People messing around with online, competitive games is always an issue. Valve is trying something new with its Dota 2 MOBA to weed out unlawful players. It will be focusing particularly on people running multiple accounts to participate in ranked play.
When playing an online, competitive game, players who use multiple accounts can mess with the overall statistics. For example, someone who is really good can open a new account, get matched up against lower-ranked players, and run over them until they get back to where they are normally. Then they start over again, and new players struggle that much more to organically improve.
Valve is trying to force ranked players to use their primary account in Dota 2 . To do that, the company is requiring players to register their phone numbers to their account. One phone number per account, and the numbers have to be unique. Numbers can be unpaired from an account, but there’s a three-month cooldown period before that number can be registered again.
In a statement on its blog, Valve explained the thinking behind this new policy. “Players using multiple accounts 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.” All in all, it sounds like a move that will be good for most players!
Source: Valve