When everyone plays overwatch, things get heated. Sometimes people suggest that other people change their strategy, and people take it personally. We’ve all been there. I’ve been there. I am intentionally professional and polite when I communicate, I thank people for doing a good job, but I also point things out when people do big things wrong, and ask them to change their approach. Also, I never engage in bigotry, hate, or other bullying relating to race, gender, sexual orientation, and the other major stuff that we all know about. Still, I get into heated discussions about who is holding up their end of the deal when it comes to a team that needs to turn things around - just like everyone else. This has been the same for me since overwatch beta.

But about 3 weeks ago, I got silenced in OW because some asshole decided to start some sort of report campaign against me. A buddy of mine recently got suspended for two weeks. Neither of us were doing anything out of the ordinary, and neither of us have ever been banned or silenced before, ever. I maintain a 3-4 endorsement level, and his is consistently 4. I’m a tank main; endorsements dont come to me by default like they do supports.

Whatever is actually happening with Blizzard’s ban / report system, it’s not normal. It’s vulnerable to smear campaigns.

I realize that it’s easy (hey this is Reddit, right?) to just say “well obviously you were trash/rude/trolling/toxic etc”. Honestly, I’m not going to litigate the whole thing with you because I dont even know who reported us (it was separate games; we were not banned during an overlapping period, not a single game that affected us both). My point with this post is not that my particular situation is either good or bad. I’m just one person. My point is that, qualitatively, the environment appears to have been broken down, and part of that seems to be arbitrary enforcement. Is anyone else seeing this?

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