Genuine question as I’m unsure what Blizzard’s stance on smurfing is. I report them very often and it’s rare to have a game without at least one smurfer so I’m just curious if I’m wasting my time or not.
Unless they’re throwing or otherwise breaking TOS in that match, they’re probably not likely to be reported.
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The main way smurfs get banned is fragging out on hitscan(widow) leveling an account otherwise it’s not happening.
i had a smurf in my game yesterday… my fellow support on Moira. Had 4k heals in the entire match (4 rounds coz both teams cleared all 3 points). While I was on kiri with about 13k heals and 10 kills… and that smurf had the audacity to troll on the group chat “kiri focus on healing”. LOL…
No, Smurfing is not in and of itself against the rules. The official dev stance is that it’s a non-issue because they get to their correct MMR soon enough (iirc like 25-40 QP games).
It’s only against the rules if they’re intentionally manipulating the matchmaker in some way, such as grouping a low rank smurf with a high rank main account to make the match maker think it’s a mid-rank group (though I think the new group match making combats this)
It should be though. Ever since they added role queue there’s no reason for 99% of players to have smurfs, and Streamer mode got rid of the other 1%. The only reason to smurf these days is for the easy games and trolling.
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Nope, as it’s objectively not against TOS.
No, literally never. Blizzard themselves said they think it’s fine because it doesn’t impact matches, since they think their MM is so utterly perfect it will instantly detect that they’re smurfs and put them where they belong.
Except they make such an absurd amount of accounts, all to play at lower levels to stomp, that even if this were true it doesn’t matter, they effect a HUGE number of matches.
Take Dafran. How many times has he done “unranked to GM”? Many, many, many times, and he continues to do so, stomping all the way up to GM every single time and ruining many matches.
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No, that’s why I feel sorry for the console people. Having to go up against xim aim assist Smurfs almost every game from Bronze-diamond would suck. I don’t know why they even play lol
they get banned the day you quit the game
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Banned for what exactly?
for smurfing
Blizzard will never ban smurffs because it inflates their numbers of accounts that supposedly “play” overwatch.
Actively there are like 35,000 players online right now according to steam. As for the numbers they report, supposedly millions play this game globally.
I personally dont even believe that number for a second, just because I see the same people over and over again, in a mainstream region of the game.
And I see PLENTY of level “1” endorsement accounts all the time in matches that are curb stomping us in matches and they play like they are high diamond.
So yeah. they aint banning them.
Yeah thats how multiboxing was in WoW. It was never technically against the TOS but it was 5 accounts accounts buying the game, the dlc and a subscription. It wasn’t until wow classic that players had finally had enough and spoke out against them that blizzard actually did something about it. Now you can’t use 3rd party cheat tools to play your game on 4 other accounts at the same time 
The problem here is that a large majority of people smurf because its easy and influencers popularize it.
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I dont see how Blizzard can identify a smurf honestly. I think only purposefully deranking or boosting are reportable.
lol reporting someone for playing better?
Blizzard’s stance is irrelevant. If players get reported frequently enough their account will be actioned.
The more likely question is do players report smurfs? And I’d speculate it’s must less likely than those being reported for swearing.
No? because it’s not a bannable offense?
No but they should be banned like Dota2 if they were using their brains. They’re bad for player retention on the lower skill bracket. Jimmy for sure is not going to keep playing that’s around bronze to gold if he keeps getting stomped by some masters losers that consecutively make alt accounts when their mmr get too high.
They should be, so finally the only thing left to fix will be the comp mm.
Anyone can get banned for anything, because the report system operates on aggregate reports.
As for what’s actually against the rules (as based on the TOS and the notes in the report system:)
- A skilled player making a new account and climbing normally is not against the rules.
However:
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Account sharing is a violation of the TOS, which means you cannot purchase used accounts to avoid having to level up before entering ranked mode, nor can you purchase/borrow accounts in order to play at a rank that you would not achieve normally. This includes stuff like buying a bronze account to do a Bronze-to-GM challenge, selling high-ranked accounts to players who haven’t earned it, as well as sharing accounts with lower-ranked friends so that you can queue for ranked with them.
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Boosting and deranking are both explicitly listed as reportable offenses under the ‘cheating’ category, because they are an attempt to manipulate the SR system to create unfair matches.
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And throwing (deliberately) for any reason is reportable.
So it should theoretically be impossible for a skilled player to pubstomp in lower-ranks for more than a few dozen matches before they end up in a higher rank. Then, if they want to do it again they have to buy and level a whole new account before they can play ranked again.
There’s also really no reason that a highly skilled player should ever be playing in Silver or Bronze.
Of course the reality is that most smurfs are breaking rules in order to achieve and maintain their low rank, but it’s incredibly hard to prove when you’re only in one match with them, so it goes underreported.