Dota 2: Over 40k accounts banned for abusing matchmaking system

Dota 2 has long been plagued with matchmaking issues, but Valve has gone the extra mile to improve this system.

Recently, Valve announced that they have banned more than 40,000 accounts for abusing the matchmaking system, but what exactly is “abuse” here is still unclear. But unlike the previous round, this time it was a game ban, not just ranked matchmaking.

This change comes in conjunction with the client update for Dota. This update changes the smurf detection system to counter boost and smurf account behaviors.

“We are changing the smurf detection system to make it more sensitive in this update,” Valve said. “This change will actively target more potential smurf accounts, but will also occasionally reward casual players with additional MMR.”

This latest ban is on the list of bans from the past 6 months: Players with extremely low behavior scores or those found to be exploiting game vulnerabilities will not be allowed to participate in ranked matchmaking and sometimes not play. even Dota. It seems that this time, Valve is targeting boost accounts and players who try to break the game through exploiting a flaw in the matchmaking system.

Here are the three main reasons Valve has given for banning players since the first 20-year ban last September:

• Player with extremely low behavior score
• Violation of Steam Terms of Account Buying and Selling
• Players discovered exploits game bugs to gain an advantage over other players.

Up until now, it seems Valve is focused on improving the game by making sure players with low behavior scores can’t engage in “toxic” in-game content. And now, the developer has a stable anti-toxic system and shifted the focus to the Control and exploit the game.

With Dota 2’s January player count at 378,925, Valve has banned more than 10% of its total players. This is a positive sign that they are worried about major problems in the game to ensure the matchmaking system gets better, even though that comes at the expense of a drop in player count.

Boost and smurf are two big issues in the community right now, but with these changes and account bans, we’re hoping the matchmaking system will improve.