Dota 2 Low Priority and Behavior Score (2026): How to Get Out

Low Priority is the queue Dota 2 puts you in when your conduct catches up with you, and it is built to be tedious: one game mode, slower queues and no ranked until you win your way out. This guide covers what Low Priority does to an account, how to clear it, what puts you there and what Valve itself has said about the behaviour score behind it. Valve has never published a Low Priority rulebook, so every rule below says where it comes from: Valve's own posts, the client, or the community wikis.

What Low Priority does to your account

When an account lands in Low Priority, the play button changes: you can still play Dota, but only on these terms.

The ranked lock is the part that hurts most. If a friend in your stack has Low Priority, the whole stack is out of ranked too, which is why the ranked checklist in our ranked requirements guide starts with it. Every other mode, Turbo and unranked All Pick included, stays closed until the count reaches zero.

How to get out: win the games the client shows

1. Read your count.

   The client tells you how many Low Priority wins you owe. It's usually between one and five, and the number on your own screen is the only one that matters: Valve doesn't publish how long each offence lasts.

2. Queue Single Draft.

   It's the only mode on offer. Pick the hero you're most comfortable with from the four, not the one you'd like to learn.

3. Win.

   As the community wikis document it, only wins count your Low Priority down. A loss leaves the count where it was, so a careless game costs you an extra one.

4. Finish every game.

   Abandoning a match is the classic way into Low Priority in the first place; doing it again inside the queue is the slowest way out.

A worked example. If the client shows three Low Priority wins and you win about half your games, expect around six Single Draft games before ranked opens again. At a 60% win rate it's about five. Slow queues add to that, which is why the better fix is not getting there.

What sends you to Low Priority

Valve hasn't published its triggers or thresholds. What the community wikis (Liquipedia and the Dota 2 Wiki) document:

• Abandons. Leaving a match before it ends. Liquipedia adds that an abandon hands your whole party the full penalty and gives you an automatic loss, so a quick exit costs your friends as well.
• Reports for griefing. Feeding, sabotage and the like, as reported by other players. Valve rebuilt its reporting system in 2023 (more below).
• Off-role play. Ranked is queued by position. Playing a role you didn't queue for lowers your behaviour score, per the wikis.

None of this comes with official numbers. Treat any site that quotes an exact "reports per Low Priority game" figure with suspicion: Valve has never published one.

Single Draft, the only mode in Low Priority

In Single Draft each player is offered four random heroes, one from each attribute: Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Universal. You pick one of the four. There's no bonus for randoming and no swapping, as the Dota 2 Wiki describes the mode. A typical offer might look like this:

That randomness is why a broad, simple pool clears Low Priority faster. If you can play one easy hero from each attribute, most offers contain a game you can win. Valve rates 55 of the 127 heroes at its easiest complexity; our beginner heroes guide picks starters from that list, and the attributes guide lists every hero by attribute so you know which column a hero will come up in.

Behaviour score: what Valve has said, and when

Valve doesn't publish the formula, but its own posts confirm what the score is used for. In order:

Put together: the behaviour score is a real number on every account, Valve uses it when it builds your matches, and it's one of the levers Valve pulls against smurfing. A higher score doesn't just keep you out of Low Priority; it shapes who you play with.

Checking your score, and what the grades mean

The client shows a summary of your conduct. Beyond that, two community routes are widely quoted:

• The console. With the console enabled, dota_game_account_client_debug | grep behavior prints the behaviour value the client holds, as the Dota 2 Wiki describes it.
• The grades. The wikis describe a scale of Normal (which replaced the old grades A+ to B), then C+, C, C−, D and F. Valve hasn't published what score each grade covers.

You'll also see a 12,000-point scale and a "muted below 3,000" rule quoted online. Both come from wiki pages that may predate Valve's 2023 rebuild, and we couldn't confirm either for today's system, so we don't print them as current.

Smurf accounts and your main

A fresh account looks like a way around Low Priority. Valve has made clear it isn't. On 1 September 2023 it permanently banned 90,000 smurf accounts, which it defines as "alternate accounts used by players to avoid playing at the correct MMR, to abandon games, to cheat, to grief, or to otherwise be toxic without consequence". Valve said it traced "every single one" back to its main account, and the mains were punished too. In December 2023 smurf alts got "a game ban" and main accounts linked to a banned smurf got "a piece of coal" instead of a gift. In August 2025 Valve announced bans of more than 75,000 win traders, smurfs and other bad actors. Our guide to Valve's rules has the full timeline.

Staying out: a checklist

1. Finish every game you start.

   A hopeless game ends in a loss; an abandon ends in a loss plus a penalty for you and your party.

2. Play the position you queued.

   Ranked is queued by role, and the wikis say playing another one lowers your behaviour score. Our positions guide covers what each role is expected to do.

3. Mute instead of arguing.

   Reports are the other road into the queue. Muting a player costs you nothing.

4. Fix your connection before ranked.

   A disconnect that turns into an abandon counts the same as a rage-quit.

5. Keep your account yours.

   Valve gave "a game ban" to accounts "shared with other users or services" in December 2023. A penalty earned by someone else on your account is still yours.

Low Priority Removal, and help that keeps you out

Our Low Priority Removal service has a booster play and win your Low Priority games on your own account, appear-offline and with a VPN to your region. Three games are $9.05 today, priced by the same engine as checkout. Be clear about what that means: it is played on your account, which is account sharing under the Steam Subscriber Agreement (§1.C), and Valve has game-banned shared accounts before. Read the Risk Disclosure and our guide to Valve's rules before you decide. Coaching shares nothing and works on the habits that put you there. Dota 2 orders open soon: get the launch alert on the Dota 2 hub.

• Clear the queue: Low Priority Removal, one to five games won, priced per game.
• Stay out: 1-on-1 coaching with an Immortal coach, live or on your replays.
• Back to climbing: ranked wins at your medal once ranked is open again.

Related guides: ranked requirements · is Dota 2 boosting bannable? · positions 1–5 · hero attributes