I am sure all of us have been hit with a temporary ban in an online game at some point. No, not for being unpleasant in chat, behave yourself. Maybe you rage-quit the match and couldn't requeue for an hour, or you got so mad you started throwing. Or, as was the case with this Call of Duty player back in the day, you cheated.

In fairness to TikTok user LukeManuFC, it sounded like a frustrating situation. Back in the glory days of the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, he claims he was a high-ranking player who kept getting his score reset over suspicions of cheating. He denies this - until he did boost himself to get back to his previous record. That resulted in a ban... of 4,999 days.

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I am sure that most people in that scenario either managed to appeal the ban or forget about it forever. It does feel like a roundabout way of saying that you're never playing it again, after all. But LukeManuFC was not deterred. After recently trying out his old copy of Modern Warfare 3 and realising that the ban was now only 164 days away from ending, he waited it out - and it actually worked.

Yes, Those Stupidly Long Online Game Bans Can Come To An End, If You're Patient

Amusingly, when the day arrived, the wait wasn't over. No, Luke had to wait until the very second it was over, even after all of this time. But true enough, when it was over, he could start playing again.

I think the most impressive part of this is that you can actually still play Modern Warfare 3 online in the year 2026. Remember when live services stayed live? Oh, those were the days. Meanwhile, anyone still playing Warzone on PS4 and Xbox One will have to switch to next-gen by October, because last-gen support is getting pulled. So, if you're hit with a 4,999-day ban in a more recent release, don't expect to start playing again 13 years later.

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Incidentally, this has almost perfectly coincided with the launch of Modern Warfare 4, which is set for October 23 of this year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Like FPS Systems Released November 8, 2011 ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language Developer(s) Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games Publisher(s) Activision Engine iw Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Franchise Call of Duty
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