Insider Gaming
Menu
·
·

Valve Has Banned 90,000 Dota 2 Accounts for Smurfing

Valve has gone on a spree against ‘smurfs’ in Dota 2, bringing down the almighty banhammer against 90,000 accounts in a sweep designed to improve the competitive scene. Not only that, but Valve confirmed that it traced ‘every single one’ of the smurf accounts back to its main account, which has drastic implications for those taking part in the disruptive activity.

That’s A Lot of Smurfs

For those that don’t know, ‘smurfing’ is the act of creating a new account to deliberately play against lower-ranked players, thus making yourself look better. It can also be used to classify a player who uses multiple accounts to get less challenging lobbies or games, though.

In a recent blog post, Valve took a dominant stand against smurfs, declaring that it had banned a whopping 90,000 smurf accounts, tracking them back to their original owners and stating that even the main accounts could face ‘a wide range of punishments’ in future.

Valve urged users to actively report anyone they suspected of smurfing in their Dota 2 matches, as ‘Dota is a game best enjoyed when played on an even field,’ and smurfing simply disrupts that.

It’s the same as players in Call of Duty ‘reverse boosting’ – which is where they throw a series of matches to trick SBMM into thinking they’re less skilled, only to then dominate in their next few games when SBMM adjusts. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s a known practice.

Do you think smurfs are too disruptive to the competitive scene, or do you simply not care?


For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out our report that Forbidden Siren might be making a comeback after 15 years

SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to WIN PRIZES this Xmas and receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam.

More Posts

One of PlayStation’s Scariest Horror Games Might Be Coming Back

It was recently revealed that a new trademark has been filed by Sony for ‘Siren’, one of the tech titan’s most iconic horror franchises that spanned from 2003 to 2008 before fading away out of existence. Personally, I was a fan of Siren – known as Forbidden Siren in PAL regions – when it debuted […]

Starfield’s Numbers Surge in Early Access

Starfield has already enjoyed huge numbers on streaming and gaming platforms since launching for early-access users on September 1st. It isn’t launching globally until the 6th of September, and it has already secured a peak concurrent player count on Steam of almost 250,000 users, and on Twitch, it effortlessly coasted past 500,000 concurrent viewers. That’s […]

There’s a ‘TikTok NPC’ Bundle Coming to Call of Duty

We’re almost sorry to report on this, but the recent insufferable trend that has surfaced on TikTok that sees people pretend to be NPCs and repeat the same lines over and over again in exchange for digital gifts is coming to Call of Duty in the form of an ‘NPC’ bundle featuring an irritating Battle […]

MWIII’s Monster Energy Campaign Has Kicked Off

Congratulations, energy drink consumers – you can now unlock exclusive content in the upcoming Modern Warfare III simply by supping down cans of carbonated, high-caffeine beverages. That’s right – this year’s Call of Duty marketing campaigns are now in full swing, and despite hearing about it months ago, the Monster Energy portion of that campaign […]