On their quest to combat toxic players Blizzard has announced that they will be testing a new feature for Overwatch Esports. Their new chat moderation system will require viewers to connect their Battle.net account to Twitch network in order to participate in the official stream chat.
Toxicity is an ongoing problem in Overwatch whether it’s in-game, or on Twitch chat. Last year, every week of Overwatch League meant hundreds of bans for spamming, insulting, and other types of offensive messages. However, Blizzard decided to clean up their Twitch chat and will test the new system during Overwatch Contenders competition, which will be held this weekend.
There’s still a lack of detail about how the new system will work besides the obvious requirement to connect your accounts in order to participate in the Twitch chat conversation. Blizzard released a statement explaining their decision on chat restriction, with the hope that this test might provide “a more positive viewing experience.”
So far, there’s no information about the punishments that toxic messagers might receive for their in-game accounts, but we’ll probably know more after this weekend. The new chat program will debut during the Overwatch Contenders season 3 quarterfinals, which will be held from December 28 to January 12. Behave!
