Overwatch players praise new feature that refunds rank lost against cheaters

Overwatch has implemented a new feature to help in its fight against cheaters by refunding SR to players who lost to hackers using aimbots and other nefarious tools.

No one wants to play against cheaters. In addition to running games for people, losing to them can unfairly punish those who play by the rules by lowering their rank after a match.

If you’ve ever played against a cheater or hacker, you know how infuriating it is to derank because you were stuck trying to outmatch someone with wallhacks or an aimbot.

Luckily, the OW devs have stepped up and implemented a new feature that refunds ranking to anyone caught in the crosshairs of a cheater once they’ve been banned.

Overwatch is refunding lost SR to players who lose to cheaters

Across the Overwatch community, players have documented instances of receiving a pop-up informing them that they had their rankings were adjusted due to cheaters.

The ‘rank reclaimed’ screen states: “You recent lost a game against a cheater that has now been banned. The impact on your Rank Progress has been reversed. We’re sorry we didn’t ban this player sooner, but we hope this reimbursement shows our dedication to competitive integrity.”

In one image shared by streamer ‘Samito,’ they had their rank refunded 25%, while content creator Deku showed a 52% change.

“Wait, this is actually kinda nice. W Blizzard. Glad we get compensated for losing against cheaters now!” they exclaimed.

“Woah, Overwatch is doing something really cool with ranked now. I guess I got matched up vs a cheater in my placement matches and my SR got refunded?” Samito boasted. “I’ve never seen this, but what a W update.”

This improvement isn’t limited to PC, either. Console players have also reported instances of having their rank refunded after playing against users with xim adapters, allowing them to play with a mouse and keyboard.

Blizzard has indicated that using such tools in console lobbies is against the rules, and according to one player, they were refunded after the ximmer was banned.

“I’m in high elo on console and recently reported a ximming Baptiste that hard carried the lobby and stomped my team,” they recalled. “About a week later I got the rank compensation message.”