"What? I got banned?" - Dota 2 pro finds out on-stream that he's been perma-banned in Valve's Christmas culling, then admits to buying "a behavior score boost"

One Dota 2 pro player was seemingly on Valve’s naughty list, having been gifted a chunk of coal and a permanent ban while livestreaming.

Earlier this week, Valve pushed this year’s festive winter update, called Frostivus, which promised to gift players on the nice list and punish those on the naughty list. The publisher/developer said that the ban hammer would be coming down hard on thousands of players who used smurf accounts, engaged in toxic behavior, or paid to arbitrarily boost behavior scores.

Twitch streamer “masondota2” was one of the poor naughty list victims, and he opened his chunk of coal gift live on-stream. The clip below sees the streamer open his gift chest, discover the Highly Toxic Lump Of Coal, and react to his unexpected permanent ban: “What if I just never opened it? Are they serious?” Not the most jolly Christmas gift.

The streamer further took to Reddit to admit he also used a behavior booster (person plays on his account) to try and get his player behavior score higher and his issues with the behavior score system and his ban... https://t.co/LaqmT1NeMADecember 15, 2023

The streamer then took to Reddit (in a now-deleted post) to talk about the ban and admit to using a behavior booster, which is when someone else plays on your account nicely to increase your behavior score. Players with lower behavior scores will usually be matched together for a toxic showdown, and wait times are also relatively longer. Some viewers had already noticed the streamer’s inconsistent scores a month ago, so it’s no surprise that Valve has clocked on too.

Valve’s crackdown on rule breakers comes shortly before the new year and amid complaints around toxicity in Dota 2. Several comments on masondota2’s deleted post call out frequently unpleasant interactions in the game over the last few years, but hopefully, that will change with Valve’s updated stance.

Are you one of the affected Smurfs? Check out the other best MOBAs available right now.

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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.