One of the biggest issues in "Overwatch" is rating manipulation in competitive play. Usually, players who are really good either lose their rank on purpose or they make another account to play with the players who aren't as good. This allows them to completely dominate the game, carry their teams and earn a lot of competitive points.
Season rating manipulation is against Blizzard's EULA and they don't accept such behavior. While a lot of players have gotten away with this, the game developer started banning more accounts for this reason lately.
Just recently, just_stevo, who is one of the best Symmetra players in the game, was banned by Blizzard for manipulating his rank. The player then complained about the ban, but Blizzard didn't do anything about it.
Just_stevo and the ban
Despite having a prior history of infractions, just_stevo decided that he'd be doing a Silver-to-Goldmaster "Overwatch" challenge. To achieve this, the player made a new account which he used to do placement matches with his friends. The players he played with were all ranked from Bronze to Platinum tier, and after he finished 10 placement matches, he was put in a Silver tier.
Shortly after, the player decided to stream the challenge and advertise it on his Twitter account.
He was doing the challenge playing only as Symmetra, his main character. However, after playing 27 games and winning them all, the streamer was banned. His initial rating after the placement matches was 1656, and he managed to get into a Platinum tier with 2580 rating.
Since he violated Blizzard's terms, just_stevo was banned for 31 days, and it seems that the game developer won't allow him to play anytime soon.
Player's complaint and Blizzard's reaction
After the well-deserved ban, the player was upset and he decided to tweet Blizzard, saying how he was just "playing with friends."
Manipulating your SR/MMR, whether intentionally losing or otherwise, is against our EULA, the spirit of OW & sportsmanship in general.
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) September 26, 2017
Blizzard knew what was going on and that the streamer was rightfully banned for breaking the rules.
They made it clear that manipulating season or matchmaking rating won't be accepted, and that is exactly what just_stevo was doing.
After the tweet, the game developer sent a message to the streamer on Discord. Blizzard made it clear that rating manipulation won't be tolerated and that the streamer's behavior went against the core rules of "Overwatch" in regards of sportsmanship. Just like Blizzard, most players agree that rating manipulation ruins the game, and it's definitely a big problem.
