Add reporting category - "Alternative account/smurf"

General Discussion
1

This reporting category will only apply to players below level 100.

Getting enough reports on an account cannot ban the account, but it does the following:

  1. Immediately fixes the MMR to the highest MMR found between the four following: Accounts purchased on the purchaser’s CC, accounts registered to the player’s name or address, the hardware ID associated with the account, or the console account currently active.
  2. Increases the minimum level for competitive play to 50 (at least) or 100 (preferable).

The number of reports needed is reduced substantially if the player’s winrate is over 70%.

53 Likes
2

im not sure if that would work…but okay…

could cause boosting issues tho

3 Likes
3

I like this idea.

1 Like
5

At this point we might as just add a category that says “was outplayed by this person, and we all know that’s not possible unless you were cheating and/or smurfing”.

34 Likes
6

Smurfing isn’t bannable, not to mention accusing someone of smurfing is considered a compliment.

7

All day I’ve not had a single quickplay match that didn’t have at least 3-4 “new” players lol.

Can’t bare to imagine how bad comp is right now.

But yeah… “so healthy for the game” this is just proof that the majority of these 50,000 keys they gave away went to smurfs.

I’m so sick of new accounts in every single match.

Like I’d rather wait 30 minutes for a match to not have any “new” players in my matches.

Can just imagine what competitive is like if they plague quickplay.

26 Likes
8

I think a more practical solution is to put SMS verification as a necessary entry into each comp season, with one phone number per account.

11 Likes
9

I’m not saying we ban them. Did you read the suggestion?

3 Likes
10

The issue is i have two three alts none are smurfs but every time i was leveling up as well as placements i was called smurf…
I wouldn’t mind if bliz made a rule to tie my new account to my main account.

11

No, did I need to? /20chars

12

I just want to fix their MMR back to their main account and maybe delay their entry into comp as both a disincentive and to make sure they’re properly placed.

5 Likes
13

Just report for gameplay sabotage. 'cause that is what it is.

9 Likes
14

I just use the gameplay sabotage category.

3 Likes
15

Alt accounts are fine though. I know several high rank players who have them and don’t even come close to smurfing. They often play them after balance patches go live so they don’t screw up their main accounts SR rank. They still play the alt accounts to the best of their ability.

1 Like
16

I loooove this idea. I can go into a PC cafe, login with an alt account, get my friends to report it as such, and bam instant boost to mid masters.

1 Like
17

No, they’re not! QP is almost entirely ruined because of them!

4 Likes
18

I like this, though I don’t think increasing the requirement for Comp is a good idea. Just imagine someone actually new to the game, but with an FPS background, getting wrongly accused. Increasing their MMR may not be bad, but stopping them from playing a mode because they’re too good definitely would.

Also, wouldn’t smurfs just soft-throw in QP then?

19

Another smart idea. I like it.

20

Fully behind ideas like this. Implementation varies. It’s one way to make smurfing less practical. If you can’t design robust matchmaking/ranking where smurfing is moot, at least bind the accounts together.

Awareness is half the battle. The lowest of bronze is repugnant and people gitgud without ever ranking up. There is so much lost time and many gonext moments because of alts/burners. And tbh I don’t blame them anymore. It’s the system not the user. In the end everyone is behaving like a smurf and their skill level is totally mislabeled. No one cares and no one wants to try to beat it anymore.

21

I think it would be a great idea to prevent boosters. There’s a huge difference between someone wanting a clean slate and someone actively smurfing or boosting, this needs to be considered.

  • Accounts purchased via same payment/billing method with drastically different ranks should be refunded or banned.
  • Reduce the grouping to prevent players 1k apart from playing in games, this is obvious boosting even if they’re not actively saying ‘I will boost you’.
  • Minimum comp level 50 sounds good.
  • Prevent all discounts e.g. BF sale/ discount codes being used to payment methods/billing addresses that hold multiple accounts (Blizzard do save this data).