Overview
- NetEase issued a March 5 statement condemning “incentivized throwing” and launched a specialized investigation protocol to track matches linked to third-party bounties.
- The developer warned violators will face significant penalties, including possible permanent account bans, under its zero-tolerance policy for malicious disruption.
- Reports documented a third-party website offering cash rewards—cited up to $40—to queue against targeted players, including streamers, and intentionally lose ranked matches.
- NetEase urged players to file in-game reports and noted that throwing complaints must include the match’s replay ID to be reviewed.
- The bounty platform now displays a rework notice with no ETA and pledges refunds for unclaimed bounties, while at least one account tied to a reported incident (“Send 5 I Throw”) has been reported as permabanned.