Anyone who’s spent even 50 hours in Dota 2 ranked has been there. You queue up for a mid lane game, get matched with a support who intentionally feeds first blood over a ward argument, then spams slurs in chat for the rest of the match. If that sounds familiar, you’re probably looking for how to avoid players in Dota 2 so you can spend less time dealing with toxic nonsense and more time actually enjoying the game. I’ve played over 4,000 hours of Dota 2 across three accounts, and I’ve tested every single method of blocking or avoiding problem players to figure out what actually works, and what’s just a waste of time.
How to Avoid Players in Dota 2 Using Built-In Matchmaking Tools
Valve's official avoid player function is the first tool you should use, and it’s completely free and supported by the game. As of the latest matchmaking update, you get 25 avoid slots per account, and they don’t expire unless you manually remove someone. That’s way more than the 5 slots we had a few years back, so you don’t have to stress about wasting slots on people who only grief once. Using the tool is simple: after a match ends, go to the score screen, click the dropdown next to the player’s name, and select “Avoid Player”.
Once you mark someone as avoided, the matchmaker will do everything it can to not put you on the same team as that person for future queues. There are a couple of small catches to keep in mind, though. The tool doesn’t prevent them from being on the enemy team, and if the queue pool is really small (like off-peak hours for your region), you might still get matched with them occasionally, but it cuts the risk by 90% in most cases. You can only avoid players you’ve already played with, so it doesn’t work for people you’ve only seen in Twitch chats or public forums.
A lot of players waste avoid slots on people who play badly on accident, but I recommend saving them exclusively for people who intentionally grief, spam hate speech, or throw matches over minor disagreements. Bad play is a skill issue, but toxic behavior is a choice, and those are the people you never want to team up with again. You can manage your avoided players list any time in the game’s social settings, so you can remove people after a few months if you want to free up slots for new problem accounts.
Adjust Your Queue Settings to Steer Clear of High-Risk Players
A lot of players don’t realize that small changes to your queue settings can drastically reduce the number of toxic players you run into, no extra tools required. Your behavior score is the single biggest factor in who you get matched with. If your behavior score is above 9,500, you’ll almost never run into players who get reported frequently for griefing or toxicity. If you’re seeing a lot of toxic players, first check your own behavior score: make sure you’re not spamming chat, pinging excessively, or abandoning matches, even if your team is throwing.
Next, adjust your language settings to only include languages you actually speak fluently. I used to have English and Spanish selected because I know a little basic Spanish, but I kept getting matched with teams that only spoke Spanish and would get mad if I didn’t communicate in their first language. Now I only have English selected, and I barely run into that issue anymore. You can also adjust your server selection to only include servers with low ping, because players with high ping are more likely to get frustrated and throw matches when their connection lags.
Avoid queueing during off-peak hours if you can. If you queue at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday in a smaller region, the matchmaker has way fewer players to pick from, so you’re much more likely to get matched with the same toxic players over and over, even if you have them avoided. Queue during prime time (7 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time on weekdays, most of the day on weekends) for the largest possible pool of players, which lowers your chance of running into problem accounts. If you have a group of friends to play with, queueing as a full 5-person party completely eliminates random teammates from your matches, so that’s another easy fix if you’re tired of rolling the dice on randoms.
Third-Party Tools to Track and Avoid Problem Players Before You Queue
If you want to go a step further than the built-in game tools, third-party stat tracking platforms and browser extensions can help you spot toxic players before you even accept a match. Third-party stat tracking sites let you check player histories before you accept a match, if you use the browser extensions that pop up when you get a match accept notification. These extensions pull the account IDs of everyone in your upcoming match and show you their recent match history, report rates, and even if other users have marked them as griefers or toxic players. If you see someone with a 30% report rate in their last 20 matches, you can decline the match and requeue to avoid playing with them.
There are a few important caveats to using these tools, though. Declining too many matches in a row will put you in a low priority queue for a few minutes, so don’t decline every match just because someone has a 40% win rate. Only decline if you see clear evidence of toxic or griefing behavior. When you’re checking a player’s stats, look for these red flags that indicate they’re a high-risk teammate:
I’ve used these tools for almost two years, and they’ve helped me avoid at least 50 obviously toxic players before I even got into a match. The downside is that they don’t work for private accounts, so if someone has their profile set to private, you won’t be able to see their stats. Also, Valve has not officially approved most of these extensions, so use them at your own risk, as violating the Dota 2 terms of service can lead to a temporary or permanent account ban. I’ve never had an issue using the more popular, well-known extensions, but it’s always better to be cautious.
Long-Term Changes to Cut Down on Frustrating Player Interactions
Even with all the avoid tools and setting adjustments in the world, you’re still going to run into the occasional toxic player in Dota 2. There are a few small habit changes you can make to reduce the impact of these interactions, even if you can’t avoid the player entirely. If you’re really tired of dealing with random toxic players, consider switching to unranked or turbo mode for a while. Ranked play brings out the worst in a lot of people, because they’re stressed about climbing MMR, so you’ll see way more griefing and toxicity in ranked than you will in casual game modes. I switched to turbo exclusively for 6 months last year after a really bad losing streak with toxic teammates, and I had way more fun, even when I lost.
Mute all voice and text chat at the start of the match if you don’t need to communicate. Most toxic interactions happen because someone says something rude in chat, and if you have chat muted, you won’t even see it. You can still use pings and the quick chat wheel to communicate basic info like missing enemies or ward placements, so you don’t lose much by muting public chat. I have chat muted by default for all matches now, and I only unmute people if they prove they’re there to play fairly and communicate constructively.
If you get into a match and someone starts being toxic within the first 10 minutes, don’t engage. Arguing with them only makes the situation worse, and you might end up getting reported too, which lowers your behavior score and puts you in worse matches later. Just mute them, focus on your own play, and report them after the match is over. You can also submit a support ticket to Valve if the player was spamming hate speech or threats, as these violations can lead to permanent account bans for the offending player.
At the end of the day, Dota 2 is a team game, and you’re never going to be able to avoid every bad or toxic player entirely. But learning how to avoid players in Dota 2 using the tools we covered will cut down on the number of frustrating matches you have to sit through by a huge margin. Don’t waste energy arguing with people online, use your avoid slots wisely, and prioritize having fun over climbing MMR if you’re starting to burn out. I’ve used all these tips myself, and I went from having 1 out of 3 matches feature a toxic player to less than 1 out of 10, so they definitely work if you stick to them.