How to Get Unbanned in Dota 2

Dota 2 is one of the most popular MOBA games around, despite not being nearly as loved as Riot's League of Legends. However, sometimes even long time players might find their accounts banned. Regardless of the reason for it happening, it always stings. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be a lasting ban as there's a way to potentially get unbanned.

To get unbanned in Dota 2 you have to submit an unban appeal to both Steam as well as Valve. The appeal request must include why you believe the ban was unjustified and why you should be unbanned. After submitting it, you'll have to wait for either an email back or for your account to be automatically unbanned.

We'll be going through the two things you'll need to do to maximize your chances of being unbanned in Dota 2.

What Might Get You Banned in Dota 2

Before explaining how you can unban your Dota 2 account, we feel like it's important to go through some of the reasons that might have led to your account getting banned in the first place.

• In game toxic behavior. This includes hate speech, racism, and anything else that might be found offensive, either by the other players in the match or by any other group of people.
• Cheating in the game, such as botting or using external sources to make your gameplay better.
• Lending or giving your account to someone else regardless of the reason. If you use any other boosting website aside from Eloking, then chances are this will be the reason for your account getting banned, as Eloking uses the most efficient safety precutions to avoid detection.
• Buying or selling an account, as that's strictly against the Dota 2 terms of service.

If you feel like any of these apply to you, then chances are that even if you do submit an appeal to get your account unbanned, then the appeal will be rejected as the ban would have been justified.

Submitting An Unban Appeal

If you're banned for a specific period of time but you believe the ban isn't justified or that it should be shorter, then it's possible to submit a ban appeal. Unfortunately, just submitting one might not cut it, so you'll have to submit it to both Valve (since they own Dota 2) as well as Steam itself.

Sending a Ban Appeal to Valve

If you want to send a ban appeal to Valve, then you'll have to:

1. First, go to the official Valvesoftware contact page.
2. You'll see three boxes that you'll have to fill up.
3. For the email section, ensure you write the email associated witht he account of yours that has gotten banned.
4. In the subject section, write 'Dota 2 account ban appeal' or something along those lines.
5. The message itself is the most important part of the appeal. You have to get your point across clearly to ensure the reader understands that your account getting banned was either unjustified or a mistake and that the ban should be lifted as soon as possible.
6. Finally, complete the mandatory captcha and submit the appeal.

Sending a Ban Appeal to Steam

Although Steam is owned by Valve and as such most would assume sending a ban appeal to one is the same as sending it to the other, that isn't the case. It has been reported by many players who were banned in the past that they were able to unban their accounts only when they sent an appeal to both Steam and Valve.

To send a ban appeal to Steam, you have to:

1. First, go to Dota 2's official support page on Steam
2. Then, scroll down until you find the 'contact Steam support' option and click on it.
3. This will open up a text box where you can type your ban appeal message to send to Steam support. Similar to how you did with Valve, you have to get your message across clearly to ensure whoever reads it realizes that the ban on your account wasn't justified.

After Sending the Ban Appeal

After you're done sending both the ban appeals, all you have to do is wait. Players have gotten their accounts unbanned as soon as 12 hours after submitting a ban appeal, while others have had to wait as much as a week.

It is recommended that you check your account after every 6 or so hours, as some players have reported that their accounts got unbanned without them getting a message or email back from either Valvesoftware or Steam.

If Your Ban Appeal Gets Rejected

Naturally, this isn't a sure fire way of getting your Dota 2 account unbanned, as the customer support agent reading your appeal might determine that the ban on your account was, in fact, justified.

If this happens, then you have only two things you can do. The first is to, of course, wait for the ban to run out. Unless you do something extremely drastic, chances are the ban on your account will be for a certain number of days (usually 30). If this is the case with you, then simply waiting for the ban to expire and then be lifted naturally is a good but long way to have your account unbanned.

If you don't want to wait, or if the account has been permanently banned, then the only thing you can do is make a new account and link it with a new number. After all, once an account gets banned, the phone number related to that account also gets blacklisted.

How to Increase the Chances of Your Appeal Getting Approved

As mentioned above, a ban appeal isn't a sure fire way of getting your ban removed. However, there are a couple of things you can do it increase the chances of the appeal getting approved.

For starters, don't lie. The customer support agents are able to look at the chat log of the match that had your account banned, and also have access to a variety of different features that help them properly determine whether a ban was justified or not. Because of this, bluntly lying would only make your appeal seem disingenuous and therefore a prime rejection target.

Secondly, remember that you have to be respectful, or at least not come out as immediately aggressive towards either the developers or the customer support agent. Remember, they aren't obligated to unban your account, and playing the blame game or being aggressive will only hurt your chances in the end.

Finally, try to be reasonable. If you feel like you've made a mistake, then own up to it, but make them believe that you won't be repeating the mistake again. If you were toxic in chat, then make them believe it's something you haven't done before, and you won't ever do it again either.