True to their word, Blizzard have already begun to permanently ban all those who attempt to cheat in Overwatch, leaving over 1500 players locked out so far.

It's been a week since the release of Blizzard's new first-person shooter Overwatch and already the company has begun to bring down the ban hammer in a serious way.

Since May 24, more than 1500 people in China have been removed from the game permanently, with several players posting on popular hacking forums about how they can't fool Overwatch's cheat detection system. All 1572 banned players in China have been named and shamed in a post to Blizzard's forums, and PC Gamer has posted several screen-captures of forum posts, indicating that the company's anti-cheating systems are no joke.

One player even stated that they were banned for cheating once, and then again after re-purchasing the game - likely due to the cheat software being detected from the previous use on their computer.

After trying to bypass the ban by changing MAC addresses, processor ID data, and other identifying information, the player gave up saying that they regret poking around with wall hack software during the beta. It might seem a little harsh to lock out a player who has now purchased the title on four separate occasions, but Blizzard has been very clear where they stand on cheating in the past.

A user who found their account deactivated, posted online about the email Blizzard sent to them.

"We don't take this decision lightly," the email reads. "Our team issued this closure after a careful review of relevant evidence. Our support staff will not overturn these closures and may not respond to appeals."

It's fair to say that the company is not messing around when it comes to cheating in Overwatch, which should help eliminate all hacking and unfair play in the game entirely, something that sounds great to those of us who like their games to be as balanced as possible. It will also help make Overwatch's ranked play more reliable, rather than having all the cheaters rising to the upper levels.

One player who will clearly need no assistance from cheats is streamer FenderOverwatch who has already reached level 100 in-game, after a week of daily 13-hour play sessions. Unlike in other Blizzard titles, there is no level cap imposed on Overwatch so there's no telling how the types of levels players will reach by the time ranked play comes out, though it's all but certain that the streamer will have a skill advantage over the majority of players - without the risk of facing a ban.

Source: PC Gamer