Mason's ban in Dota 2 has gone viral: Valve called it genius

Mason "mason" Venne, a streamer and former esports player, received an unexpected 15-year ban in Dota 2 when he opened the Frostivus gift. A clip from his broadcast with this moment went viral.

The video was not only published on Twitch but also on the Ez Dotes YouTube page.

The streamer was genuinely shocked by Valve's unexpected surprise when the gift turned out to be a Lump of Coal. The video immediately went viral in the Dota 2 community, with the moment gaining significant discussion on Reddit r/DotA2.

Valve's move has already elicited reactions from other well-known streamers. For example, Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov, in his Telegram, called Dota 2 developers true geniuses due to this ban distribution method.

"Okay, this once again elevates Valve to the rank of geniuses. Santa gives coal to naughty kids instead of gifts; well, that's how it was in fairy tales. So, if you were smurfing, cheating, breaking something else and were caught, you might find a piece of coal in your gift like a naughty child, and GABEN (Santa) is not kidding"

As a reminder, Valve banned several thousand Dota 2 accounts with the release of patch 7.35.