Valve Now Requiring Players To Register Phone Numbers To Play Ranked Dota 2 Matches
Dota 2 players who want to play in ranked games will have to offer up an extra bit of information in order to be able to participate. With the launch of the new matchmaking update, players will now be required to register a phone number.
The purpose of this change is to help prevent the issue of players creating multiple accounts in order to game the matchmaking system and make it harder for players to keep 'smurf' accounts. Preventing smurfing is a rather important issue for the company because this behavior not only makes newbie experiences... well... suck, but also results in the selling of boosted accounts.
As of now, registering the phone number is still optional, but after May 4 it will be mandatory.
Of course, the phone number linking isn't the only thing that changed in this update. To see the full list of changes, check out the post on the Dota 2 blog.
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QuintLyn is a long-time lover of all things video game related will happily talk about them to anyone that will listen. She began writing about games for various gaming sites a little over ten years ago and has taken on various roles in the games community.
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I for example have 2 steam accounts for multiple games not just dota and on my main dota account i have been stuck in 1kmmr for years while my skill level is way higher than that. I'm no pro player but what i mean to say is what is the difference between a new player getting matched up against veteran players on a smurf acc or veteran players stuck in low mmr. Then there is the part that they say they want to make sure people don't sell their accounts. So what if i get a new phone with a new number ?? will that makes me not being able to play anymore or people can just change the number even if you sell the account which would make this system even more useless
If they were to sell your number, they would be liable for a law suit from every single player. Some people lack a phone number, that I understand and it's unfair to you guys. But we all have parents/guardians and I'm sure they don't care about one lousy verification text/call.
And to those who have siblings with only one guardian, whose entire family plays DotA. Your best bet is to email valve about the situation.
If you where playing mobile games i can understand that maybe your number is needed for some games but as far as i know even for mobile games they don't ask you for your number.
I hope this will not end in a domino effect where other games are gonna add the same sort of features and end up getting random calls and unasked-for adverts cause we already got enough commercials 24/7 everywhere we go. what they'll ask next update a blood donation or a evening with my wife ??