Overwatch 2 players hounded by Blizzard over the word ‘potato’

Blizzard has punished an Overwatch 2 player over the word “potato”. Players who use the word as their in-game battletag have been punished for their “offensive” use of the root vegetable.

Shared on Reddit, an Overwatch 2 showed other players just why they were punished by the game’s developer. The charge: using the word “potato” in a way that somehow violates the multiplayer game’s code of conduct.

Now, we could see this maybe being an issue if the player called another player a potato. However, the word was simply used as the player’s BattleTag, a simple nickname that shows up during game. It’s completely harmless; who doesn’t love potatoes? We just think they’re neat.

“Your fellow players reported your BGS BattleTag - Inappropriate Battle Tag multiple times for violating the Code of Conduct, and we've modified Potato as a result,” reads the email. “As the owner of this account, you are responsible for all actions associated with it. We will only overturn penalties if there is evidence of a compromised account or similar extenuating

As it turns out, the ban has likely occurred due to the use of the word “pot” at the start of “potato”. As stupid as it sounds, this level of detection has been proven necessary as hateful gamers hide offensive and racial slurs in their names.

Fans instantly started echoing similar issues with Blizzard such as having their accounts renamed by Overwatch’s automatic name changer. One fan even explained that the developer is going hard on names that might include offensive words, but not removing outright atrocious content from the Overwatch 2 experience.

“Cool that they can whack u for the Potato BT but cannot seem to remove the ‘Sexual Assault Simulator’ in the custom game modes. Blizzard amirite,” one fan commented.

Overwatch 2 and other online games have struggled to keep up with censoring players. While some content does definitely need to be censored, there’s a number of discrepancies. For example, in GTA V, an 18-rated game, you can’t swear in chat. In Overwatch 2, you can’t have the name potato.