Are you allowed to have an alt account?

[Brukin-21646]

@Kaedi-11739

To contribute, the term “smurf” is extremely ambiguous and really does not pin down a specific disruptive behavior (just like the term toxicity). Again in my personal opinion, the concept of smurfing is greatly exaggerated among the community.

I think it is more important to define actual disruptive behaviors.

• Throwing/Deranking - Any account used to deliberately play below the actual skill of that player. This can be done to either troll other players or attempt to find matches faster to just play the game. However, deranking for any reason is a considered Gameplay Sabotage and a violation of the Blizzard Code-of-Conduct.
• Boosting - Either accessing another account that you do not own or grouping up as a new account to boost another player to a higher rank. Both of which are violations of the Blizzard Code-of-Conduct.
• Bronze to GM Challenges - This means throwing to first go all the way down to Bronze then play seriously to work their way back up the ladder. Since it involves throwing to some capacity, it is a violation.
• Unranked to GM challenges - Starting a new account and try to get to GM as quickly as possible. This is more gray area and I think this issue should be addressed by Blizzard. For example, “drunk unranked to GM” or “One-trick-pony unranked to GM challenges” I would consider to be gameplay sabotage as you attempting to play in a compromised matter.
• Simply playing on an alternate account - As long as you are playing at your best to your known skill, you should be fine.

this should answer it

[Gundham-11988]

I don’t like Smurfs, but I’m fine with alt accounts.
They can be useful.

[N16HTM4R3-21687]

Yes. I mean regardless of the smurfing issue, there has been no rules against having alt accs.

[NightLegend-21450]

There is no rule against having alt accounts.

You can have 2 , 3 , 10 alt accounts and you wouldn’t be breaking any rules.

What IS against the rules however is creating these alt accounts to “throw” in comp, that is unacceptable and punishable by the devs.

[PlinkoPlonko-1233]

People will hate you but no there is no rule against it.

[PlinkoPlonko-1233]

@Kaedi-11739

Unranked to GM challenges - Starting a new account and try to get to GM as quickly as possible. This is more gray area and I think this issue should be addressed by Blizzard. For example, “drunk unranked to GM” or “One-trick-pony unranked to GM challenges” I would consider to be gameplay sabotage as you attempting to play in a compromised matter.

They don’t enforce this part very much i see many many people doing unranked to gm and no punishment so this one is indeed a gray area

[Kaedi-11739]

To give a more concrete answer that goes beyond my statement. Here is are two key portions of the Blizzard End User License Agreement.

@Blizzard End User License Agreement

The Blizzard Account. To use the Platform, you must register, or have previously registered, a Blizzard account (an “Account”). Creation and use of Accounts are subject to the following terms and conditions:

1. You may establish an Account only if: (i) you are a “natural person” and an adult in your country of residence (Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, partnerships and other legal or business entities may not establish an Account); and (ii) you are not an individual specifically prohibited by Blizzard from using the Platform.

@Blizzard End User License Agreement

Blizzard Balance.

1. As an active Account holder, you may participate in the Blizzard Balance service (“Blizzard Balance”). Blizzard Balance can only be used to obtain certain products and services offered by Blizzard; it has no cash value. Blizzard grants you a limited license to acquire, use, and redeem Blizzard Balance pursuant to the terms of this Agreement. Regardless of how it is acquired, Blizzard Balance is non-transferable to another person or Account, does not accrue interest, is not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and, unless otherwise required by law or permitted by this Agreement, is not redeemable or refundable for any sum of money or monetary value from Blizzard at any time. Blizzard Balance does not constitute or confer upon you any personal property right. Blizzard Balance is not a bank account. And, while you can register and play on multiple Accounts, you are not allowed to have more than three (3) Accounts with Blizzard Balance.

In short, any accounts must be under your own name, but you can have multiple accounts.

[N7Warrior-1327]

Wyoming covered it nicely

[Tsunder-11669]

Yes. You are allowed to have another account.

[Kaedi-11739]

@PlinkoPlonko-1233

They don’t enforce this part very much i see many many people doing unranked to gm and no punishment so this one is indeed a gray area

What you quoted from my original post is more of my personal opinion. Again, I think the idea of specifically starting an account and playing in a compromised way is fair for other players, but it still comes down to whether the person in question is actually committing gameplay sabotage or not. This is why it is important to report players, and if they are disruptive across all of their games, Blizzard will take action.

[anon43014237]

@Kaedi-11739

any accounts must be under your own name

So, I would put the same name I put for my main? (this one)

[PlinkoPlonko-1233]

Ah thank you for explaining i didnt mean any disrespect (If it came off like that) btw i was just saying it is a bit of a weird situation.

[Goodgame-11119]

You got money? You can have as many accounts as you want.

[SlamJones-1659]

Blizzard loves smurfs and alts. It’s all just money to them.

Game balance? Nahh. Fair matches? Screw that!

No, no, if you give Blizz money then you can do anything you want.

[Kaedi-11739]

@anon43014237

So, I would put the same name I put for my main? (this one)

Your real name must be the same, your BattleTag can be anything you want. If you create an account under a fake name, you won’t be able to recover it if it is ever hacked (as the process involves providing an image of your ID).

[Ungod-1936]

@Blizzard End User License Agreement

Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, partnerships and other legal or business entities may not establish an Account

Wait, doesn’t this mean a lot of twitch streamers should be banned? I’d assume most of the big ones form a business so that can write off their computers and such.

[Kaedi-11739]

No. What it means is that the account can only be accessed by a single individual. Its common for other forms of software to be licensed as a business license. For example, Office 365 or Adobe Creative Cloud have business account licenses which the account is shared among multiple users.

That being said, there is a sort of “business agreement” in Korea to operate Blizzard Games from pre-provided internet gaming rooms, a.k.a. PC Bangs, but even then in order to actually play the game, an individual user must have their own Blizzard Korea account.

[WIGǃ-1289]

Alt accounts are fine if you’re not intentionally engaging in behavior that manipulates your SR/MMR, directly or otherwise. But then again Blizzard goes out of their way to sweep the issue under the rug so you probably wouldn’t ever get punished if you do so anyways, based on the track record.

[Ungod-1936]

So if I start an LLC and I register the game under that LLC it’s fine as long as I am the only one who uses it?

[Kaedi-11739]

The account must be under a name of a person. Again, because Blizzard requires your ID should you need to have them change anything critical or recover your account.