Where are these “Smurfs” and how can people tell the difference between a good new player or and a “smurf” account?
I propose a new conspiracy, the existence of Gargamels. These Gargamels seem to posses some insight to information am not aware of or capable of knowing, because I for one can tell, at least not without some serious investigation or hacking.
There is a significant lack of factual evidence that highly skilled players are creating new accounts to play against newbs, which is the equivalent of Michael Jordan going around elementary schools beating children at basketball…MUST be LOADs of fun. Or perhaps boosting someone amd forever babysitting because that’s the only logical way for it to make sense/be worth it.
generally if i see a widow just popping heads all game long i do kinda think they are a smurf, but i’ll never call them out because i don’t want to give them that satisfaction.
i think i’ve seen maybe 10 smurfs my entire playtime though. of 1k + hours.
or what i would think was one.
If someone has a new account and is incredibly good at the game, usually DPS, I suspect they might be a smurf. I only feel 100% in that judgment if they have an open profile that shows very little playtime that doesn’t mesh with their skill level.
I haven’t been playing Overwatch for very long, and this was my 2nd comp season. I am a low rank player. I decided to write little notes on each match I had, partly because I was curious how many smurfs I actually met. I don’t think most of my matches, or most of my losses, had smurfs. I noted more smurfs in losses than wins, but I also think you’re less likely to notice a smurf on your own team. Out of all the smurfs I believe I’ve found, they were DPS, except for one support (playing Lucio). And boy was that Lucio an exceptional individual… bragging about being a smurf in match chat, spamming insults, etc.
Anyways, if accurate, I’m not sure what that means. Are there way more DPS smurfs than any other role? And if so, why? Is it because DPS carries a team better than tanks and supports if the skill level is way above? And I don’t know what that says about the impact of the different roles on the game, but it makes me wonder. The smurfs are overwhelmingly the same DPS heroes too.
Long held wisdom of the Forums: In any given game, any player doing better than me is a smurf, regardless of level. Any player doing worse than me is throwing and a troll.
I’ve been called a smurf on here because I talked about how I went from Silver to Plat. My account is like level 1500, whose gonna put that much time on a smurf?
Well, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say someone with under 50 hours on an account that is able to keep an entire team back in spawn basically single handedly, and is untouchable no matter what hero you swap to because they’re just that much better than you, is probably a smurf. But if you can’t see how 2+2=4 then I can’t help you understand it better tbh.
Please. I’m in Bronze. You think I can’t tell the difference between a Bronze player and high elo? Get out of here. Nevermind that a fair number of them leave their profiles open and have obviously thrown several thousand SR to get there.
I propose a different theory. If you aren’t finding them, you aren’t looking. They aren’t in every game, but there are enough that it’s an issue.
Are you trying to… Purposefully misunderstand my hyperbole in an effort to somehow make my point ‘wrong’, rather than just illustrating that you’re either not understanding my point, or refusing to? Because…
ok what harm do gargamels cause to a games’ community exactly?
the reason why smurfs are an issue is that they make it very difficult and frustrating for new players to get into an older game, hurting its longevity and stunting its growth
the reason why smurfs are an issue is that they make it very difficult and frustrating for new players to get into an older game, hurting its longevity and stunting its growth
Smurf or alt account example, a widow level 50 that headshots everyone knowing that they have different hitboxes and know where to position is suspicious, that can also be a hacker if gets to an extreme but can have a really really good aim without training.
Ok… but then when people adapt and switch, they read the match and decide they switch to a genji that dominates the game, knows the map when to disengage the timming of the skills and also the healthpacks place in the map.
You can say a widow is really good or have good aim or even if goes to the extreme report, but when you have played the game enough you can see the naive new players, not knowing pretty well what counters what, where to place a shield, when to flank and engage or leave… than someone with the same level extremely skillful that also dominates several characters, knows to time their skills to be effective and do runs around healthpacks and around places they are used to find cover, disengage, leave and return, as an example.
Being good at a game doesnt mean you will dominate that character kit, that has little comparison with others. Or to read the match, or counter perfectly adapting to several, or know the maps to the letter.
