Yesterday, Valve detailed some changes to Dota 2’s ranked matchmaking system, along with some major ban waves for “bad actors.” Now, players affected by those bans have started to complain about their suspensions on social media – and it looks like some of the worst offenders have been banned for the better part of the next two decades.
Dota 2’s official Steam forums are filled with complaints about bans, and the game’s subreddit is similarly filled with joy at watching toxic players and cheaters take their lumps. One already-infamous example (via IGN) shows a screenshot of the matchmaking screen: “Matchmaking disabled due to excessive reperts, failing to ready-up or abandoning. Time remaining: 1/19/2038.”
Valve uses a behaviour score system to track toxic players, and players with “exceptionally” low scores are a big part of this first ban wave. “We will continue to do regular ban waves for users who fall into this small percentage of the community,” Valve says in the announcement.
“Users that reach this low level of behavior in the game are too big of a tax on the rest of the community,” Valve says, “and are not wanted.”
The ban wave has also targeted users who have participated in the purchase of Steam accounts, or had their own accounts boosted. It also hits players who’ve been “detected using exploits.”
These bans aren’t over, either: “In the coming weeks, we will be refining the detection algorithms for these abusive behaviors and will begin issuing weekly bans that will go into effect without advance notice to violating accounts.”
Dota 2 players have to have a phone number tied to their accounts in order to join ranked matchmaking. Any players affected by these bans will also have that phone number “permanently blacklisted.”