I’m writing this post to discuss false positive, automatic perma bans that blizzard is upholding after appeals. Before you jump into conclusions, please read the story below.
I have a legacy account with many hours played, been enjoying ow since I picked it up in 2019, never had any bans or silences in OW1, but since the release of OW2 my account was perma banned twice, it was also unbanned both times.
The process of appealing both penalties was annoying to put it lightly, my first appeals were always rejected by bots and then after a few tries I would finally reach a human and they would unban me.
Please see this screenshot from my data report as proof, as you can see both penalties are named ‘Overwatch - PC - Generic Account Ban’, which I assume is the naming they use for bans that are applied automatically by their flawed anti cheat system.
Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/FH3BQIa
Now, I am not entirely sure what caused my 1st ban, but here is what I think:
- 1st ban was probably caused by false mass reports from other players
- 2nd ban was caused by me using a HyperX mic, in June 2023 HyperX Ngenuity got an automatic update to version 5.19.0.0 which caused many users to be perma banned by Blizzard (read more here:
HyperX NGENUITY headset program causing false bans - Bug Report - Overwatch Forums)
As you can see my account was since unbanned and was not banned again, but I also stopped playing OW for months. I came back to play a bit this month, but there is one thing that keeps me from enjoying it:
my husband’s account got perma banned at the same time as mine and he was never unbanned.
The story is that we both logged in in the beggining of June after a longer break from OW and played only quick plays. Nothing special, just enjoying the game together. After that I got banned and he got banned a day after me. My ban was since revoked and his upheld, despite MANY tickets.
We both got the same generic message when our accounts got banned:
Action Taken: Account Closure
Recent activity on this account has shown various and continued actions deemed inappropriate for Overwatch. These actions violate our Code of Conduct and create an unacceptable detriment to our players.
Due to these violations, we have permanently closed your Overwatch account. Blizzard will not transfer or compensate any purchases or in-game value lost as a result of this closure.
As the account holder, you are responsible for all activity on the account. We issue suspensions and closures to protect our players and our service in accordance with the Blizzard EULA.
We don’t take this decision lightly. Our team issued this closure after a careful review of relevant evidence. Our support staff will not overturn this penalty and may not respond to appeals. For information, see our article: Blizzard Support - Appealing a Silence, Suspension, or Ban
Thank you for your time and understanding in this matter.
Regards,
Customer Support
Blizzard Entertainment
My husband’s data report also reads ‘Overwatch - PC - Generic Account Ban’ under penalties.
Now, this was my husband’s first ever penalty (not only in OW, but in games in general) and, just like my ban, this is a false positive ban, but for some reason no one at Blizzard wants to actually review his case. He’s been getting endless bot replies (and trust me, after two appeals on my account I can tell if a reply is coming from a bot), and copy paste responses that I’ve seen all over the internet at this point.
As I am sure that both our bans were caused by using a HyperX mic, it is extremely unfair that my penalty was removed and his wasn’t.
Unfortunately, we were not aware of the HyperX issue back then, so my husband did not join the discord that was created back then for all the wrongly banned users (we thought the ban was caused by mass reports, as I suspect my 1st ban was), so he did not include this information in his tickets at first.
Funny story, actually, my husband gave up on his account after many bot replies, but our friend appelead his ban in his name (hoping to get someone’s attention), and he actually got a reply from a human being, stating that the ban was caused by 3rd party software. This is more information than my husband was ever given by Blizzard, I find it ridiculous that a 3rd person was even able to get this info.
Based on the reply my friend got, I started searching which software that we were using might have caused the bans, and that is how I found out about the HyperX issue.
We’ve been appealing his ban for the past couple of weeks with this new information, but no luck so far.
This is why I’m asking anyone that was wrongfully banned to speak out here, and to describe your issues with Blizzard Customer Support.
I will be making as much noise about this as I can, as I believe we are being mistreated on many levels - firstly, to even allow a bot to just randomly perma ban people is ridiculous, but to then not be able to get any help/support from CS as a legit player with hundrands, if not thousands of hours played - is heartbraking and frustrating.