They’ve acknowledged it as an issue but basically have said that they can’t do anything about it (which… I don’t entirely buy, but it is probably a lot of work), particularly on console since you can use home console features to basically get an unlimited number of smurf accounts
They could win. If a filter system was build into the search function. But someone would figure out a way to abuse it.
Basically Kaplan Gave them the green light by saying you can’t be actioned for it.
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The problem is how? All you people complain about smurfs but don’t really give out ideas.
All they need to do is…
- Make it a bannable offense
- Check if IP has had multiple accounts linked
- Check is ways of payment are the same
- Check friend list similarity (probably the most reliable way to find smurfs tbh)
If either of the final three are checked positively or if the player is reported as a smurf, then the player is locked out of playing all modes that give competitive points.
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Are you saying 1% of total players? Over all brackets smurf? Thus making it 1% of 5%? Would make your end number 1/1100.
For actual numbers: Competitive Mode Tier Distribution
I’ll go ahead and update my math here, and in the original reply.
10% of players are in Diamond, 3% are in masters.
If every person in Masters smurfs, then that’s 1.3x more players in the possible pool. 30 / 130 = 0.23, or 23% of the player pool.
If 1% of Masters smurfs into Diamond, than that’s 23% * .01 or .23% of the player pool being smurfs.
We know it’s not 100% of Masters, since Masters games are played.
Where is it on the spectrum? I bet Tigole Bitties knows.
There have been multiple suggestions. You are choosing to ignore them with this strawman.
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No, I said 1/5 of high tier players.
This is all hypothetical anyways. Making math for this sort of thing is irrelevant since we have 0 reliable data. We don’t know how many players have a smurf, what rank has the most smurfs, we know nothing.
The one think I know is around 1/5 of my games has a smurf. Not always against me, and not always unbeatable, but it still breaks the validity a competitive mode is supposed to bring.
Blizzard knows who is playing trust me. When a player buys a new game all blizzard would have to do is start them at the SR that they know they are at. Problem solved.
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What strawman? Most suggestions people bring can be bypassed or spoofed. Then you have consoles, how are you going to stop smurfs there? Get Microsoft and Sony to change how their accounts work all just for one game?
HAS BLIZZARD EVER ADDRESSED SMURFS? WILL THEY?
You can trust Blizzard, they know what to do. Just one more week and all the Smurfs will be gone.
https://clips.twitch.tv/SmallFaintCheeseGivePLZ
The issue there is that it risks people who truly just use alt accounts getting banned. For instance, I have several guest accounts on my console that I have used to play Overwatch before (either because I wan’t paying attention to who I signed in on, or because I wanted to utilize multiple accounts to grind lootboxes to get a skin I like, or just to practice a hero I don’t normally play). None of them are smurfs–heck, I don’t believe any of them but one have even touched competitive, and the one that did actually ranked higher than my main account (this one). Using those rules, though, I’d be at risk of getting banned.
That’s not to say that I think there is no way to handle smurfs, just that I’d be very cautious to issue prescriptive rules like that because they tend to sweep up non-offenders with them.
It would help. The higher the level, the more obnoxious and tedious it gets to make new accounts. Many smurfs would be deterred. Getting an account to level 50 is like a 20 hour process… is it worth throwing and such for that long just to smurf for a bit? And the more you make people throw, the more likely they accumulate enough reports to get banned.
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I mean, personally I agree with that, I come from the console hellscape after all.
But it’s not a “fix”, it’s another spray bottle of water against the problem cat that is smurfing. I’m sure people will be up in arms as Smurfs continue to exist and cause trouble, albeit with a longer incubation period.
How would they know who is playing?
Explain to me how Blizzard is supposed to tell the difference between me buying another account for myself, and me buying an account for my wife to play on my PC.
Smurfs accounts shouldn’t be removed. They paid money, they get to play the game. But I think removing them from comp is fair.
I think a micro solution to fix this for good players would be to enable a streamer mode. Because I think some people buy alts for anonymity and thats it.
They did, and pointed out that smurfing itself isn’t the issue. If people play full tryhard, the system recognizes where they belong within a dozen games or so.
The real issue is when people aren’t trying and are instead throwing. Solve throwers, and smurfing becomes impossible by relation. And Blizz has always been… consistent at banning throwers. They’d just prefer to focus on the actual root of the problem instead of pouring resources into just one of the after effects.
Ah, I overlooked the comp part. I think that’s more reasonable.
He did but he misused the term. He unfortunately spoke of “Smurf” conflating the term with what the community calls an “Alt”. Smurfs throw down and play up, repeating the process over and over messing with everyone. Alts are just any account after the first you play earnestly on. They are an issue to a lesser extent. If Blizzard did periodic MMR/SR resets, people would not be so inclined to Alt, but until they do, people will do it. Why play 300 matches to change your MMR/SR when you can buy a new account for $12?
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That makes 0 sense at all. How do you expect them to know if the new player is actually an old player? Multiple people can play on the same device, so IP checking doesn’t work