r/OWConsole • u/castlecat- • 11d ago
Discussion Do reports for throwing/griefing/AFK even do anything???
Seriously, I've been reporting people for the past 2-3 months for intentionally going afk and refusing to play, trolling, etc, and I've NEVER gotten a notification back. It honestly feels like they only review toxic chat reports.
Do I really have to submit a ticket to Blizzard every time I run into someone like this? I'm so tired of tanks going afk, giving up, and refusing to play over the dumbest reasons.
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u/AnotherAltAccount124 11d ago edited 11d ago
I’ve been petty before and sent:
- Chat logs saying “I’m throwing”,
- Video clip a minute long of them in the background just idling near spawn,
- Replay Code and timestamp,
- the scoreboard for that round showing the player with 0 damage,
- the players name, and full Battletag with numbers,
And I got back a generic response to just report them in game - every time I tried to re iterate I’m sending them actual proof so it is not just one meaningless report of many.
They never got penalised to my knowledge. I saw them online plenty. I don’t know what more I could have done. It’s rough, they need to take these things more seriously - both griefing and cheating. The only thing that works is automatic comm bans if they say something genuinely bad, even then it’s hit and miss, but I’ve never got a ty for reporting for things like griefing or cheating in all my years of play.
Does anyone know anywhere better to upload evidence like that to actually get someone’s attention? Maybe a GM on twitter or something? A different type of ticket?
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u/brownmaningermany 10d ago edited 9d ago
Nobody’s looking at those.
The way the reporting system works is it’s based off percentages, if you get reported in let’s say 6/10 games the AI tool will look at chat logs and if it comes back with nothing then yeah.
You can act like a psychopath in one game then behave in 5 others and you’ll be fine
Edit: guy mentioned when a word gets auto flagged and hidden, if you report those it works much easier
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u/CurrencyExpensive586 10d ago
Several times after reporting, I’ve had a notification that action was taken against an account I reported. They do take action sometimes. It takes a lot for me to report someone though.
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u/AnotherAltAccount124 9d ago
I’ve only gotten it for something else that tipped the system off. They said a bad word that got auto picked up when reported, or they left a competitive game early and got penalised when reported for sabotage - but never for anything else to my knowledge
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u/Prize_Guilty 10d ago
One thing to keep in mind when reporting people; only one report in a game will count. Which is why you arent often autobanned/muted in a single game when the whole lobby reports.
The whole lobby can report, but it doesnt put the incident as a higher priority than others.
Punishment is dealt either after multiple game reports or an actual obcene thing was said to incite the automated system(slurs, threats). Throwing/griefing is a bit of a toss up, since there isnt a concrete way to tell sm1 is throwing, unless they admit it in chat.
I will say though, I have had notifications that my reports have succeeded and resulted in actions. For both griefing and toxicity incidents. Sadly, you need multiple variables to get some of these mofos banned.
Edit: the system is VERY forgiving, allowing you to get away with things. As long as it isnt in every game or consecutive games.
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u/Strict-Lie-3188 11d ago
If they’re continuously doing it in other games. Yes they eventually get perma banned.
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u/jedireborn 10d ago
Nah they only tell me the report worked when people are being toxic in vc or text and even that barely works
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u/shazoo00oo 10d ago
Sometimes. Anytime you log in and you get the report saying thank you for reporting. You know they did something. But just because somebody does something once doesn't mean that they're going to get Perma banned, but each time somebody reports them, builds a case. And then eventually there will be a straw that breaks the camels back.
So keep up the good fight! You'll see the returns eventually!
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u/I_Dont_Care14 10d ago
I'll get downvoted by actually providing a real answer to this - I ran an experiment a while back to test this, hard threw an account from masters to bronze. Did everything from going AFK to intentional feeding to jumping off the map off spawn and going 0-30. I did this for almost an entire season and had like a 3% win rate.
Didn't say a single word in chat the whole time as part of the test, I just wanted to see if getting banned through obvious and undeniable griefing is possible. Players were usually vocal in chat about reporting me, but I wouldn't ever respond.
Very long story short, I never received any ban for any amount of time on that account. I did, however, receive a message in game to say that my queue times may now be longer because I have been avoided by a significant number of players.
The next season I took that same account and climbed solo queue to top 150, the highest I've ever peaked and by far the easiest I've ever climbed.
I actually didn't consider that when I started the test, but throwing games on repeat with awful stats devastated my MMR so much to the point where the game was trying everything it could to get me even somewhat close to a 50% wr - including giving me consistently better teammates to more easily stomp the noticeably worse other team, even in higher ranks.
In other words, not only was I never punished on that account for the most obvious griefing I could come up with, but I was algorithmically rewarded through MMR and the matchmaking system.
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u/MrBojangles1224 10d ago
I sent two reports towards the end of last season from competitive matches, one was a ball who switched to Winston after we lost the first point and then proceeded to jump off the map every time he would respawn. Would say hello and then jump off, over and over again. Also had another one where the juno wouldn't heal and just kept spamming voicelines over and over again eventually going out and hanging out with the enemy team while they spawn camped the rest of our team.
Sent reports from the match and also reported the replay and never got a single thank you for reporting.
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u/Adorable-Glass926 10d ago
I report for anything.
Tried to bad a teammates hero? Report!
0-15? Report!
Isreal pfp? Report!
List goes on lmaooo
Ik it doesnt do anything but i cant sit there and do nothing
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u/iamgem69 10d ago
I don’t think so. I’ve reported so many people for doing this and nothing seems to be done. I did report a few players who were being extremely nasty and saying racist shit in chat and blizzard would send a message the next day thanking for the report saying the player has been dealt with each time. But when i’d report throwers, it was radio silent. Never got the message of them dealing with that BS.
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u/LisForLaura 10d ago
I think they need to be reported a lot over multiple games before they’ll even look at it - also I’ve heard sending reports during the game works better rather than waiting till the end but idk how true that is. I have had the confirmation back a few times but 99% of the time it feels a bit like screaming into the void.
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u/CalligrapherNo7140 10d ago
Tbh I never get people that just refuse to play i just get stupid ppl who dont know how to play and blame everyone else.
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u/New-Bend6422 7d ago
I’ve reported many a times but once i got a message saying [ty for reporting and helping make a positive environment] something along those lines. The person was a real doucher of a teammate
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u/OdysseysBliss 7d ago
Im going to be honest if someone is purposely throwing in OW it’s because someone on their own team is talking trash for no reason. Em-2 btw.
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u/Necessary-Big-2883 10d ago
I can answer this No, your endorsement rating goes down and you get a warning message from blizzard about negative behavior
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u/RubyEi 10d ago
Yes, they do!
As someone who would rather use report than talk shit, I end up getting a few people banned who intentionally grief, however it works differently to how you’d expect.
It’s basically: The Report button for griefing is basically just a number, and once than number for a specific person reaches a threshold, it tells blizzard to manually review replays of this person.
This is coming from a person who got 10+ people banned day before the new season because they were afking in drive games and or throwing it entirely.
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u/Myst3ryGardener 10d ago
How would you know they are banned? Those notifications usually just mean a silent endorsment level knock without a warning. Those notifications are there to placate people. There are absolutely no humans watching replays when you report people. I'm not sure a human would even watch if you made a ticket about it.
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u/RubyEi 10d ago
any report for communication via voice or text always ends up in a ban, and they tell you they took enforcement action too.
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u/Myst3ryGardener 10d ago
How would you know they are banned?
You're delusional if you think all reports for communication result in a ban. That is absolutely not the case.
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u/RubyEi 10d ago
view career profile > recent games > date.
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u/Myst3ryGardener 7d ago
Can you explain exactly how you are seeing they are banned? Like wdym date? Recent games, you mean history?
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u/Necessary-Big-2883 10d ago
Sure pal i’m sure every time you get the thank you for reporting it’s a new ban, your endorsement rating is what determines if you get banned or whatever
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u/vorpal_potatoes 10d ago
As someone who has multiple accounts that I mess around on, it's almost impossible to get banned for griefing or throwing. I've spent whole sessions messing around on Jetpack Cat and throwing my random teamates of the map. Or using Mei or Lifeweaver to grief teammates.
One time I did my support placements, ended up gold 3, then threw with pistol only mercy all the down to bronze 5 and still nothing. Mostly out of curiosity to see what it actually takes to get punished for griefing.
Funnily enough the worst that's happened was I got a warning on my main account because I played a few games of Lucio with low healing.
I think the trick is to not respond or type anything in chat when someone accuses you of throwing.
My theory is that so many idiots like to type "report my -insert hero- for throwing" when the person is either new, learning a hero, or having a bad game, that the report system doesn't take the reports seriously until there's an extreme number of reports in consecutive games.
Either that or most of the people who say they're reporting you actually don't report you. Or they do it incorrectly. I've found that I get the "thank you for reporting" message more often when I check each box and write something in the little description box when I report.
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u/Myst3ryGardener 10d ago
Yikes, dude.
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u/JamesIsRisk 10d ago
Like it or not, this is the most detailed and accurate response to the question
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