What criteria/guidlines do you use to determine if your opponents are a smurf? Whenever I lose a match I blame myself for it, and as a result I’ve never really put any time into determining if my opponents are smurfs or not. I hear a lot of people on these forums talking about a huge smurfing problem and I wanted some tips for detecting a smurf if I ever get matched with one.
The biggest give away is someone with a very low level border who is clearly extremely accomplished on the hero they’re playing as. If you see a low border, that SHOULD indicate that the person is a brand new player to Overwatch and therefore won’t be very accomplished yet. But more often than not, it’s the biggest sign of a smurf because they usually proceed to dominate the match if it’s a lower elo game.
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Most people just call someone a smurf if they pop off too hard too many times during a match and have low playtime overall.
Widow got a 4k in 6 different fights -> call them a smurf
Enemy DPS went 40+ kills to 3 deaths -> call them a smurf
Also if they’re a small stack and start calling you mad for thinking they’re a smurf, they’re generally a smurf
Tbh, probably a fairly accurate standard, but not 100% right.
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Very low level, duos with a support with silver border. Doesnt speak in chat that much. Destroys everyone on your team. types “LOL” when accused of being a smurf. Says bronze if asked what rank they actually are. Usually onetricks and blames everyone else when something goes wrong because they believe that they are leagues above the rank they are currently playing at and the realisation that they can not carry at one rank below their main is hurting them deeply.
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Huh, thats a really good tell. Never thought of that before; thank you!
If they’re as good as me at as low a level or even lower, they’re probably smurfing. I have hundreds of hours of experience with the game and have conditioned responses as a result of that. Smurf’s will display certain conditioned behaviors or will have exemplary performance in the Tank role despite being only level 40 or so.
Gold guns under level 90 are also a big sign of smurfing. You will also see accounts with placements in like a dozen seasons.
On XBL it’s all about the name. Default battle tags usually have an adjective and then a noun then some numbers, like “LovelyPup38284” Smurfs will have a fun name that follows the same format but would not be generated under normal circumstances as an example…
SmokiestBear420
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There are some who who also put smurf in the name somewhere. Since they know they can just make another account. (This is for console only)
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They’re level 25 and they’re killing your whole team. Pretty obvious then.
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Had a game yesterday in a room full of silver/gold borders and one lvl 32 Genji that ended with 56 kills in QP.
Pretty safe to say that was a smurf.
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This is why smurf sleuthing is just witch hunting rebranded.
There is no solid proven criteria or it’s so generalized nearly anyone could be a smurf.
This is a good thing, keep it that way, focus on getting better, not blaming others for keeping you down.
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They usually have stupid usernames with ‘smurf’ or a hero’s name in.
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No, it’s not. There’s other reasons why smurf/alt accounts are bad other than the already established SR fluctuations it causes.
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they usually have a Hangzhou spark player icon
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Nothing will ever change the fact that I take responsibility for eveything that goes wrong in my life. With that said, I was just curious and wanted to see how many smurfs I get matched with on a regular basis.
Oh yeah speaking as the only guy with a bronze border in super high prestige lobbies:
If someone is rocking a bronze border with a star or less (maybe two stars) in a high prestige lobby with all the fancy borders (multi star silver borders and beyond) then its a pretty safe bet you’ve stumbled upon a smurf or it’s just someone on par with the players that have established the baseline in the lobby.
Another thing I just thought of: smurfing wars. Smurfs and their stacks will be legit pitted against one another. Gl everybody else. Whatever team pours the most resources into their smurf generally tends to win out.
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- low level
- default skin
- cringe username
- doesn’t say gg, or says ggez
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Step 1: Make a note of players who are throwing games. Actually write down their names in a file somewhere if you aren’t going to remember them. Or just remember them if you’re good with names.
Step 2: Make a note of players who show dominant skill. Especially spawn-campers and snipers.
Step 3: Compare list 1 and list 2. Players who alternately throw games and show dominant skill in games are smurfs. (Not always carrying to victory, mind you. Winning means needing to throw more. They often rack up kills but stay off the objective, disappear or suddenly lose all ability to aim in the last stages of the match, etc. Of course, some are trying to carry someone else up the ladder and in that case they no-holds-barred try to win.)
Once you’ve positively identified a few smurfs this way, you’ll start to recognize the differences in playstyle between a smurf and a player who is just popping off, although perhaps you can’t say for 100% certainty until you’ve seen them also throw. (Also take some time to look at Nateson’s videos and learn to recognize an aimbotter, who is different from either, but more resembles a player who is just popping off).
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I’m not arguing about the impact of smurfs, I’m arguing about the methods of “identifying” them or rather the nonmethods.
There is no definitive way of identifying smurfs, it’s all speculation, which is why I referred to the act of “smurf sleuthing” as “rebranded witch hunting”.
Don’t misunderstand I wasn’t saying you were blaming anyone else, I’m actually happy you do put focus on self improvement.
There’s no definitive way of knowing, it’s chalked up purely to speculation.
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A lot of the time I call out smurfs, they out themselves even, or they give the troll line “I come from Xbox/PS4” so they’re definitely more smurfs than not when I call them out at least. Don’t know about anyone else.
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I got placed and stayed in Diamond on JR/Torb my very first season as a fresh lv 25 player when I played this game. I only played them so I was extremely accurate with my shots (didn’t really understand area denial at the time).
I also play a ton of team based games so I never really play away from my team (and I didn’t know the flanks anyway)
This.game.is.not.hard.
If you one-trick and have decent mechanics you can do well.
Anyone who does decent can and will be labeled a smurf because ain’t no way in hell you did anything wrong. Nope it was that guy poppin off
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