[top500 got suspended] the problem with reporting system, and how people abuse it

Competitive Discussion
1

Blizzard customer support recommended me to create a post to give some feedback about the reporting system. Therefore, here I am trying to explain what happened.

I main Reaper, Torb, and Sym and like many of the off meta players, I used to be stubborn about my hero choice, but recently I am (somewhat) flexing for the team. I tell my team that I will play Moria on attack, and Symmetra on Defense. However, people report me for playing symmetra on defense, which is a bit odd if you think symmetra is a defense hero. My last game (before I got banned from the game) I played Symmetra on defense and Zarya on the attack. obviously, I am not good zarya, and I made a lot of mistakes. Guess what? Hanzo in our team asked others to report me for being bad at zarya. Funny that he was the one who asked me to play Zarya.

h ttps://www.twitch.tv/videos/265040415 <-- me playing Sym on Def, Zarya on Offense

I was actually with Kephrii and if you watch from 1:55 ~ 2:28.

h ttps://www.twitch.tv/videos/264905215 <-- Me playing Sym on Def, Reaper on Attack.

I was also with mendokusaii’s stream as well. Watch 5:45:15.

There’s a space between H and T so if you want to check the link backspace the link.

Also, there are other reports that I throw games by staying in spawn being afk, and I can say that this is 100% false report. When I am staying in spawn, that means I am trying to switch my hero to something more viable. (Mostly On defense, Sym to Reaper or Junkrat). Sorry that I am only able to switch my hero in spawn.

The first problem that I have with current report system is that it is going with “Majority wins”, and ignore minority. Overwatch is all about PC and minority (in fact, Tracer is lesbian), but oddly enough when I try to appeal my current situation, all I hear from Blizzard Customer support is “Well from what we see, we can’t really tell if you are telling the truth or not, therefore, we can’t unban you”. I even suggest them to check the streams to see if I am throwing or not, but they refused to do that. In this case, I don’t understand why they even have the support system to appeal for ban.

The second problem that I have with the current system is how it’s inconsistent, and bias depends on the user. Very well known 1 trick player fuey500 doesn’t get ban from the game anymore because 1st, the streams, 2nd he was the first one trick who got famous for getting banned from the game. Therefore, Blizzard is now looking closely and be very cautious about fuey’s account. However, for people like me, they still use an automatic system, therefore, if the report stacks up, I will get ban. Moreover, the ban kinda stack up. I have another account that mains Reaper, Torb, and Sym - which is also in top500. Funny thing is, that account never got banned from the game, while My main account got banned even if I flexed for the team.

Last but not least, it’s about my reputation. Whenever I join the game, all I hear from my team is “Ha it’s him again. Typical East cost”. And when I make a simple mistake, they just immediately think that I am throwing and just report me. which is simply unfair.

In conclusion, I suggest Blizzard to FIX their report system a bit. If someone gets reported multiple times, maybe check their most played hero and winrate. Also, if they stream or was on stream, maybe check that as well to see if someone was really throwing. That’s all I have to say, and thank you for reading this long topic.

26 Likes
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Yeah, people shouldn’t be banned for playing their favorite hero, especially when its clear they do well with them AND switch when needed.

1 Like
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From what I’ve seen and experienced…

  • Blizzard most likely doesn’t have replays.
  • Blizzard most likely doesn’t have voice chat.
  • Blizzard definitely has written chat logs.

They therefore rely 100% on the playerbase using the report feature correctly. It’s mob mentality at its finest.

I’ve had my suspension appeals returned to me within 5 minutes with a 3 paragraphs copy-pasted answer about how they investigated thoroughly my 100+ reports and confirming I was AFK and/or throwing. You can’t investigate anything in 5 minutes. The appeal system is simply there to say “hey we’ve got customer support” but it’s a bogus.

Even though Customer Support told you to go to the forums, here’s what’s going to happen if this gets any traction. They will either:

  • Try to find something toxic you said in-game to justify your suspension.

Which is kind of ridiculous that they would use Chat Abuse to justify a Gameplay Sabotage suspension. Both are different offenses that should be dealt with separately.

  • Forum GMs will forum-suspend you, delete your post and tell you to appeal your ban if you’re not happy.

Customer Support tells you to take it to the forums.
Forum GMs tell you to take it to the Customer Support.

6 Likes
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And this is why I firmly believe Blizzard should use all that money from lootboxes and alt accounts on beefing up the report team. Automation sucks.

2 Likes
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Just poking at this, but how are they supposed to ban players if they lack substance and evidence? If we appeal to the ban, how can they say no considering they have no evidence to uphold it? If someone is being reported as an aimbot, but they’re just good at aiming, where’s the cheat evidence? How can you legit get AFK reported if you’ve got medals in the match?

This whole report system does nothing but promote more toxicity, especially when players continue to be victims by its poor implementation while encouraging the bullies to continue.

Solution: Store the names of reporters, and if someone appeals and is found innocent - place a punishment on the wrongdoers.
In addition, improve matchmaking statistics by adding a spreadsheet for timestamps of eliminations, assists and deaths, together with timestamps of when they switched heroes and the averages of damage / healing / damage blocked for each minute. Include average accuracy and ‘on fire’ too. This can be investigated and most reports will take a minute at most to see if it’s BS or not.

4 Likes
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how do you wear the top 500 title when you can barely play more than a few low skill ceiling heros

1 Like
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Positioning, Ult economy, flanking plays.

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aka im torb and press Q during a team fight, I press Q in a random corner as symm, and I click on people point blank as reaper and sometimes jump pressing Q into a group of people

9

Alright then, go climb up with those heroes followed by these strategies with that attitude if it’s so easy.

6 Likes
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symm and torb heavily rely on their ults, because they are broken… same for the old plague of mercy one tricks who got to GM purely because of mass res…

which is also why both of them are going to be reworked in the upcoming months

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They are getting rework because they are not viable. If you say torb and sym’s ult’s are op, just like mercy rework, then why don’t we see them every single game like mercy?

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because they are niche abilities that rely solely upon the ignorance of the enemy team, calling that skillful is beyond a lie

walking to a random corner and plopping down a teleporter can be done by a 5 year old, yet its extremely game changing

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So their ults aren’t op, but expect the ignorance of the enemy team.

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Symmetra does not heavily rely on her ult, but rather the team does (because they ‘demand’ it and can’t really survive on their own - which is already bad). A good Symmetra can use turrets as alarm signals of where flankers might be, they can use it to cut off pathways or make it unnecessarily difficult to go past, their shield can help a lot, and an unchecked Symmetra is quite dangerous. Actually in a way she’s getting a huge nerf with the rework considering that her lock-on beam is now an actual beam which means no more whole-second-zaps behind a wall, her teleporter no longer functions as a tempo.

Torbjørn on the other hand isn’t heavily reliant on his ult. The armor is to an extreme help for the team, and an actually good Torbjørn can actually aim with their guns in ways that makes them superior than others when aiming behind cover due to their arching shots. Torb’s right click can melt down barriers, good right click flicks to heads at close range can also be stronger than Reaper.

The concept of Defense is that they’re usually defending the backline rather than the frontline, performing area denial and making sure to deal with flankers. The stereotype that you classify with the heroes are based on low elo and not those who have fully invested in utilizing their whole kit to help the team and be a major support.

3 Likes
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No one’s stopping you from playing them.
Or are you too proud in your ivory tower?

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well… since a got banned from the game… people are stopping me from playing those heroes.

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I want to reach top 500 from being an actual good player, not from one tricking bad heros with broken ults

18

Good Luck buddy! I hope you can hit top500 by playing actual good characters!

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Ivory tower it is. Good luck.

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ivory tower

what do you mean