Valve has prepared unique gifts in Dota 2 ahead of Christmas: What does this mean for players?

Ten days before Christmas marks the time for the world's most famous jolly, bearded figure to compile lists of the obedient and disobedient, distributing rewards to the former and merciless justice to the latter. No, it's not Gabe Newell personally; he's probably somewhere on his yacht. However, Valve decided this year to devise a cunning way to entice cheaters in Dota 2 toward well-deserved bans. They distributed Christmas (or Frostivus in Dota terms) gifts to those on their "naughty" list. Upon opening these presents, a "Highly Toxic Lump of Coal" emerges, accompanied by the description: "Your Dota account has been permanently banned for smurfing or other violations of the Steam Terms of Service." Here's a video gamer receiving such a coal lump in real-time:

Certainly, it's quite amusing. The Christmas-themed ban system was accompanied by a blog post on Dota, where Valve challenged all the wrongdoers. "If you're on the 'naughty' list, we have great news for everyone else and bad news for you, because this year promises to be a bloodbath," proclaimed Valve's update, predominantly targeting smurf accounts and behavior score farmers, promising to "crack down hard on everyone, regardless of how you've violated." According to Valve, "tens of thousands" of smurf accounts were banned just yesterday.

For those unfamiliar with Dota terms, smurfing is when seasoned players create new accounts to play against novices they can easily defeat. It negatively impacts newcomers and appears somewhat pitiful from the professionals' side. As for behavior score farming, it means that players (or bots) pay for positive reviews in Dota's behavior rating system, intended to isolate toxic players from the decent community.

Valve has taken decisive action against Dota cheaters this year, often doing so impressively. Last September, the studio blocked 90,000 smurf accounts, then their main accounts, before celebrating their "victories" in a blog. Previously, Valve also "took action" against another 40,000 bad actors in February.

"As we've said before," continued Valve in its update, "smurfing (and other negative behavior) makes matches worse, and we want to ensure your games get better as we approach the new year. So, we'd like to wish everyone a Happy Frostivus! Except smurf accounts, who, we assume, won't enjoy the update until they choke on their well-deserved coal-flavored desserts."