Unjustified Comms Restriction – Request for Review and Appeal

[avburbin]

Hello Support Team,

I am writing to report an unjustified comms restriction in Deadlock that currently prevents me from using both in-game chat and voice communication. Additionally, this restriction blocks me from participating in ranked matches. The restriction duration is 4 days, and I believe it has been applied without reason.

In my last at least eight matches, I have made sure not to engage in any offensive or disrespectful language toward either teammates or opponents. Here are the match IDs for reference:

• 25945333 (received chat restricitons after this game). Moreover, I got a few commends after this match and was banned.
• 25927768
• 25923111
• 25916573
• 25909301
• 25902882

Player Details:

• Username: SOLOsoulPRIME
• SteamID: 76561197976249941

I kindly request that you investigate this issue and review the communication records from these matches. Based on this review, I ask for the removal of the restriction if it is found to be unjustified. This restriction significantly impacts my gameplay experience and participation in ranked matches, so your timely assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for looking into this, and I look forward to your response.

 

[Khanzy]

We need the system fixed. Otherwise, you could get this ban lifted, and some stack can just drop 3 reports on you at any time and get you instantly banned again. This escalates by the way. The next ones are 7/14/30/permanent. People are rampantly abusing reports right now. That's why you got done. Maybe you didn't suicide to help a team mate who was screwed no matter what. Maybe you took someones camp when they wanted to farm it. Maybe you won a game and stomped hard and 3 enemies decided you were annoying. None of these things justifies banning someone from ranked and completely stripping them of communication in a team based game. But here we are. Will this be fixed Valve?

 

[avburbin]

We need the system fixed. Otherwise, you could get this ban lifted, and some stack can just drop 3 reports on you at any time and get you instantly banned again. This escalates by the way. The next ones are 7/14/30/permanent. People are rampantly abusing reports right now. That's why you got done. Maybe you didn't suicide to help a team mate who was screwed no matter what. Maybe you took someones camp when they wanted to farm it. Maybe you won a game and stomped hard and 3 enemies decided you were annoying. None of these things justifies banning someone from ranked and completely stripping them of communication in a team based game. But here we are. Will this be fixed Valve?

I completely agree with you—this report abuse issue needs an immediate fix. It’s a huge problem. It’s one thing to ban players from ranked for actual offenses like harassment, flame, or toxic behavior. But here, you’re just playing, maybe even winning and getting positive feedback, and suddenly you get slapped with a ban that restricts communication and access to ranked games.

It’s pretty clear that this is an automated system that hands out bans purely based on the number of reports received. However, reports should be reviewed and justified. If the system is harsh enough to impose a ban after just 3-4 reports, then those reports should absolutely be verified by support staff (Deadlock support in this case) — which obviously isn’t happening. That’s why this ban system is just not reasonable. Players can get banned simply because the opposing team reported them out of frustration for losing, and that’s it.

What’s even more frustrating is that there’s no clear way to report these issues or appeal them. Apart from this forum, there’s nowhere to turn. It means many players are left sitting out of ranked games for weeks, or even facing permanent bans, due to flaws in the penalty system. And the only option is to post here on the forum, hoping that someone sees it — and there’s no guarantee that’ll work.

 

[Khanzy]

I completely agree with you—this report abuse issue needs an immediate fix. It’s a huge problem. It’s one thing to ban players from ranked for actual offenses like harassment, flame, or toxic behavior. But here, you’re just playing, maybe even winning and getting positive feedback, and suddenly you get slapped with a ban that restricts communication and access to ranked games.

It’s pretty clear that this is an automated system that hands out bans purely based on the number of reports received. However, reports should be reviewed and justified. If the system is harsh enough to impose a ban after just 3-4 reports, then those reports should absolutely be verified by support staff (Deadlock support in this case) — which obviously isn’t happening. That’s why this ban system is just not reasonable. Players can get banned simply because the opposing team reported them out of frustration for losing, and that’s it.

What’s even more frustrating is that there’s no clear way to report these issues or appeal them. Apart from this forum, there’s nowhere to turn. It means many players are left sitting out of ranked games for weeks, or even facing permanent bans, due to flaws in the penalty system. And the only option is to post here on the forum, hoping that someone sees it — and there’s no guarantee that’ll work.

There's a reason the developers of DOTA saw fit to give you a super low amount of reports to hand out. So you would carefully weigh and think is this actually worth reporting for? I suggest they do the same here. 3 reports a week. If you consistently have accurate reports then give the person more so they have more sway in such a system. It's absolutely ridiculous as it stands right now though. Unlimited reports = unlimited abuse potential. It's alright if you have the man power to moderate all of those reports and investigate. But they clearly don't. I don't fault volunteers for having limited time. But is the solution really to learn nothing from all that time on DOTA and pretend like people don't abuse power?