Valve bans 90,000 Dota 2 smurf accounts, warns main accounts of further punishment 

In the latest Summer Client update, Valve overhauled the player banning, toxic chat, and commending/disliking mechanics of Dota 2. Continuing the same strand, the developers recently revealed that they have banned 90000 smurf accounts. The news quickly grabbed the attention of the community, with posts, memes, and opinions taking over every major social media channel associated with the game.

Smurfing is a major problem with online multiplayer games, where players create alternate accounts to play ranked games in a way where they enjoy unfair advantages. The official announcement described the same as:

"Smurf accounts are alternate accounts used by players to avoid playing at the correct MMR, to abandon games, to cheat, to grief, or to otherwise be toxic without consequence."

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Valve issues warning against main accounts of banned Dota 2 smurfs of future punishment

Valve stated that along with bringing down the ban hammer of 90,000 accounts, it has traced all the main accounts associated with them. It assured that any main account found linked with a smurf one will attract "a wide range of punishments, from temporary adjustments to behavior scores to permanent account bans."

Dota 2 players are able to report any suspected smurf activity or player in-game through the reporting option. The reporting mechanic was recently overhauled in the Summer Client update, where the developers made it more intuitive to detect toxic chats, griefing, and more.

They also introduced the metrics of communication score in Dota 2 to determine whether a player gets allowed to engage in text or voice chat in-game. While these major overhauls have resulted in a few bugs and issues, the developers quickly pushed out the September 1 update addressing several of them.

Explaining the recent changes to the player reporting system and the ban, the developers reiterated:

"Dota is a game best enjoyed when played on an even field. The quality of the people in a given match are what makes a match good. We’re invested in making sure your matches are as good as possible, and smurfing makes matches worse."

The response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive, with users delighted with Valve's recent decisions and Dota 2 content updates. There have been reports of unfair bans due to multiple players operating from the same device.

Comment by u/Bassre2 from discussion Smurfing is Not Welcome in Dota in DotA2

The Smurf-Ban is currently #1 on r/All at the top of Reddit by u/Cymen90 in DotA2

My girlfriend and I play on the same PC and we both got flagged. by u/topgunseven in DotA2

Love the smurf bans but I think Valve should also take things like this into consideration by u/Synkronous in DotA2

It is likely that Valve will finetune its smurf detection and banning so that it doesn't unfairly punish innocent players. As we inch toward The International 2023, the developers have been quickly earning back the goodwill of the Dota 2 community. Players are eager to see what lies ahead for the decade-old game.