Defense Matrix Activated! Season 12 is just around the corner, launching tomorrow on August 20, and we have exciting news in our efforts to stop disruptive and harmful play in Overwatch 2. Defense Matrix is our initiative that works to make Overwatch 2 a fun, safe, and fair competitive Hero Shooter that is inclusive for everyone. So let’s jump into what’s been happening and what we have in store coming in Season 12 and beyond.

Cheaters Are NOT Heroes

Cheating is an on-going problem in every skill-based game, and Overwatch 2 is no exception.  Cheating is a premeditative behavior where a player deliberately intends to ruin the experience for others, and is not tolerated in our community. Cheats like aimbots and wallhacks wreck the experience for all players. Our team has been hard at work to stop the hacks and mods that enable cheating, plus remove cheaters and those who take advantage of cheaters. Today, we’re pleased to announce we have banned over 500,000 accounts that have been found to be cheating. We have also suspended or banned over 40,000 accounts that intentionally group up with cheating accounts as well.

But our work doesn’t end with just identifying and removing cheaters. It’s important to also take out hacks that enable cheats altogether. We’re hard at work on new anti-cheat technologies and looking forward to stopping cheats in their tracks. As usual, we don’t like to reveal details of what we are doing to make this happen. However, we hope that by showing the efforts to remove a half-a-million cheaters from the game shows, we’ve made great strides to stop cheaters in their tracks and will always continue to do so.

Playing Fair on Consoles Works

In Season 11, we launched full preventive measures to detect anyone on console that was using an unapproved peripheral to enable mouse and keyboard inputs into console pools. While this led to banning thousands of the worst offenders who maliciously used these devices to climb competitive ranks in Season 10, players who attempt to use an unapproved peripheral will now lose access to Competitive Play and will be relegated to the PC input pool for all unranked game modes. This has greatly improved the quality of ranked play for those who play on console.

Control Your Team Experience

As mentioned in our recent Director’s Take blog, our Avoid as Teammate Feature is getting an update that will better enable all our players to play with teammates that you can rely on. Starting in Season 12, you’ll be able to add up to 15 players on your Avoid as Teammate list. This will help tailor the match experience and keep you from being queued in the same team as someone you don’t sync with well. You’ll also be able to order these players in order of preference from which players you absolutely don’t want to play with versus those you would rather avoid if you can help it.

For those ranked below Grand Masters, you’ll likely be able to avoid all 15 players on your list in every match. Those on the higher end of the Competitive ranks, where there are fewer players available to match with, may still see some of your avoided players that are lower in priority, especially when your queue time gets longer. But don’t worry! You’ll be able to pin up to three players to absolutely avoid and keep on your Avoid as Teammate list indefinitely. When your list is full and you want to avoid a new player, they will be added automatically to the top of the list of players who are not pinned and the player who’s at the bottom of your list will drop off. You can reset the timer at any time for any player to move them back up to the top of the list. Players who are not pinned will be taken off of your Avoid as Teammate list after a total of seven days.

Optimizing In-Match Reporting

We have new details on improving the reporting and social features in-game to share. We’re adding a new feature to the Scoreboard, where you can now directly regulate the text chat or voice chat of any of your teammates and opponents. You’ll be able to directly mute the text chat or voice chat of any of your teammates, opponents, or yourself, plus adjust individual volume for each player’s voice. You’ll also have a quick two-click button to file an instant report for any disruptive player in your match. These new features are tailored especially around console players to make it easy to quickly stop and find each action with just a few button presses while the match is in progress. Stay tuned to see these social and reporting features in a future season coming soon!

Update to Streamer Protect

Knowing when you encounter a disruptive player is important because it can allow you to safeguard yourself by adjusting your social features to mute that disruptive player or warn your friends who may be playing with you that player is likely to be a problem. We’ve heard feedback that players who like to cheat or are disruptive use our Streamer Protect tools to cover their own identity, making it difficult for players to quickly identify them if they encountered that player in a previous match.

That’s it for this Defense Matrix update.  Stay tuned, there are more updates planned in future seasons. Please remember to continue to play fair and play nice, and always help support the best part of Overwatch 2: the community. Thank you!