Re: Cannot even get into the queue, error code 1:86001S:51001S:20123264140:65541Q

Authentication failed ERROR CODE 1:86001S:51009S:2397336630:65537Q

I downloaded my account data from EA and went through the file. It says here I received an automatic ban (false positive) and BF6 servers won't authenticate my login anymore. Banned??

According to EA, my account is not banned. I have not used any 3rd party tools aside from Nvidia App for recording and MSI Afterburner for performance monitoring. Because I'm not officially banned, I can't appeal. Yet , I now have this flag on my account (got it after my last successful login) and it's preventing me from getting in. Last weekend I was gaming just fine. On Wednesday I can't get to main menu anymore. The issue seems to be this COMPETITIVE_ADVANTAGE BAN from EA's anticheat.

Here's what I think triggered the false positive. Since BF6 sometimes randomly turns Nvidia App's ingame recording off, I would hazard a guess this false positive comes from display capture bugging out. I tried to spam re-enable ingame recording through Nvidia's overlay a few times while BF6 was running. Nvidia said another program (BF6 or EA Javelin) was preventing it from starting. Most of the time I was able to record gameplay without issues, but occasionally it did this. When game recording went down, I was unable to screenshot BF6 as well. It was as if there was some closed beta display capture block going on.

It took me 4 emails, 2 tickets and over 24 hours to get through to support. They couldn't help me with the issue and directed me to these forums. They confirmed my account is not disabled, but it has been banned from BF6. The agent said he could appeal the decision on my behalf.

"You can expect an email about your case within 10 days, though sometimes it can take longer. The email will give you further details about our decision. They can see your case status by logging into EA Help and clicking on My Cases."

That's great and all, but the open beta ends in 3 days.

On top of being unable to get into BF6 on this account, I'm unable to unlink my Steam and EA accounts. The unlink button on EA's site simply does not work. I asked support to unlink them for me, to which they responded "it's against EA policy". So, I cannot make a new EA account and link it to my Steam account either.

I would have to make two completely new accounts to resolve this. Well, I did that for testing. The new account is not blocked from logging in. I can play on that account, whereas my real account is still unable to be authenticed and can't even get to main menu. There is absolutely no way I would buy this game on a throwaway account because my main one got falsely banned in open beta.

For everyone out there with this error: The best advice I can give you is just make a new EA/Steam account and play open beta on that. You won't appeal your ban in time to play this weekend.