Facts about the smurf opinion

Competitive Discussion
1

Many say that smurfing is a problem, and probably as many say it’s not.

Could it be because those who find smurfing to be horrible and ruining the game are actually the biggest victims of it all? While the ones that say smurfing is fine, either has their own smurf account and play at a higher level where they do not get that many smurfs in their games.

And if they do get a good player on his alt account, the skill difference is not that huge between the smurf and the main account players.

Meanwhile, a highly skilled Smurf player in bronze and silver can single-handedly wipe out an entire team.

You see, the two categories of players here come from two different worlds.
And if you haven’t been in the low-ranked, hard-stuck, bot-smurf-leaver paradise, then your opinion is irrelevant, and shouldn’t be shared.

I had a smurf discussion with a diamond player not long ago. And he went on about how smurfs didn’t make any difference to the game, and that he hardly ever got any leavers or bots in his game. He said that he saw 2 bots since the start of OW2, so he didn’t understand what my problem was and told me to just stop moaning about it.

2 bots?..since the start of OW2?..I get 22 bots in a day sometimes!

So all you wiseguys who think smurfing is okay, can you please avoid being narcissistic for a minute, and perhaps imagine the situation for low ranks?

And when you say; “So what?! Get better then!”, you show selfish and ignorant behaviour again. Because not everyone is great at singing, painting, and playing ball sports. Some people are actually very bad at it, for different reasons. For some, FPS gaming comes naturally, for some, it doesn’t, and some players won’t get better.

This is just how it is.
We are all different. But good or bad, Overwatch can be a very fun game for everyone, in a fair environment. And if you think it’s fair that a 5, 6 or 7 levels higher ranked player gets to play with the least skilled players in the game, then you are one nasty, selfish person.

Does this make sense?

Edit, I had a game in silver against a premade smurf team again. No chance whatsoever.
But I managed to kill their Doomfist solo, and OMG, did they all go for me!!
I was absolutely demolished over and over by 3 players or more, basically camping me.

Funny thing was, I managed to kill their Ashe after that, and he went all mental.
“Stop wasting my time!!” he wrote to me.

I friended this player, who accepted my invitation. And shortly after admitted that he and others in that team were on alt accounts.
And eventually, he admitted being Master 1 as both dps and support.

This is the fact in every other game in bronze / silver.

2 Likes
2

I play at basically the average rank, sometimes slightly above and I barely ever see any smurfs at all… Surely if they are all making new accounts and there are so many I should be seeing them all the time?

If you are talking about ACTUAL bots, you have to be seeing things tbh lol… I honestly don’t think I have ever seen a REAL programmed bot in any of my games in 3 years, maybe one? What servers are you on?

2 Likes
3

I expect that you know the average rank in OW. But for those who don’t, can you please be a bit more specific and share which bracket that is?
Is it bronze or silver?

Knowing the average rank in OW2, and then adding “slightly above”, I know what rank you are talking about. But I’ll leave it for you to share.

4

As far as I am aware the average rank in OW1 was around gold, and I don’t think this has really changed? I have been plat for a long time which is why I said slightly above because I thought the average was around mid/high gold

There will obviously be more smurfs the lower you go, because people buy bronze accounts etc, I did start in bronze myself on both PC and console I just don’t remember smurfs and bots every game lol, seems like you are exaggerating or very unlucky? No idea

5

Okay, I hear you.
But please bear with me…

  • Roughly, how many games or how long time did it take for you to reach gold?
  • How was your performance in bronze? Would you say that your skill level is significantly higher than the majority of bronze players that you encountered in the beginning of your journey towards platinum?
  • And last, if I may; Would you agree that a player with a skill level that belongs in bronze or silver, could potentially struggle a bit more against smurfs in Overwatch, than you would.

You see, in my opinion, a high ( 1-2) plat player that creates a new account to play in bronze / silver, is a smurf and will absolutely bully a bronze / silver player.

The skill level between players that belong in silver and plat is monumental.

Do you understand my point here?

6

No I completely agree there is a large difference between high plat (my peak was diamond 3) and bronze/silver players

Im honestly not sure how long it took me to get to gold, I did it on xbox, probably 6 months? Then I did it again on PC because i’d never played a shooter before (but already understood the game) - maybe another 6 months?

I don’t ‘know’ but in my experience ‘smurfs’ are ACTUAL great players, masters+ - and these guys can smurf in my games as well quite easily - it’s not easy to get into bronze, you either have to throw for weeks on end or pay

My performance in bronze was bad lol, because I WAS bad at the game, i’m still not great lol - it’s 100% higher now, but that’s why I climbed out of bronze in the first place

Honestly not really… If I ‘smurfed’ in bronze, it would be exactly the same as a Masters player smurfing on me now, I would find it extremely difficult

I just see a disparity between the number of actual smurfs, and the number people CLAIM there are, if there really was a smurf epidemic then surely my games would always be full of masters players? This would be WAY easier than doing it in bronze, just need a new account to go straight into average rank and get easy games

7

The smurfing problem has largely been solved by the complete :poodle::poop: match maker.

I had a game yesterday with masters to silver players in the lobby and everything in between.

How can you even be a smurf in that situation?

8

I’ve spent plenty of time in low metals and bronze as a diamond player and I can say that pretty much every single game has someone manipulating, whether that is stomping or soft throwing. It is literally the norm. To truly have a game with all bronzes in a lobby is a rarity. A lot of the time it is just golds on their alts (who aren’t wildly more skilled than bronze/silver), but very often they are diamond+ players who can crush these lobbies if they decide.

The people who say that there isn’t much smurfing/throwing going on are simply not very observant or do not ever see or play in these low-level lobbies. It still goes on in higher ranks, but not as much.

2 Likes
9

Exactly my point!
For you, a smurf is Masters+, which makes sense. A bronze / silver player has the exact same experience, when facing a platinum player, or not uncommonly, a 3-5 platinum premade, that decides to have a break from pushing high rank on the main account, creates a new account, adds a deranking bot to it, and then enjoy being deliberately hard stuck in bronze, having a blast while denying bronze/silver players of leaving their spawn.

I’m genuinely happy for you! Well done!
However, like i explained in my first post, FPS games does not come natural to everyone, and for different reasons, some simply don’t get much better.
But OW2 is a great game, where the basics are not very hard to learn, and that’s why so many can enjoy the game, no matter their skill.
But when a platinum+ player puts on his/her low rank fake costume to have a laugh, the game quickly becomes frustrating and pointless.

You are actually explaining my exact point here.
If you smurf in bronze, it would be the same experience for the bronze players, as when a grand master+ joins your game, and that’s my point!
So imagine the bronze player, that has to struggle with both the players you call smurfs PLUS the players of equal skill to you, with main plat accounts.

NOW, I hope you understand what I’m trying to say.
No offence, but I sincerely believe that your experience is highly irrelevant when it comes to the discussion of whether smurfing is a problem in bronze/silver.

As a bronze/silver player, I can assure you that you immediately notice a platinum player in the game. You, however, most likely don’t react to it.

10

100% agree - i’m not trying to shame anyone or anything, just a game

I was bronze twice as well though, and if its my experience vs yours then technically neither of ours matter :wink:

I’m not saying this doesn’t happen, but it seems like way more work than 99% of people are willing to put/even know how to do it (I certainly don’t haha), this is my point, I just think people see way more smurfs than there actually is… Either way, good luck climbing - maybe you should join a community to find other people of your level/mindset to chill/queue play with

11

I was 1000SR in OW1 about 2 years ago. After coaching I shot all the way to plat with no problem. I started having some issues at high plat, and high diamond. I am now high masters. I came from bronze, my point is if you just focus on your self improvement you will go up. It doesn’t mean a Smurf won’t wreck your game sometimes but sometimes you’ll have the Smurf on your team too. It won’t stop you from climbing in the long run is my point

12

to stay at a low elo smurfs throw games. Frequently.

13

You are partly right correct hehe.
But believe it or not, I kind of live in both worlds.
My oldest account is absolutely mega hard stuck in bronze / silver.
It won’t matter if I dominate 4 games in a row, get one loss and then another win, making it like 5/1, If I’m silver 2-3, I’ll be assigned right back to bronze 2 or so.

But on my other, experimental account, I reached gold 2 quite easily, and fast i might add.

But I won’t give up on my old, hard stuck account, and being very analytic, aware and experienced in OW (2000 hours), I’m not guessing here.
Smurfing is one nasty, massive problem in the lowest ranks.

I even friend players from the other team that I expect don’t belong in the game I played. And I’m not kidding, but 100% that accepts my friend request, admits smurfing, being plat or higher on a main account.

I never tried it, but as far as I understand, it’s close to as “hard” as downloading and installing an addon.

1 Like
14

Yeah, however as someone else stated some people are simply better at learning/adapting things into their gameplay. I do agree with you that literally everyone can become better at the game with the right mindset and instructions.

For some however its allot more difficult to implement those improvements or get better mechanics for example due to hardware limitations, very busy irl life, irregular opportunities to play etc.

1 Like
15

True! But again, “sometimes” is relative here.
And again… FPS games clearly comes natural to you, being one of the very best players of the game, the top 3% or something.

How can your experience ever be even close to realistic, to a bronze/silver players daily struggle?

16

I will agree with you that in lower ranks people tend to yell ‘smurf’ faster than others.
However the fact is also that there are just simply more people able to smurf on the lower ranks compared to smurfing in diamond for example. There is a larger percentage of playerbase able to smurf on lower ranks. Thats just a fact.
Its also possible that people perspective on a smurf is diffent in lower ranks.
They have less of a idea of shutting down a player who is dominating, even if that person is literally not a smurf.
There is just less knowledge or know how of limiting someones impact in a game because people just dont have the necessary skillset or knowledge.
A bronze 5 ashe could be absolutely dominating even though she isnt smurfing because people all walk in her line of sight and she gets damage boosted and is just on a highground out of range of anyone while their tank is playing orisa and is always shooting at the other orisa.
In higher ranks tanks go and dive the ashe or put a sigma shield up or shield their team across the ashe’s sightline or matrix them.

17

I’m not trying to be insensitive I know there’s many factors. I work full time on night shift have a kid etc tons of stuff IRL. But on the flip side I’ve played FPS games since I was 7 years old in 2000 and have always been top ranked in every game apex halo etc. my learning may have been accelerated bc I had the mechanical skill already I was just clueless about the game. My point is I understand not everyone is as gifted etc and nobody deserves to have their games ruined, I just don’t think it’ll stop your climb if you deserve it in the long run

18

Well I was bronze and silver. I went through what you’re explaining the smurfs etc. it just didn’t stop me in the long run. That’s all I was getting at

19

Oh i never meant what i said in a negative form at all. As far as i can see anything you wrote was not meant unkindly at all.

I was kinda agreeing with you but also adding to it:)
Sometime its indeed just knowing how to improve that is the limiting factor and not someone’s ability to learn from mistakes etc.
I was hardstuck in silver 1700-1900 sr for 5+ seasons on support in ow1. I won games and found them easier on my brothers alt account in 2400 sr, even climbed to 2600. I figured out that lack of peel was what held me down in my silver games. Spend time practicing dueling and fending off dives and climbed to 2800 after spending 150 hours on ana only in quickplay.

1 Like
20

Blame Blizzard for making smurfing almost a necessity for high elo players.

Unless you want to wait 12 minutes for a game which will likely be a complete stomp, there is no other way to play the game besides smurfing.