Valve bans over 40.000 Dota 2 cheaters

Amid ongoing concerns about exploits and other issues in the game, Valve is not messing around with cheating players in the Dota 2 community. It has now directly banned more than 40.000 accounts for life.

This set of bans is the result of a debugging plan by Valve to fix various backend issues that have allowed these cheats to occur.

Valve bans over 40.000 Dota 2 cheaters

Valve has banned some 40.000 Dota 2 accounts for using unofficial software that gave them an advantage in the game.

The players were caught cheating through a trap set up by the game’s creator; in what is now the most significant wave of Dota 2 bans. Valve stated that “all the bans were deserved” in a blog post on the official Dota 2 website. It further reveals that, after discovering the cheaters’ technique, they released a honeypot patch to catch them.

According to Valve, the third-party software used by the cheaters provided them access to information that the Dota client utilizes internally but does not display during regular play, giving them an unfair advantage. Any accounts that came into contact with the honeypot that Valve inserted into the game code have been shut down as a result.

In a broader strategy to crack down on cheating in Dota 2. Valve said this primary wave of bans is just one step.

Valve reported:

“The prevalence of this family of cheats means that today’s ban wave is huge, but it’s only the latest action in an ongoing campaign. While the battle against cheaters and cheat developers often takes place in the shadows, we wanted to make this example visible, and use it to make our position clear.”

“If you are running any application that reads data from the Dota client as you’re playing games, your account can be permanently banned from playing Dota. This includes professional players, who will be banned from all Valve competitive events.”

Professional players without bans

No professional players have received a VAC ban due to Valve’s latest action.

Public matchmaking has been overrun by players acting strangely in recent months. So the community has criticized and denounced these individuals through the game’s monitoring system. However, the most typical hacking seems to give the baddies an advantage in the map display.

Valve thanks everyone who has spent time and effort to explain the cheating behavior. What remains to be seen is whether Valve can still be up to the task of preventing future exploits; by anticipating them with extra security measures against suspicious in-game behavior.

Header: Valve