'Dota 2' to Require Player's Phone Numbers for Ranked Play to Stop 'Smurfing'
Valve has been taking steps to end the practice of "smurfing," in which high-level players create and use another account to be matched, and win over, players at the lower levels. Starting May, "Dota 2" will ask players for phone numbers to associate with their accounts if they want to participate in ranked games.
This move by Valve is aimed at improving the matchmaking experience for players, which the practice of "smurfing," in which highly skilled players pretend to be novices by using an alternate account to play in the lower bracket, tends to degrade.
According to the news update at the "Dota 2" blog, "Players using multiple accounts create a negative matchmaking experience at all skill brackets, so our goal is to add just enough friction to this process that the number of players doing this will be noticeably reduced."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Starting May 4, player accounts that do not have a valid registered phone number by that date will not be eligible for Ranked play. This means that players have two weeks to register their numbers if they want to continue playing Ranked matches past May 4.
According to the announcement, "online services that provide phone numbers are not allowed," so phone numbers provided by online services outside of a phone service subscription should not work. North America has data from the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) to catch any loopholes, but the article from Ars Technica wonders how Valve plans to confirm international numbers.
Players would not be able to pass on a phone number among multiple accounts as well. The phone number not only needs to be unique, but also removing a number imposes a three-month waiting period before that number can be used again for "Dota 2."
According to the announcement, if a phone number is removed from an account after registration, a new number can be added, but there will be a three-month waiting period before the removed number can be registered on a new account. This is to prevent using the same number on multiple accounts." the blog post said.
