Blizzard's Reporting System Called Into Question When Overwatch Pro Player Receives Suspension Mid-Stream
When a player was suspended mid-match during a competitive Overwatch match, the ongoing debate [...]
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When a player was suspended mid-match during a competitive Overwatch match, the ongoing debate about Blizzard's reporting system flared up once again about whether it is done in fairness or not.
The match in question centered around streamer Felix "xQc" Lengyl as he was booted from the game in the middle of a round with the notification that his account "has been banned or suspended". This not only affected him as a player, but those of his teammates as well with their own success during the comp round. Unlike Quick Play, competitive matches rank each game and goes against the player's score. This banning action not only hurt xQc, but those also in the same round.
More than that, however, it does raise the question on how accurate the banning system is. You can see the stream for yourself in the video below from his Twitch channel:
You can see the player's confusion when he was kicked out of the game to the log-in screen. He then shared the e-mail that came later stating that the suspension was issued after "misuse of the reporting system." Blizzard claims these bans are only doled out after "careful review of evidence," but instances like this that keep happening make fans wonder if that's necessarily the case.
xQc then went to stream his thoughts on the ban which flames the false ban fire:
The rant gets a little heavy as he talks about his rage with other players, including those who purposefully throws matches. He then discusses the repeated reports he made on players like that, which is what eventually led to the ban with Blizzard citing "misuse". There are two sides to this debate, those who think this is the correct way to handle players that don't take a loss well, and those that feel this is a genuine reason to report to the developers and that players shouldn't be punished for that.
Luckily, this was only a 72 hour ban but he is a professional player, which means this does effect his work - not just as a hobby. He and his team recently took on South Korea in the BlizzCon finals, so this is more than just "another player," it has professional connotations to the punishment.
His team has updated their official Twitter account to show that the suspension is being investigating it thoroughly, especially after new evidence surfaced surrounding the match in question. In the meanwhile, the player himself took to his own account to apologise for his previous reports in the name of his "competitive" nature:
— xQc (@xQcOW) November 18, 2017