A Top 500 ‘Overwatch’ Content Creator Is Calling Out Blizzard for Alleged Banning Practices

Competitive games can be one of the most toxic places to be. Bans can be handed out quickly and swiftly for those caught cheating or doing something wrong. But, what if that system could be used and abused to punish a player you didn’t like? An Overwatch content creator and former professional Counter-Strike player has reportedly discovered what goes into a Battle.net ban and has released a document showing why some accounts have been getting banned with no prior problems.

False Bans Are Surprisingly Common in ‘Overwatch’, It Seems

Released as a 50+ page document that is still being updated, Aimbok is hoping to raise awareness of this alleged situation. This document, published on their Twitter Page, details several smaller accounts alongside bigger names who have been banned for less-than-explainable reasons. While this has been an unfortunate situation since Overwatch 1, it’s reaching critical levels in Overwatch 2.

For the sake of logistics, Aimbok did not include any of the experiments they had attempted on their public Twitch channel in this list. Rather, they documented the cases of many other people who have had their accounts banned. Below, you’ll find a list of all of the individuals that they have talked to regarding account bans, and what happened with their specific accounts:

According to the document, Blizzard Customer Support does not manually review ban cases. Instead, they are either done via outsourcing or are fully automated. This means that no human hands are touching ban requests, making it much easier for griefers to cause possibly irreversible harm to a Battle.net account. And since this account is for more than just Overwatch, that means that these players have lost access to World of Warcraft, Diablo, and even Call of Duty at this point.

Aimbok has also stated in the document that there is an alleged whitelisting system, with specific individuals being added manually to avoid bans. They do provide a screenshot under the “How the Report/Ban System Works” section to further amplify their point regarding this situation, with context explaining that a former Community Manager had manually whitelisted accounts in the past.

These Situations Aren’t as Copy and Paste as the Responses

Browsing through the document, there are a few cases that stood out to me in particular. The first would be Emelichen. She was falsely banned back during the OG Overwatch days for playing as an off-meta DPS hero. She has also made a public video on her YouTube channel about this situation, as well.

Secondly, seeing what happened to Haluk and the situation caused by him typing “dumpsyer” in chat. This caused his account to get banned and almost cost him a college sponsorship. This incident was reported by Dexerto earlier this year. He also retweeted this document on his personal Twitter account to bring more attention to the situation. This account was, however, reinstated after seeing the public backlash, according to the document from Aimbok.

The latest account added to the document, SaraLyn, received a copy-pasted ban notice that others had also seen. As alleged in the document, this is one of the most common “false bans” that can happen to players. There is also photo evidence showing the amount of money that this player has spent on their account, and what they lost in the process of being banned for an unexplained reason.

Reaching out to Aimbok for comment regarding this situation, I was told that they have an alleged “ex-Blizzard employee” who has said that they are willing to contribute to the document. There were no names given, and as of the time of this writing, this interview has not been conducted or added to the document, but it has been confirmed that the document will continue to be updated with more cases as they come forth.

Rather Than Calling for Its Destruction, Aimbok Just Wants To See ‘Overwatch’ Return to Glory

So, what is the main cause for this document? Aimbok isn’t calling for Overwatch 2 to be canceled or anything of the sort. They’re still an avid player of the game on their Twitch Channel. Rather, Aimbok offers up a few constructive ideas regarding how bans could be handled in the future.

While games like Counter-Strike also rely on automated systems to help with ban requests, they have a system aptly named “Overwatch” that allows for human intervention when needed. Cases would be handed off to higher-ranked players, allowing them to weigh in on the situation. The features for this system, according to the document provided, allegedly already exist in Overwatch 2.

There are also a few other things they’d like to see fixed, including the fact that anyone can see an account’s ban status by entering their Battle.net account information and an incorrect password. Rather than seeing “Incorrect Credentials/Login Info”, if someone tries to log into a banned account, it will tell them straight out even if the incorrect information is used.

As they also state in the document:

If you have also been wrongfully banned and have hard evidence to corroborate your innocence then please contact Aimbok to be added to this document.

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