If you’re friends with an Overwatch 2 cheater and play alongside them even when their hacks are off, watch out: you could be in Blizzard’s sights.
Blizzard is broadening its Overwatch 2 anti-cheat efforts to also target players who “conspicuously group with cheaters in an attempt to benefit from the cheating,” the company explained in its Defense Matrix blog post on Sep. 8. The system is already live on select servers and will soon roll out to new regions.
The text is clear when it says Blizzard is looking to punish only players who knowingly join hackers. These are the ones who may also try to get a free ride up the ranked ladder. It’s highly unlikely that anyone would be penalized for getting matched with a cheater randomly and playing the game as usual.
Blizzard has banned over 250,000 Overwatch 2 cheaters since the game was released, according to the blog post. The company didn’t specify which types of cheating are most prevalent, but the usual complaint is finding opponents using aimbots and aim assists, such as being able to see other players through walls.
Some hacks can go unnoticed by the average player, but Blizzard encourages you to keep reporting players you suspect are cheating so they can be investigated closely. For people teaming up with cheaters, you should report the cheater themselves if you can detect them.
Overwatch 2 players also know how toxic and poor the average voice chat experience can be. You can turn the chat off, sure, but it’s a team game. You’re effectively nerfing yourself if you’re forced to do that. Blizzard says it’s expanding its voice chat detection systems to include more languages and types of abusive chat to effectively punish those who use Overwatch 2 comms to harass others.
At the end of the day, it’s nice to see Blizzard saying it cares about cheating and harassment in Overwatch 2, but only players will be able to tell how well the company is doing as their game experience improves—or not—in season six.
