Valve's Dota 2 holiday update hands out 'Lump of Coal' gifts banning thousands of accounts

Banning cheaters and players who circumvent the rules and don't play well is as old as the first games that went online. However, Valve's new method of dealing with smurf accounts (players running multiple accounts) might take the cake for the funniest to date.

As part of Dota 2's holiday-themed Festivus 2023 Update, it informed players that "if you're on the Naughty List, we've got great news for everybody else and bad news for you because this year is gonna be a bloodbath." Valve adds that smurfing and other negative behavior in Dota 2 makes matches worse, adding that those on the Naughty List will "choke on their richly-deserved coal-flavored just desserts."

Bold words, with the result being 'Naughty List' players opening what they thought was a Frostivus 2023 only to find a digital Highly Toxic Lump of Coal - alongside a message informing them that their account(s) were permanently banned.

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Handing out bans as gifts is quite the move on Valve's part, and it's pretty funny that certain Dota 2 players who have tried gaming the system will be unable to play over the holiday season.

And with Valve's holiday spirit banhammer in full swing, DOTA 2 pro player and streamer Mason "mason" Venne opened up his Festivus 2023 gift online to find that he got a Highly Toxic Lump of Coal and his account banned. It turns out he hired someone to farm a positive "behavior score," so he wasn't flagged as toxic, and is now regretting the decision - taking to Reddit to apologize and plead for his account to be reinstated. The moment was captured on stream.

Valve's blog post clearly laid out its thoughts on smurfing and behavior farming in DOTA 2.

At The International, some pro players reached out to us to talk about their smurf accounts. Those conversations have continued, and there's broad agreement amongst pros that banning pro smurf accounts is a win for Dota as a community: The rules should apply to everybody, and from now on they will. And smurfing isn't even the only naughty thing players are getting up to. Amongst other questionable choices, some bad actors are playing like jerks, ruining games and losing behavior score because of it, then hiring behavior score farmers to drive it back up.

There are currently varying levels of bans being handed out as "gifts," and it has been amazing to see it all play out.