Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders cheater purge is underway, and it seems popular streamer Turner Tenney, a.k.a. Tfue, has found himself in – and back out of – the line of fire.
The internet personality, who returned to regular gaming content creation for the first time in two years in December 2025, announced he had been hit with a 30-day ban (which was reversed after just 24 hours) in Arc Raiders earlier this week. He neglected to share any insight into why he believed Embark may have taken action against his account at the time of his ban, instead only sharing screenshots of the notifications and a separate call to action: #FreeTfue.
30 day ban?!?!? For what!?!? pic.twitter.com/LnfKmrcWJY
— Tfue (@Tfue) January 13, 2026
Why Tfue was banned in the first place remains a mystery, but fans online have theories. It’s not traditional cheats like aimbot that players believe landed him in hot water with what is currently his go-to game, though. Instead, it’s his promotion of a recently discovered visual exploit that some suspect is to blame.
Players caught wind of the exploit, which utilized developer tools to make spotting enemies easier by forcing environmental effects like fog to a minimum, just last week, January 9. Embark was quick to patch console command access one day later, saying the feature was “never meant to be player facing” at the time – but some PC players had already tried it for themselves.
Nearly nine hours into a stream that took place last week, Tfue can be seen setting up the workaround and using it when loading into Arc Raiders. The process takes only a few minutes and leaves the streamer slack-jawed.
“F**k, dude. That’s bad,” Tfue says when seeing how the exploit is used to illuminate a usually dark hallway. “I shouldn’t have shown this. It’s over.”
The game stream goes black, and he continues: “No, that’s so bad. I mean, people are going to be using that now, dude. What do we do?”
The segment runs approximately 10 minutes and sees the streamer engage in one fight with another player before returning to standard Arc Raiders affairs for another hour and a half. There’s no real evidence suggesting this incident is what led to Tfue’s ban, as many are simply looking to connect the dots as Embark works to make good on its pledge to ensure its extraction shooter is fun and fair for all.
The studio behind both Arc Raiders and The Finals answered long-standing calls to deal with cheaters and exploit-users in a message published January 8. It promised to implement “significant changes” to its anti-cheat strategy in the weeks ahead, saying fans can look forward to a more even playing field as the team deployed glitch fixes and new detection mechanisms. How successful Embark’s actions have been just five days on remains unclear, but it seems some – including Tfue – may already have been on the receiving end.
Just as onlookers had assumed Tfue had been dealt a lengthy timeout, he uploaded a YouTube video, explaining his own theory behind the ban. While many suggested use of glitches or exploits had caused an Embark anti-cheat mechanism to take action, some testing on his end led him to believe the issue could be tied to a new PC setup. At the time, he believed the situation was “a straight-up accident.”
“If you guys think that I got banned for testing out an in-game brightness config, it’s like… come on, now,” Tfue said. “I think it’s just a straight-up accident. You know, Embark, it’s been brought to their attention that there was a lot of cheating. [Cheaters have been] stream-sniping, people exploiting out of the map, and shooting people through walls, and they’re very aware of that. I think they’re cracking it down, but I think they just cracked down a little bit too much.”
“It kinda sucks,” he added. “Honestly it does. I just caught a stray. We’re going to hope and pray that it gets resolved.”
It didn’t take long for Tfue’s pleas to be answered. Just minutes after his video was uploaded, he reappeared with a Twitch stream, proclaiming, “I’m free!” Through the ban and unban process, Tfue says his best bet regarding the cause of his ban is that a foot pedal peripheral could be to blame. Otherwise, he’s still in the dark as to why Embark originally delivered the temporary suspension.
“I have no idea,” he said during the stream. “All I know is all these f**king theories people have made up in their head are all false.” IGN has reached out to Embark for comment regarding Tfue’s ban and its anti-cheat measures.
The former Fortnite streamer’s break from gaming content creation ended just last month when he announced “I’m back” with a retirement-ending video published December 14. In the four-and-a-half-minute statement, he explained his spark for gaming had been reignited after finally finding a new game that he truly enjoyed.
“I’ve been playing Arc Raiders off-stream, and I’ve been having a really good time,” Tfue said. “It’s like a polished version of [Escape from Tarkov], and I’ve been having a lot of fun playing. Finally, after years of not really gaming or streaming, I actually enjoy a game. I’ve been grinding off-stream, and I’m just like, ‘I just gotta go live because I enjoy it.’”
Arc Raiders launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S October 30, 2025, to tremendous success. It’s ridden its wave to today, amassing more than 12.4 million copies sold as its 1.11.0 patch makes its way to fans. For more, you can read about another Arc Raiders streamer, who was accused of cheating before players took a closer look at aim assist.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
