Heroes of the Storm bans on the way
The brawler/battle arena genre seems to attract an inordinate amount of poor behavior, perhaps a result of the highly-competitive environment. Heroes of the Storm isn't an exception, even in the game's alpha phase. Fortunately, Blizzard isn't willing to let such behavior slide. According to a post made by Community Manager Vaeflare, players "who have been found to be repeatedly AFKing, leaving games, or determined to be toxic" will be banned from Heroes of the Storm.
While AFKing through matches is bad enough as it is, we find it particularly absurd that some players are choosing to AFK in a game's alpha, where participation means testing the game's mechanics. The only thing you're testing by going AFK is how quickly Blizzard will remove you from participation.
Vaeflare's full post can be found below or on Battle.net.
Going forward we will be banning Heroes game accounts for players who have been found to be repeatedly AFKing, leaving games, or determined to be toxic in Heroes of the Storm, and as we do with all Blizzard games, we will continue to monitor the game and take action as needed.
As we've said before, playing Heroes of the Storm legitimately means participating in Battlegrounds and being kind and constructive to your fellow players. We're still discussing what further tools we would like to implement in order to deal with players who seek to undermine the spirit of camaraderie and gameplay, and we'll be sure to update you when we have more information to share.
For those of you already in the Technical Alpha, we thank you for your continued feedback and passion for Heroes of the Storm, and for those of you not yet in the Alpha, we're continuing to invite more players into the Nexus on a regular basis, so we hope to see you soon!
