I think that on Overwatch, someone doing this implies that the player is throwing on purpose to reduce their mmr to face lower ranked or rated players. You can actually report that if there is actual evidence for that, but you can’t really report for “playing poorly” or “making mistakes” in a particular match out of frustration for losing.
The assumption of the smurf is that the person on a new or low level account is buying that new account to somehow purposely get matched against average or low ranked players (assuming new accounts are immediately faced against mid or low ranks initially). Or, at the very least, assuming the mmr has caught up through quickplay and that their rating quickly adjusts, if they are of much higher skill level, they will eventually climb up through the mid to high tier ranks, bullying others before the smurf manages to reach their peak. So, the player stuck or hovering specifically at those ladder ranks (and usually they’ve been there for a while) will blame their impediment to climb as a result or fault of these new account users.
If you ask me, I don’t think they were ever going to climb up any time soon and it’s irrelevant scapegoating.
NoVision needs all the money , they wont do that.
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Death to alt accounts is the only way to kill smurfing. Furthermore this is obviously a aggressive business move by valve. They are losing money on Smurf’s big time. Those accounts won’t spend a single dime and only deter legitimate players and potential customers from their service. Blizz making money of selling copies of the game still and being well blizz is a huge reason why they will never go down the same path.
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Smurfing is literally just keeping your rank intentionally lower than it should be, that’s it.
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Here is the link to Dota 2’s news release:
The problem with any online game is identifying when an account is truly a legitimate new account and what is an alternate account playing at a high level? How can it be effectively enforced without making mistakes. Overwatch by its very nature is a very snowball momentum game and I see way too many complaints of players that the opponents they face are smurfing when they really are not.
Blizzard has and still does actively stop account boosting and throwing where they can confirm evidence of it. The Overwatch Team in the past have stated they feel it is not a rule violation to own an alternate account, but they have acknowledged the perception of “smurfing” and how account manipulation such as boosting or throwing negatively impacts the game. Most recently, they are investigating ways on how it can be better controlled, but have not made any commitments yet. I will note they have said in the past that new accounts typically are initially paired with other new accounts until that player can successfully establish a stable hidden matchmaker rating. However, I am now under the impression that this level of matchmaking filtering has greatly been removed since the introduction of role queue.
I would like to remind the rest of the community that if you see anyone throwing in games, report them appropriately in the in-game report tool. Those reports do help in more ways than just identifying that player for throwing. Reports help shape what expectations the game has and the Blizzard Global Insights team are able to use that information to help better shape their account policies for Overwatch and all Blizzard games.
Past developer statements:
Source: Overwatch Reddit AMA July 2020
Source: Overwatch Official Forums
Source: Overwatch Official Forums
Source: Old Overwatch Forums Archives
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As highlighted by the valve statement it is really not, at least they have chosen not to define it as such. They particularly state despite their best efforts to boost MMR quickly something blizz really does not do in any considerable way it still never was enough and damage was done, as it legitimately does regardless.
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The same people trying to smurf again
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But 99% of the OWL players look like twinky bois. I suppose you are into twunks i guess.
Eww no, I meant the Overwatch heroes. The DOTA show is animated
This perfectly describes a certain owl player I won’t name cause that’s just creepy 
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Ohhh then heck yeah. Majority of the OW male cast is pretty hot. Lets get some fanservice in the otherway for once.
They can even have a beach episode, with Doomfist and Reaper trying to out tsundere each other. It would be fantastic.
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I wouldnt say “thats it”, and in the opinion of many individuals- It isnt.
The Dota team, apparently- being one of them- which you can discern here:
But, as WyomingMyst has cited- It seems even jeff kaplan acknowledges this concept:
Now while he says its not “that big of a deal” (And I feel its safe to say many players disagree), hes clearly citing/explaining smurfing to be the act of an experienced player getting a new account and playing up from there.
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Nah, alot of ppl are hiding behind “its an alt acc”, “unranked to gm” to smurf.
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“Hiding” is an interesting choice of words there
Yeah this will need the rumours F2P to come. So that won’t be until OW2 at the earliest.
At least that will give them the chance to see how it affects the game. It may well have a much bigger negative impact.
Also, if it was in OW. People would be false reporting every low level account that is a little bit better than them and that is not a good thing.
How do you come to the conclusion that a ban of smurfs would result in a higher percentage of tank players? 
I thought smurfs even contributed to higher numbers of tanks…even if they throw.
Yeah I am not sure this is the game.
It would result in a slight reduction of overall active accounts.
Will it be something that brings in enough new players, or disheartened old players to make up for it… I doubt.
It’s a fantastic idea that Blizz will remain blind to.
Don’t forget: smurfs prop up their business. Ergo Blizzard has a monetary incentive to allow smurfs to flourish as they do now.
TL;DR - Nothing will change.
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Most peoples logic on the forums is I cant make a new account because the first 5 placement matches where I completely destroy silvers-plats I should get banned.
“smurf” accounts don’t actually contribute that much.
Most actual smurfs will buy the account elsewhere. Or wait for big discounts.
This is why going F2P makes a lot of sense. To open up many more revenue streams.