Blizzard will permanently ban Overwatch cheaters as soon as they’re caught

Hey, cheaters, consider this your first and last warning. If you’re caught cheating in Overwatch, you’re done. Not kicked. Not temporarily banned. Just plain done.

The announcement was made by Blizzard Community Manager Lylirra on the Battle.net forums. Here’s the bit about cheating and bans.

If a player is found to be cheating—or using hacks, bots, or third-party software that provides any sort of unfair advantage—that player will be permanently banned from the game. Full stop.

Plain as day, right? I guarantee cheaters will still try and worm their way out of consequences when they’re caught. I can hear the “my cousin was over and installed a bot while I wasn’t looking” lines already. I’m sure Blizzard’s heard it all, too.

Blizzard’s using a “Play nice; play fair” approach with their games. Stick within those bounds, and it’s all gravy.

Blizzard will take reports of cheating at hacks@blizzard.com, but they’re also implementing an in-game player report option. They remind potential reporters to make sure evidence is legit before they storm the gates with assertions.

They also make sure to remind the world that, yes, some players are just good.

Lastly, some players are just really good at first-person shooters. Through practice and years of experience, these players’ movements and reaction times can occasionally appear unnatural (if not physically impossible) to those who may not have been exposed to that particular level of play before.

There’s been some cheating controversy from the Overwatch beta. One has to wonder how Blizzard will handle those who were caught during that phase. Will they be banned? We’ve reached out to Blizzard for comment.