Whenever games reach out to players through online multiplayer, they always run the risk of finding untrustworthy players who are willing cheat to get ahead, and Overwatch has been no stranger to having to rein in cheaters. Some games take care of these players, like Call of Duty's recent 70,000 player ban, but with titles that have been established over a longer time, each ban often comes from individual investigations of players.
One player, under the account name CulonaVirus, has found themselves banned, reportedly for having been detected using cheating software while playing Overwatch. The player claims on the Overwatch forums that this was a false ban, and that they do not use cheats, however Overwatch's game director and vice president of Blizzard Jeff Kaplan shared a differing opinion from the banned player.
In the post, the banned user started the claim by indicating that they had been banned from Overwatch by Blizzard, but asserted that they had not used any cheating software, as indicated by the notification received by Blizzard regarding the ban. However, according to Kaplan, who commented on the post after a discussion began around the legitimacy of the ban, Blizzard detected multiple cheating tools being used by the account. The original poster has not replied since Kaplan responded, but did indicate that they had other accounts they played on, so they are likely still playing the latest version of Overwatch, by legitimate means or otherwise.
When the post first went up, many players initially came to the poster's defense, offering advice that Blizzard may have accidentally flagged other programs running on the player's computer while logged into Overwatch. However, the benefit of the doubt was quickly dropped after Kaplan's response indicated that multiple cheats had been detected, with many taking the side of the developer in the argument. While it hasn't been specified what programs or mods the player was using, they seem to have gone farther than simply taking advantage of exploits like the recent D.Va teleport bug and were evaluated to be substantial enough to terminate the account.
Other commenters on the forum have also pointed out the original poster's name, and imagine that if the player hadn't been banned for cheating, they likely would have been banned for the rather tasteless screenname. Blizzard has banned Overwatch players for obscenities before, so it wouldn't be a surprise if the name eventually got flagged as offensive and earned another ban anyway. Either way, it should go without saying that this latest ban should only highlight that cheaters never prosper for long, and it's best for the players and the game if everyone just plays by the rules.
Overwatch is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Overwatch Forums