You shouldn't lie to customer support people. They know the truth.

Heroes of the Storm, like any MOBA, has an issue with toxic players. You're able to report others for what they say, and under certain circumstances, offenders can be silenced, preventing them from chatting in-game for a period of time. As many silenced players do, one took to Blizzard's support forums in the hopes of getting the issue resolved.

"WOW I am soooo disappointed," reads a recent plea for mercy. "Anytime anyone on the team has a problem and gets toxic I report them, and type reported. But I guess when you do that they will report you for reporting them. I did not break any rules, but I am silenced. Thanks Blizzard. Do you even LOOK at the reports, or is the terms of service only for show?"

That sounds reasonable enough; it looks like this might actually be a case of retribution on the part of toxic players who want to punish someone for notifying Blizzard about their behavior.

Actually, nope. It isn't. And Blizzard does look at those reports.

"For confirmation, you were not silenced for reporting others," reads a replies from a Blizzard support person. "You were silenced for using chat like this:"

2016-06-07 19:25:03 -- LILI WHAT THE [double expletives] ARE YOU DOING [expletive noun]

LILI WHAT THE [double expletives] ARE YOU DOING [expletive noun] 2016-06-11 10:46:50 -- kill tracer noobs [religious figure] [obscene word]

2016-06-14 00:35:25 -- AWSOME the [offensive words] THAT CANT REPLY TO MY INSULTS TOOK MY PICK

AWSOME the [offensive words] THAT CANT REPLY TO MY INSULTS TOOK MY PICK 2016-06-14 -- lol I will [politer word would've been 'mess with'] with him the whole game now

"If anyone finds themselves in a situation where they believe they incorrectly were silenced, you are welcome to submit an appeal through our Support Site and our Game Masters will review the logs attached to your case," the Blizzard post concludes. "Thank you!"

It's not the first instance of Blizzard essentially shaming someone publicly for claiming to be innocent, and it hopefully won't be the last. But the lesson is this: If you're going to lie about not doing something, at least do it somewhere other than a public forum.