Valve's Festive Crackdown: Dota 2 'Naughty List' Players Receive Permanent Bans

In a unique holiday-themed initiative, Valve hands out 'Highly Toxic Lump of Coal' gifts resulting in account bans, including pro player Mason 'mason' Venne.

• Valve, the developer of Dota 2, has launched a unique initiative to ban players who engage in cheating or toxic behavior. As part of the game's holiday-themed Festivus 2023 Update, players on the 'Naughty List' received a digital 'Highly Toxic Lump of Coal' and a message informing them that their accounts were permanently banned.
• Among the banned players was DOTA 2 pro player and streamer Mason 'mason' Venne, who opened his Festivus 2023 gift online to find that his account was banned. Venne had hired someone to farm a positive 'behavior score' to avoid being flagged as toxic.
• Valve's crackdown on rule breakers comes amid complaints around toxicity in Dota 2. The company has stated that smurfing and other negative behavior in Dota 2 makes matches worse, and that the rules should apply to everybody.
• Valve is known for upholding VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) bans, and players who received one are out of luck. The company has warned players to expect a crackdown on smurfs in the game's most recent patch notes.
• This is not the first time Valve has taken action against toxic behavior. In September of this year, they banned 90,000 smurf accounts.

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