Valve sets a trap and permanently bans over 40,000 Dota 2 players for cheating: Details

Over 40,000 Dota 2 players have been banned in the past two weeks after being caught using third-party software to cheat in games. Dota 2 developer Valve didn’t reveal what the software was, but did say in a detailed blog post that the app in question was able to access internal data used by the Dota client. Under normal circumstances, this information should not be available to regular players, as it would give them an unfair advantage. However, after learning how the cheats worked, Valve laid a trap via a downloadable patch, containing a “secret” area in the client that can only be accessed using third-party software. Naturally, players who fell for the trap were quickly hit by Valve’s ban hammer.

“This patch created a honeypot: a section of data inside the game client that would never be read during normal gameplay, but could be read by these exploits. Each of the accounts banned today have been read from this ‘secret’ area of ​​the client, giving us extremely high confidence that every ban was well deserved,” Valve’s statement reads. This ban wave is admittedly huge, but Dota 2 wanted set a visible example to the community, with no exceptions for professional gamers either, who if caught cheating will be banned from all Valve competitive/esports events.These initial bans should also deter any potential cheaters , which is safe for the time being, to continue its nefarious activities – whether it’s auto-aiming abilities, champions launching attacks as soon as a target comes nearby, seeing through the fog of war, and more.

Valve concludes by saying that it will continue its pursuit of cheaters in Dota 2 by removing new exploits as they come along, and thanking everyone who has individually reported players and gone through watch cases to issue justified penalties. Lately, the US-based company isn’t alone in trying to keep cheaters away from its ecosystem. Earlier this week, Ubisoft banned nearly 19,000 accounts, whose owners have been found to use cheats in their games. The company did not reveal details of the games or the type of software used.

Additionally, a new Rainbow Six Siege “Mousetrap” update aims to detect players using hardware devices such as XIM to use a keyboard and mouse with an Xbox console, providing better movement and targeting against those who use a controller. However, instead of being banned, Ubisoft will gradually increase the input lag on these systems, essentially harassing you until you take the controller back. Meanwhile, Riot Games has warned its players that new cheats may appear, given that the source codes for League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics were stolen last month.