Plenty of us have been in online matches for any number of games where we just don’t see eye-to-eye with a teammate. If they’re particularly thorny, you might report them and hope the system serves them their just desserts. The scales of justice aren’t quite so balanced though when the other person has their finger on the ban button, which is what this Dota 2 player found out the hard way.
We've all been there - a match where something's gone wrong, or you end up frustrated with your teammates. But I doubt you've ever had the power to get someone banned over a gameplay disagreement, and it seems one Valve employee was unable to restrain themselves from doing so, as Firewatch co-creator Sean Vanaman has now apologised for giving out an unwarranted manual ban.
The situation began when Dota 2 player minijuanjohndoe posted on Reddit claiming they'd been sent to low priority - essentially a temporary matchmaking penalty - simply for suggesting a tactic the Valve employee didn't like (via Dot Esports). "So can employees just send you to low priority for telling the team to let mid tower go and he just thinks its a bad idea?," minijuanjohndoe asked, having discovered he'd been bickering with a Valve employee during their argument over tactics. minijuanjohndoe provided an image of their behaviour score to prove their innocence, and later gave the name of the player who had given them the penalty - Vanaman.
"The team looked into this case, and concluded the user clearly did not deserve the ban," Vanaman said in response to the post. "Even if the user did deserve a ban however, we all think it's clear that manually banning users is not a good idea because of how hard it is to be objective in Dota games that you are in. My mistake in this case being a sterling example. As employees, we should have no special privilege when playing Dota."
‘s spooky seasonal event Diretide has been absent for quite a few years, a fact that the trailer for this year does not gloss over. You may have thought that the haunted forest would stay dormant forever but oh no, tricks and treats are back for 2020. This year’s event brings back a taffy-collecting game mode and a whole barrel full of rewards. You’ll have plenty of time to jump in because it’s on now and running for nearly two months.
