Imagine queuing up for some competitive Marvel Rivals games, only to have multiple players in your lobby drop zero eliminations to go along with their 50-plus deaths.
It may sound like an exaggeration of the teammates we all seem to find in online games, but it’s real, and there’s a very dumb reason for it. Over the past few weeks, Marvel Rivals players and content creators like Flats have become the target of “incentivized throwing” via a third-party website where people post bounties to queue into specific players’ lobbies and throw their matches.
Flats posted multiple shocking scoreboard screenshots of ranked games where he had assumedly been targeted by these throwers yesterday, and within about 12 hours of sharing what’s been happening to him and others, NetEase Games posted a response this morning.
“We maintain a strict zero-tolerance policy against any form of malicious disruption,” the company said in a statement. “To combat this issue, we are implementing a specialized investigation protocol focused on identifying and addressing negative gameplay linked to these external bounties. Accounts found to be violating our policies will face serious repercussions, including, but not limited to, permanent bans. We strongly advise players against jeopardizing their valuable accounts and hard-earned progress for the sake of temporary incentives.”
The part about “repercussions” being “not limited to permanent bans” should scare some people. Because if there’s money changing hands for the games to be thrown, then it seems ripe for actual legal proceedings if things continue to escalate.
“Moreover, to reinforce the principles of fair competition, we have enhanced our regulations regarding negative gameplay,” NetEase said. “Accounts found to be engaging in disruptive behaviors, such as malicious idling (AFK) or intentionally throwing matches, will incur significant penalties following reporting and verification.”
I can only shake my head at this sort of thing, and I’ve been around the competitive gaming scene for a long time. The fact that some care enough to incentivize people to join another player’s match and then intentionally lose the game is sad enough, but then those who choose to do it also clearly have no shame in the matter.
Me? I don’t need anyone to throw to lose my games. I’m bad enough as is (and so are my teammates), and that’s a skill that no one can take away from me. You can’t throw my games when I’m trash to begin with, so I am impervious, and I am inevitable.
As always, NetEase says to report any players you suspect of throwing to help weed them out. But, seriously, gamers. Be better. Or get banned (or maybe worse).
