Today’s update introduces a powerful tool to help the community regulate negative behavior amongst its ranks — Overwatch.

THE BASICS
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Much like in CS:GO, Overwatch for Dota 2 provides a system that allows good-standing members of the community to verify the validity of reports flagging disruptive actions within games.

If a player chooses to review a case, they’ll watch a replay with pre-marked sections indicating possible negative behavior by a specific player. After reviewing the replay, they can choose: guilty, not guilty, or insufficient evidence for either.

Eligible players will occasionally be notified below their profile pictures that they have the option to review a case. Reviewers will earn an accuracy score for their efforts, and those who falsely convict will receive a lower score, eventually losing the ability to participate in Overwatch at all. To gather a pool of reliable reviewers, we’ll be enabling a growing number of accounts for participation over the next week or so.

REPORTING
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Reports can now be made directly in a match via the scoreboard, or by selecting a player and clicking the flag on their hero portrait. Placing markers in the match will indicate to future reviewers where to look for negative behavior, and you can report the same player as many times as needed — meaning the more reports you file that are accurate, the more evidence the reviewers will have to make a case.

To accommodate the new system, players now have a distinct pool of reports for Overwatch separate from communication reports. Reporting a player for Overwatch consumes one Overwatch report regardless of how many times you report that player in the game. As before, communication reports are still issued at the end of the game.

COMMUNICATION BANS
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As noted above, communication reports are distinct from Overwatch reports and are still issued in the post-game screen. However, instead of preventing users from typing or using voice chat during a match, communication bans will now mute deserving players by default. As a result, other players can choose for themselves whether to unmute a chat-banned teammate or not. When a chat-banned player uses communications during a match, they’ll receive a reminder of their status in the chat window.