To report or not to report is currently a big dilemma among Dota 2 players.

Valve introduced the new Dota 2 report system in their latest summer update, branding it as a reworked behavior score algorithm. The new system disables ranked matchmaking for players with lower than 3000 behaviour score. On paper, it made sense that players with low behaviour score are likely toxic players or griefers because they got reported too many times over multiple games.

In the middle of September, Valve put a “fix” down due to too many players ending up with low score, while others were evading punishment.

Seems, we are back to square one again.

Image source: Dota 2

Should you report your team after losing?

We all have those days when we just feel like a sore loser after a lost match. And what effective way to make ourselves feel better than by reporting your teammate or all nine players.

Well, reporting every player on a whim isn’t very sustainable since you only have a limited number of reports. Even then, reporting another player just because you feel that he/she ruined the game but isn’t actually toxic is unjust.

Dota 2 Reddit is now discussing if the first two weeks of September were better than these past two weeks. Additionally, we don’t really know what other factors were considered when the report system evaluates how much behavior score should be deducted from a player.

So, did the behavior score update do anything for you guys?
byu/Technical_Long inDotA2

Mass-reports might not be the best practice as it would backfire on your account once it realizes you are abusing the report function. However, do keep reporting players for being exceedingly toxic, as well hope Valve finds a middle ground soon.

After all, considering how much the new report system relies on player reports as part of its algorithm, they wouldn’t want pesky players to abuse it.

Small world out there

Chances are, we average Joe’s wouldn’t have to worry too much about getting rank matchmaking ban. After all, if you somehow got yourself below 3000 behaviour score, perhaps some self-reflection on why you decided to feed down mid could solve your issue.

However, the pro-tier bracket of ranked matchmaking is an entirely different playing field, especially among the top 500 Immortal players.

Player like Gaimin Gladiator’s Quinn “Quinn” Callahan will frequently encounter the same players of similar level. Quinn isn’t exactly the nicest pro player to play ranked with, so many players may have past beef with the pro player and what better revenge than reporting him whenever he’s in the same game. As such, this spiral effect could potentially pull Quinn into a very low behavior score just because players from previous games don’t like him very much.

This was the case for two weeks at the start of September, but Valve seems to have almost reverted the changed almost entirely to preserve decent ELO play in higher tiers.

History repeats itself

This isn’t the first time such a moderation process has come under fire for abuse. Back in 2018, Andreas “Cr1t–” Nielsen became the first pro player to receive a 6-month matchmaking ban. The reason behind the ban was due to excessive reports, which later became clear that a small number of repeating Immortal players targeted Cr1t- by constantly reporting him every time they matched in a game.

Valve eventually lifted the ban on Cr1t-, but they also whitelisted pro players from ever getting a matchmaking ban for the same reason.

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