“Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!”
Hearthstone has dropped its largest banhammer yet. Over 135,000 accounts were targeted for being bots that fought real players on ladder. Ladder refers to Hearthstone's competitive mode.
Hearthstone ban wave hits over 135,000 bots
According to Hearthstone community manager GnomeSayin, over 135,000 bot accounts were actioned in the game's latest ban wave. Additionally, approximately 60,000 accounts were actioned in January for botting activities.
"We remain committed to ejecting these disorderly patrons from our friendly tavern and we’re going to keep taking these types of actions throughout the year and beyond," GnomeSayin added.
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Hearthstone bans players for Heroic Duels exploit
The community announcement noted that some bad actors got banned in the previous month as well. These players exploited Hearthstone's Duels game mode.
Community manager Kurt Ocher provided details about this in another post on the Blizzard Forums, stating that Heroic Duels was disabled "to prevent malicious users from using third party software to break deckbuilding restrictions."
Later, players affected by the cheaters were granted some Tavern Tickets. "Additionally, players who had lost Heroic Duels games to illegal decks will receive 10 Tavern Tickets–these will be granted to impacted player accounts at a later date," the post stated.
Hearthstone responds to bots on ladder
Blizzard posted about the February ban wave on X as well, emphasizing the massive bot ban to keep the game's ranked mode as organic as possible. Some users expressed relief about the ban wave, with one player attributing the bots to him being stuck in the Diamond 5 rank.
That's all for now. Have you noticed any changes on ladder? Stick around on esports.gg for more news and updates.
