A new anti-throwing initiative in Marvel Rivals will restore lost ranked points for affected players.
NetEase has launched a ‘Victim Compensation Protocol’ in Marvel Rivals to counter the bizarre phenomenon of ‘incentivised throwing’ by returning lost points to affected players. Throwing has long been a term in gaming where a player purposely loses a match, for whatever reason. However, the worst form yet has appeared in Marvel Rivals as incentivised throwing grew rampant.
A dedicated website–that has since been shut down–and a Discord server had reportedly contained bounties distribution on players’ heads. Other players then enter matches with the targeted player and lose deliberately to collect the reward, with the site taking a portion.
It has become such a widespread problem that developers themselves have addressed the issue. "We have recently identified a disturbing trend within our community: "incentivized throwing," where players are enticed by third-party bounties to deliberately sabotage matches. This behavior not only undermines the integrity of our game but also tarnishes the experience for honest players who are committed to fair competition," Marvel Rivals announced last week.
NetEase launches a new update to compensate affected players
In a follow-up response, NetEase has launched a new detection system and the Victim Compensation Protocol, which together strengthen detection of throwing activity and help affected players regain lost ranked points.
“A brand-new detection system has been deployed across all servers. Using a combination of big data analysis and manual review, the system enhances detection of malicious throwing behaviour. Once violations are confirmed, offending accounts will face strict additional penalties,” developers announced.
NetEase also made sure to compensate those who were affected, not only the person targeted but players in the losing team as well. “To preserve match integrity, the Victim Compensation Protocol has been introduced. If your match loss and point deduction were caused by a teammate’s confirmed malicious behaviour, the system will automatically restore lost points. Players will receive an in-game mail notification once compensation has been issued.”
While the website responsible had been taken down, incentivised throwing and throwing in general, is likely to linger. Developers encourage players to continue reporting instances of throwing in-game to further improve the detection of these malicious acts.
