Valve's Creative Bans: Coal and Perma-Bans for Dota 2 Cheaters

Valve has permanently banned "thousands" of DOTA 2 players identified as cheaters, handing out festive gift-wrapped lumps of toxic coal as their punishment. The ban hammer is being used to pulverize smurf accounts and penalize associated main accounts. Valve's crackdown on cheaters has resulted in many tens of thousands of smurf account bans, with recipients receiving a note stating their account has been permanently banned for smurfing or other violations. The company aims to improve match quality and wishes everyone a Happy Frostivus Update, except for smurf accounts.