Blizzard banning Overwatch cheaters

Written by Tanner Banks, May 14, 2016, at 8:20 a.m.

Thinking about getting an aimbot for Widowmaker? Going to try to hack your Bastion for a perma-tank? Do anything like that and you’ll get banned. You won’t get a warning, strike, or anything other than a ban. Blizzard isn’t going to wait and try to fix any potential cheaters in Overwatch after it becomes a problem. They’re making sure that the message is being sent loud and clear: You either play fair, or you don’t play at all.

Blizzard Banning Cheaters on First Offense

Blizzard is hoping that everyone will take the “play nice; play fair” slogan to heart. This isn’t the first time that Blizzard took a heavy handed approach to the illicit players in their games either. Diablo III hackers and people using bots in Hearthstone have felt the wrath of Blizzard before. Personally, I think it’s great that they they come out swinging against cheaters. If I’m going to get my butt kicked every game, I at least want it to be based on skill alone.

In a statement on the Overwatch message boards, Lylirra released a comprehensive explanation of the decision to ban on first offenses:

“What does this mean for Overwatch? 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.”

They also explained how to go through the process of reporting someone for possibly cheating in the game as well. They warned players to not to automatically assume that someone is hacking, botting, or otherwise cheating. With over 9.7 million people playing the beta for Overwatch, Blizzard certainly has quite the following created already. Hopefully they won’t have to replace Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer for a ban hammer.

What do you think of Blizzard banning first-offense cheaters? Let us know in the comments!