I’m probably completely wrong, but I feel like a part of the reason we have smurfs is because of people being so toxic to others that just want to learn a new character, but they can’t because they’re with others who are finally good at the game and understand it, so the person who wants to learn a new character gets yelled at and makes a smurf account to practice the new hero. I’m newer to OW (lvl 300) so I’m just guessing, I don’t know if any of this is right or not.
That’s called an alt account, not a smurf.
Constant definitions are known to be helpful for humankind for about 3000 years now.
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I have one, but it is an alt account. I bought it on discount out of curiosity to see where I would be placed as dps only.
Surprisingly, the difference was little. Nowdays I am using that account to experiment and unlock things when I feel like it as my main has pretty much everything so …
the only time i ever i made an alt on X1 was to play OW and other games with a friend
wanted to avoid him getting newb stomped and played Mercy-only to make it fair but it was pointless, one sweaty Genji smurf after another
Regardless of what you think the definition is; an alt account is the same thing as a smurf account because that’s how the community uses the word and everyone knows what we are talking about.
It’s actually annoying that people use that definition. No one likes saying “alt account” and 95% of the time that’s what we are talking about so we just say “smurf” because it sounds good.
The definition needs to change due to popular demand if it hasn’t already.
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There’s people out there that believe that any other account besides your main is a smurf, even if you practice a new hero.
Unless Blizzard, which is the equivalent to our “Webster”, has came out and recognized what they feel constitutes as a smurf or an alt account we can’t easily define it. Sadly the definition is often muddled to fit someone’s agenda and at the time isn’t quite patented with that 3,000 years of consistency.
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Sure, idiocy is certainly a right. Help yourselves!
It’s not “idiocy” if there’s no absolute definition you could reference to define it. Even those in top 500 refer to these alt-accounts as smurfing. 
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Sorry, I accidentally deleted my reply…lvl 300 players and above have a grasp on how to play all the heroes so they are considered smurfing if they make a new account regardless, they have more knowledge on how to play that character (along with every other hero) than all of the newer players that they’re playing with. I don’t see a difference between smurfing and an alt account.
I’m playing everything on main
I have 5 accounts on both console and pc. Sometimes I play on them to get better at certain hero’s, sometimes I just want to que with friends who’s rank is too far away.
Some people think that’s immoral, I think the immorality is not being able to play video games with by best friends. For me that ruins the fun.
And quickplay/arcade is a joke and not worth my time if I’m trying to improve.
And that’s something that many people need to realize. It takes a huge time commitment to get good at this game. You can play characters for hundreds of hours and still find plenty of things to improve upon. And that’s with 29 hero’s altogether. I’ve probably played this game close to 2 thousand hours altogether and I still suck. So yeah, I’m gonna try maximize the value of my time and improve as much as I can. That means playing ranked matches.
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Yes, and they’re wrong. And there IS a definition.
But like I said, if you want to name the act of creating a new account to learn a new role wwithout being a hindrance to your team, with the same word we used for decades for the act of purposefully deranking and owning n00bs omegaluuuul, be my guest.
But please don’t even try to pretend that this is a wise course of action, lol. u know.
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Then alt=smurf is the only way that would work. The term exists in games with no ladder or MMR system to derank on.
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Who gets to decide that definition? It sure as hell isn’t Webster’s dictionary. So far as I can tell we are just talking about gamer lingo. And the word is being used simultaneously with “alt account” by a majority so for all intensive purposes that IS the definition
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There’s a fluid definition at best, unless you have a blue post to show me that proves otherwise.
The original orientation of the word smurf by the way, didn’t come from people that purposefully de-ranked to own newbies. Rather they used a new moniker to conceal who they were so they could get games. Hence why the definition is often loosely defined to fit a person’s agenda.
Not all smurfs are derankers, but all smurfs are alt-accounts.
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My only other account is on XBox. It’s a different platform and controller and has no real relation to my PC play.
I mostly played the same heroes on it anyway.
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I can see where you’re coming from. Did you have it on Xbox and then you eventually got a pc?
I had it on PC, then got an XBox to play stuff with my brother, then he had a baby so…
I have Xbox but want a pc lol
If I have an alt account for DPS that’s in gold and I try my best and don’t ever throw, I am not manipulating the SR system, and am not a smurf.
Alt account vs smurf account are two different things, and you want to lump them in to one term?
Also this community yells c9 whenever anyone loses a game for any reason so I’m not sure about defining things around people being wrong.
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