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Valve's Frostivus Gift For Mason: A Perma Ban
Dota 2 streamer Mason "Mason" Venne has made a regrettable decision, which led to a ban on his main account. The streamer used a boosting service to boost his account’s behavior score. His actions were recorded in Valve’s list, and they handed him his gift as the Frostivus update came.
Valve gifted players special gifts for Frostivus as the patch update came out. Like the Christmas tradition, good, law-abiding players receive good gifts, while some players receive warnings and bans disguised as “Toxic Lump of Coal” and “Highly Toxic Lump of Coal,” respectively.
“Toxic Lump of Coal” gift is a warning for the player, while the “Highly Toxic Lump of Coal” gift is a permanent ban from Valve.
The Ban
In most cases, players would often receive a random skin for the holiday. As the Frostivus update came, Mason’s Twitch chat cheered him to open his present live. When he opened his gift, an unpleasant surprise greeted him. He found a Highly Toxic Lump of Coal with a note saying his account was banned until 1st Jan 2038. The message on his account read:
“Your Dota account has been permanently banned for Smurfing or other violations in the Steam Terms of Service.”
Thinking it was probably a troll, the streamer tried to queue for a game. However, the streamer wasn’t able to. Moreover, laughter and taunts filled the Twitch chat following his in-game ban.
The community has been highly suspicious of Mason’s activity last month. The streamer tweeted he is looking for a behaviour score boost for a friend on X(formerly known as Twitter). Shortly after his tweet, his account started to queue into turbo matches with a five-men stack.
The Appeal
Credits: Valve
Mason later went on Reddit to explain his side of the story in an attempt to appeal the ban decision he received from Valve. In the long, heartfelt message, the player explained he had not been part of any activity related to smurfing.
However, he took responsibility for his actions by pledging guilty to behavior score boosting. The player explained his behavior score started to drop despite doing his best to motivate his team.
As his behaviour score dropped, his communication privileges got revoked, and he was frustrated because he couldn’t communicate with his teammates while he tried his best.
He highlighted the importance of communicating with his teammates because it made him feel he was winning more.
He went on to explain when his behaviour score went to around 6,000, the player was fed up with “trying to be a nice guy”, and he decided to buy a behaviour score boost.
Credits: Valve
However, after using the boost for a day and gaining a 200 increase in his behaviour score, he went back on his decision, believing he made a mistake. He expressed his love for the game, admitted his actions were wrong, and asked for a second chance from Valve.
Featured Image Source: Valve
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