‘Tis the season of giving, and Valve has been watching very closely on whether you’ve been naughty or nice this year. That’s exactly what one particular Dota 2 streamer found out, as Valve sent him, and others, an early Christmas present accompanied by a lengthy ban.
Valve is giving away free cosmetics as part of their Dota 2 Christmas event, or as the game calls it, Frostivus. For a limited time, players who log in during the period of the event will get a free in-game gift that comes in the form of cosmetics. A thoughtful gift to reward players with good behavior in Dota 2, though not everyone has made the nice list, as many have reported opening their gift only to be greeted by a toxic lump of coal and an account ban.
One such user is well-known former pro-Dota 2 player Mason Venne, who was live streaming when opening his gift, only to be greeted by the lump of coal and a 15-year-long ban for smurfing and account sharing.
In a follow-up from Mason on Reddit, the streamer discusses the ban and his feelings while also issuing an apology and admitting to using third-party services to boost his character.
Hey everyone, masondota2 here, Valve tonight perm banned my dota 2 account. I have no idea if that means I can never play Dota again (if they will ban every account I play on from here on out), but I hope that isn’t the case. Onto why I was banned and how I feel.
About a month ago, I kept having very varied player behavior score reports, sometimes I would go up to 8k and be able to use my mic and coordinate with my team and it really gave me a good feeling, I felt like I was winning more too and it was just overall a more pleasant experience to play tryharding to my fullest capabiltiies, but usually soon after I would drop below 8k communication score and unable to use my mic. I found games to be much harder to play and win and much less enjoyable when I couldn’t try as hard as I wanted to. Using my mic and just communicating is an integral part of Dota, especailly as the game has become more team oriented over the last few years.
This made me upset and even though at times I truly tried everything in my power to be “PMA” or simply non inflammatory (never typing or doing anyhting like pinging my allies when they make mistakes), it seemed like my behavior score kept dropping no matter what I did. I soon went to 7k score, to 6k score, and then right below 6k, 5950~. MOST OF THE TIME (I’m not perfect and never will claim to be) I genuinely believe I was trying to be a decent teammate, there were even times where someone in my team would call me dogshit or blame me for no reason and I would just say “yeah that was my fault, my bad, but just keep playing”, or someone first picking carrying, never engaging with the game, and no1 flaming or saying anything to them and they would just give up over 1 death and I wouldn’t even say anything like “report this guy” or “you’re so bad at carry why’d you take the role”. Imagine this over dozens of games, I just got incredibly frustrated with my inability to talk to my teammates or that I was in some shadow pool. Everyone seemed insanely toxic and there seemed no escape. I wasn’t enjoying my games very much.
Out of frustration and trying to be a good guy for most the of time and it seemingly having no effect (in fact, my comm/behavior score was DROPPING during this time), I decided to buy a behavior score boost. The booster did about 1 day/10~ games or so and I believe I received 200 communication score. I went from 6k~ to 6.2k~. After 1 day of this, I decided I didn’t really want to do this, I’d rather just play dota 2 and whatever happens to my behavior score happens to it. I made a mistake in trying to fix my problem through someone else, I admit that, and while I can sit here and say things like “it was only 9 other people who wanted the same things in those games, no one was hurt/games ruined” or “my communication score didn’t even change, I stopped it before I gained 2k+”, I still did do something I shouldn’tve and I do apologize. I apologize because whether I like it or not, I’m a streamer and my actions are seen and heard by thousands of people, and if I show them this is ok and this is how you deal with your problems, I’ve failed. This is absolutely the wrong way to deal with your problems.
He goes on to continue to say that he’s never done this before and realized his mistakes, asking for leniency and apologizing to both Valve and the community.
The response from the Reddit community wasn’t as welcoming as he probably thought they would be, with several users pointing out that his behavior score was terrible for a reason, citing his toxic behavior in past streams. Some users even pointed out examples that were just a month old in the apology thread, contradicting his claims of trying really hard to be a good player. His behavior score was sitting at below 6K prior to the boosting, something several users commented as an indication of his toxicity, as getting below even 10K has proven to be a challenge for some.
He’s not the only one (though probably the most known) to get a lump of coal and ban from Valve this year, as other Dota 2 players reported the same thing across various social networks. Upon opening to a free gift, they, too, have been given a toxic lump of coal with bans that vary in length.
Regardless of which side you may be on here, we can all agree that Valve is taking a hilarious approach to bans this holiday season.
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