Nickmercs has finally spoken up about the wave of cheating accusations aimed at his ARC Raiders gameplay, where he firmly denied using any illicit tools and pointed instead to the game’s powerful aim assist and his years of experience.
The controversy kicked off after a viral clip from ARC Raiders showed Nickmercs’ crosshair sticking to enemies in a way many players said looked “too perfect” to be normal aim assist. The footage quickly spread across social media, where people accusing the streamer of cheating drew hundreds of comments and intense debate about whether the behavior on screen was legitimate or not.
In a recent post, Nickmercs pushed back on the claims, saying he is not cheating and stressing that he has not spent nearly 20 years competing at a high level just to risk his reputation “against an ARC robot.”
He invited doubters to play with him directly, making it clear he is confident his gameplay can stand up to scrutiny in front of anyone. As the clip kept circulating, other creators and community members stepped in to show how strong ARC Raiders’ controller aim assist can be, especially on PC.
In this video shared on X, a player let the right stick go neutral while the reticle still tracked targets. This added fuel to the idea that the system itself might be overtuned rather than proof of third‑party cheats.
The scene around Nickmercs has now split into two clear halves, where one half is convinced that the snap and tracking seen in the viral video cannot be explained by normal settings, while the other half says it is simply aggressive aim assist amplified by Nickmercs’ experience over two decades.
Some streamers and longtime friends, along with portions of the ARC Raiders community, have publicly sided with Nickmercs, arguing people are too quick to label top-level play as cheating whenever it looks unusual.
For ARC Raiders, the incident has turned into a wider debate over balance, anti-cheat, and controller support in the game’s current build. Until the devs address the strength of aim assist or clarify exactly how it is meant to perform, arguments over whether Nickmercs’ clip shows “broken” mechanics or something more serious are likely to continue.
