Image: Valve Software
Dota 2 players received a nice and early Christmas gift from Valve in the form of a ban wave for smurfs and win traders.
In the spirit of the holiday season, Dota 2 developer Valve Software has delivered a much-needed gift to the Dota 2 community by banning smurfs and win traders. As part of the recent Frostivus update, Valve announced the banning of 65,594 accounts involved in these disruptive practices.
This action follows mounting complaints from both casual players and professional figures, who have voiced concerns over the growing prevalence of smurfing and win trading in the game.
Rampant win trading has lead to the next Dota 2 ban wave
Any regular Dota 2 player who spends time on Reddit is likely familiar with the ongoing complaints about smurfing and boosting. However, one issue in particular — win trading — has plagued the high-ranked brackets, causing significant disruption. It is even mentioned in the Frostivus blog post as the developers highlighted the end-of-year ban wave.
“Besides the smurfs, we've also dropped the hammer on a significant number of high-MMR griefers, players who try to have fun at the expense of others, exploiting bugs, trading wins, and otherwise undermining the competitive challenge that is at the heart of every game of Dota.”
So what is win trading exactly? Win trading occurs when players team up in Immortal draft, and intentionally get sorted into opposite teams. One player will use the Double Down Token to gain +50 MMR, while the other deliberately throws the match, losing -25 MMR. This creates a vicious cycle where players exploit the Double Down function, a feature which was reintroduced during the Crownfall event.
Four months ago, a post on the Dota 2 subreddit highlighted the widespread issue of win trading, particularly in the North American region. It claimed that 15 out of the top 20 players on the North American leaderboard were involved in win trading.
It didn't take long for professional players to weigh in, as they, too, found their games affected. On December 7th, 
Gaimin Gladiators’ 
Quinn “Quinn” Callahan took to Twitter, expressing his frustration: “The win trading and MMR boosting is the most rampant and disgusting I've ever seen. Can Valve PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?”
Expectations post-ban wave
Valve last sanctioned a ban wave on September 23, penalizing 90,000 accounts for smurfing, boosting, and other offenses. Following that wave, many players noticed a positive shift in matchmaking, with little to no smurfing disruption. However, as time passed, smurfs began to reappear in large numbers once again.
It's likely that we'll see a similar pattern following this holiday ban wave. While the first few months may offer a better experience for all, we can only hope that the change lasts longer and that ban waves become more frequent.
