Do you remember the last time you had a match without a smurf?

Because I don’t, I can’t literally have a single match without one of these people ruining the experience for everyone.

But hey, blizz, money is better over quality.

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I don’t remember because I don’t knee jerk react when I get One-Hit by a Widow and suddenly go “OMG that freaking Smurf!” Unless the player straights up admit it, I assume they are at the same rank/skill I am on regardless of the experience level on their account and I find it far more practical to think about how to counterplay the opponent.

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Tech support goes mad :joy::joy::joy:

But honestly, smurfs are everywhere, especially if u play in a squad
It don’t bother me because I see that as opportunities to learn
But it will not be honest to say that it is not a fact that there’s Smurf in a very very high ratio of games

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“It was 1989, my thoughts were short my hair was long.”

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It’s a video game, its not worth getting upset over.

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It is rare I see a true smurf. Maybe once every 5 or 6 matches and they actually aren’t that great. Most of the time they are only like 1 or 2 ranks higher than you. They are rarely these GM top 500 players who are smurfing for giggles. Unless of course you are in diamond. Then yeah maybe all your smurfs are GM level. But for most people not so much.

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Yeah, sur those are rarely master+ smurfs
But I understand that in gold it is not cool to play against high plat diamond player every 3 games

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I mean, it’s not being sniped once, it’s having that Widow completely dominate the game while being on a level 5 account.

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I have said it before and I will say it again, “smurfs” is a VERY AMBIGIOUS term that is often perceived by different players in different situations. Here is some information from Jeff Kaplan from the older forums about this:

Source: Old Overwatch Forum Archives

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I’ve had a friend whose done something like that in the past because he plays a lot of csgo. But he was new to the game.

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I understand, but there’s a limit. A level 2-3 dominating bronze/silvers would probably just be a good new player, but a level 5-10 dominating gold/plat is less realistic, particularly on a hard to play hero like Widowmaker. I won a lot of games as a new player but I couldn’t play complex heroes yet.

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The thing is widow isn’t a complex hero, she’s literally just sit in the back and shoot people. People who’ve had experience in fps games before can play her pretty well.

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Nah, they’ll position badly and they won’t use the grapple correctly. They might hit some shots but they’ll get wrecked by dive tanks or Genji.

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What jeff call smurf is more well know by alts account
And it doesn’t bother me at all
(Well Smurf also don’t but that because I see them as opportunities)
Smurf is for me, and I think for many other people in the community, players who does alt account to play in a lower elo

Ex: the ennemy lvl 102 who as 25% crit acc and 50% acc in gold or plat

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Dude don’t misunderstand me , I always try to counterpick, but the situation of ow now is ridicolous, I use your example, if you see a widow doin a oneshot , ok he’s good none deny that, but if you see a widow level 5 who know all the heroes and how to react to them sorry, none here believe is new, face it, smurfs . are. a. problem.

the mm is supposed to place you against player of same skill level, not against people who just wanna boost their ego stomping lower elo. none deny their skill, but again, I’m sick and tired like a lot here to meet one each single match,

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Once again why the term is often misperceived and should be avoided when trying to identify certain disruptive behaviors. Just like how the term toxicity is ambiguous.

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I mean, it’s kind of messed up that I can reasonably expect a level 5 Widow to be a team-wrecking monster and a silver border Widow to be a useless sandbag.

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It is more likely a game will have a vast difference of skill between players than having players of equal skill.

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Ok, i can agree about ambiguousity
Now, just go in few gold-plat or plat-diams lfg speak with people, look at their stat, look how confident they always are
I’m speaking about high elo players coming back to lower elo to « have fun »
Then come back and tell me there’s no problem
It’s especially true in French squad, in EN squad I can’t tell for sur because I’ve participed in fewer of them so I can not be 100% affirmative

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The first thing to note here is that if we are talking about “level 5” we are talking about quick play. I would emphasize that quick play uses an entirely separate hidden MMR rating and the matchmaking in quick play will not be nearly as strict as in Competitive Play. I would emphasize the idea is to be more focused on having fun (which I understand is difficult against a formidable opponent sometimes), but there is no telling who you will ever be matched with in that mode.

Another thing to note is did you evaluate the match after it was completed. Like did you take time to carefully review the replay and see how the player moves about, did they feed, do they know how to straddle well (i.e. ADADADADAD), do they track well? Or are they just being damn lucky?

I say this because there are times that I am damn lucky with Widow, and there are times that I can’t hit the broadside of Roadhog’s… bum. Also watching the replay is different to see how they performed in real-time and this is because of the rules of “Net Code” which determines what counts as an action between players over an online game.

I know I sound skeptical, but lets face it, in my experience as a solid hardstuck gold/plat brat… I am skeptical. Are there some amount of accounts out there that work to disrupt games of Overwatch? Unfortunately yes, and reporting players for throwing (not because you think they are a smurf) when you see a player deliberately throwing a game is the best course of action. But I don’t think the idea of players who work consciously to play at a low rank to be an out of control problem. This is my personal opinion (remember I am a forum MVP and don’t represent Blizzard), and you are within your right to disagree with me, but I am going to challenge everyone to carefully consider all aspects of a match before getting upset at any given player.

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