Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: dota, DotA 2, phone registry, ranked matchmaking, valve

Want To Compete In DOTA 2? Now You Need To Give Valve Your Number

Published Fri, 21 Apr 2017 11:45:26 -0500

Somehow Valve went from everyone's favorite game company to that guy at the bar who won't stop staring at you, asks for your number, and follows you home just because you said no. Basically, Valve is that guy in that MAD TV "Can I have your number?" sketch. If you want to keep competing in ranked DOTA 2 matches, you'll need to join Valve's new phone registry.

Their reason for the seemingly absurd request is that too many players have multiple accounts. The phone registry would require you to link one account to your phone in order to compete in ranked matches. And naturally, Valve expects that linked account to be your main, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to use your main for rank.

Why the hate for multi-account players? They "create a negative matchmaking experience at all skill brackets. So our goal is to add just enough friction to this process that the number of players doing this will be noticeably reduced. Having more players using their primary accounts will have a positive effect on both Ranked and Unranked Matchmaking."

There will be a two-week grace period during which players have time to register a number, but starting on May 4th, accounts without a registered number will no longer be eligible for Ranked play. If a phone number is removed from an account after registration, a new number can be added, but there will be a three-month waiting period before the removed number can be registered on a new account. This is to prevent using the same number on multiple accounts.

Valve will also be on the lookout for services that provide phone numbers, but, it's pretty easy to use your non-DOTA friends' numbers to keep multi-accounting your way through the ranks. This is more of a deterrant than anything.

Read DOTA's full matchmaking update here.

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