We live in strange times for in-game behaviour moderation, as a player by the name of S7VEN has had his Overwatch account banned simply for typing the word "dumpsyer" in the team chat.
The Tank main S7VEN, who plays for Blinn College, was playing alongside his teammate, a known streamer whose in-game name is 'dumpster_ow'. While calling someone a dumpster could be something to frown upon, the word "dumpsyer" is clearly a typo made while referring to the teammate and no verbal harassment was intended.
S7VEN then took the issue up with Blizzard Support and appealed the ban. He received a response from Gamemaster Eldisana who replied “I just checked your issue thoroughly and this is a quote from your chat: ‘dumpsyer.’ We now consider this matter closed and would not look into further discussion on the subject,”.
“Now I’m suspended from competing in collegiate and was at risk of losing my scholarship over the word ‘dumpsyer.’” said S7VEN to emphasise the severity of the situation.
It's a ridiculous situation where the ban system has seemingly gone haywire, and the follow-up from Blizzard Support is less than satisfactory. Due to this ban, S7VEN's main account is no longer in good standing with Blizzard, and he risks losing his e-sports-based scholarship at Blinn College.
The tweet has gained a lot of traction, and several members of the community are rallying in support of S7VEN and insisting that Blizzard repeal the ban. The community is understandably frustrated at the recent string of oftentimes nonsensical bans handed out by Blizzard.
We have seen past incidents of Overwatch players being banned for inexplicable reasons. Some of the more egregious instances include bans where the only chat logs involved the players typing “GG,” “yipppeee,” and “nice shot”. There has also been an extreme case where the only thing written was ':3'.
While there has been no response from Blizzard or any updates from S7VEN, as of yet, due to the community outcry, we hope Blizzard takes steps to rectify the situation and doesn't jeopardise a student's future.
For more articles like this, take a look at our Gaming News page.