Video game companies have become very creative when it comes to punishing cheaters They cut the cords of their parachutes In call of Duty To blows them up In Grand Theft Auto Online. But Valve just set a new standard for trolling players: It’s sending them permabans, packaged like Christmas presents.
Seasonal wildness was discovered by professionals Dota 2 Gamer and streamer Mason “mason” Venne. He opened that Dota 2 The customer wanted to see what looked like a surprise gift from Valve. However, when he opened it, the game revealed a “highly toxic lump of coal” that immediately permanently banned him for “smurfing,” i.e. playing on a secondary account, to circumvent the game’s skill-based matchmaking rules.
“What?” Venne shouted after the gift was revealed. “I’ve been banned?” A message appeared on the screen informing him that he couldn’t be queued for games. Here’s the moment from his last Twitch stream (above Polygon):
Valve has alluded to something like this Dota 2s current Frostivus 2023 update. “There is no point in denying it,” the company wrote. “King Kringle knows. He has checked your conduct score twice and is coming with his ban hammer to pulverize the Smurf accounts of all the naughty boys and girls before issuing penalties to the associated master accounts.”
Smurfing is a common practice in competitive multiplayer games, where experienced players open new accounts for a chance to compete against lower-level players. It’s fun and entertaining to live stream unless you’re the recipient or if you’re Valve trying to maintain the integrity and fairness of your second most popular online game. In September, before this latest wave, the company revealed that 90,000 cheaters were banned for the joy of practice.
A new batch of alleged Dota 2 were fraudsters Find out that the ban hammer is back. The game’s subreddit is full of people getting unexpectedly hit by lumps of toxic coal. While many fans are enjoying the chaos, some affected players are begging for their accounts to be refunded. Venne is one of them.
“I’ve played Dota for 13 years,” he wrote. “I never cheated, never abused a bug, never abused any MMR tricks.” However, the pro admitted to briefly purchasing an illegal third-party “behavior enhancer” to improve his in-game communication score and positive and to stay cordial. That’s a big no-no.
“I’ve never done anything like this in the 13 years I’ve been playing Dota 2, and when I realized it felt wrong and was the wrong thing to do, I stopped. “Unfortunately, you can’t undo a mistake you’ve made.” he wrote. “I’m asking for a second chance because I will never do anything like that again, and I never have in the past.”
It is the time of forgiveness. We’ll find out how generous Valve is.
