VODs to verify the run, since I have to assume my ban pertains to our DP contest clear.”
“I’m an open book, they can reach out and ask for anything within my power to prove my innocence. I still have no idea what possible proof they could have that caused this because I know nothing ever happened.”
“I have never cheated or interacted with cheats in any way on Destiny 2.”
What Could Have Triggered the Ban?
While waiting on Bungie to respond, Pine shared what they believe might have led to the account ban. According to them, the issue may have stemmed from messages sent in clan chat the day before the Desert Perpetual raid race. Pine admitted they were joking about cheats and even “name-dropped a popular cheating site in one of my messages.”
“Numerous people in the clan were making jokes in clan chat about flying through the raid with cheats (myself included), and I name-dropped a popular cheating site in one of my messages, which I’m assuming is what got the message flagged,” they said in a post on X.
“The only thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me is how I’m the only person who’s banned, but I’m guessing it has to do with how well we were doing in the race. Keep in mind, these messages were sent in a clan chat with like 80 people, and two of my teammates were streaming at the time. I would never say stuff like that in-game for everyone to see if I wasn’t joking.”
Pine called the messages “dumb” in hindsight, apologized, and said they would never undermine the integrity of a Contest race: “If this is the reason, all I can hope is that my VOD and other added context prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing nefarious occurred during our contest DP run. Just please know that I feel very sorry for this whole situation, and I would never and have never done anything to impact the integrity of a contest race.”
As of publication, Bungie has not publicly responded to Pine’s case. This isn’t the first time a high-profile Destiny 2 player has been caught in Bungie’s cheat detection. In February 2024, Cruz, a member of Team Elysium and a four-time World’s First raid champion, was banned after using ArtMoney, a memory-editing program. Cruz argued it was tied to another game and not used in Destiny 2 itself, but Bungie still treated the software as cheating-adjacent and grounds for a permanent ban.
And it’s not just competitive players who’ve been impacted. Back in 2022 and 2024, Bungie mistakenly banned players due to errors in its detection tools. The studio eventually admitted fault, reinstated the accounts, and even issued apologies.
What do you think about Bungie banning another World’s First winner? Let us know in the comments.
