Valve is handing out some serious punishment for "Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2" players who are abusing the game by employing bots to boost their Matchmaking Rating (MMR) and circumvent the low priority matchmaking system. Recently, the company identified a number of players who appear to be committing the said offense and banned them for up to eight years.
Some "Dota 2" players reported their accounts to have been banned with varying lengths. Some were banned for a few months, while others reported a band of up to eight years.
The punishment was dished out to players who appeared to be using third party services in order to get themselves easy matches against bots in the low priority matchmaking queue. This allows them to quickly get to the required win threshold to get out of the low priority queue.
The low priority matchmaking queue itself was meant to act as punishment for players who get reported for bad behavior and being toxic in games. Players who abandon games will also end up on this queue.
Normally, players in the low priority queue have to play the single draft game mode with others in the same queue. This is seen as punishment for bad behavior, and is supposed to encourage better player conduct in game. However, providing an easy way to get out of the low priority mode nullifies its purpose, and allows toxic players to stay in the normal queue with the rest of the players.
According to one banned player who contacted Steam about the punishment, the company said that there are a number of violations that could potentially get a player account banned. These violations include actions that artificially boost a player's MMR, using third party programs to create unfair advantages during games, circumventing the low priority system through the help of other players or bots, and trading accounts with boosted MMR.
However, banning accounts will not eradicate cheaters in the game, as they only need to create a new account to continue playing "Dota 2."
