Same but also the opposite. I report every boosted player I come across too.
People magically climbing 3 ranks after being hardstuck their whole career, people hardstuck who are climbing 2-3+ ranks in a single season but only after duo’ing (not limited to mercy mains fyi), people who fail their role and are clearly playing as if theyre 2 ranks lower (reinhardts should not be saying ‘im making space’ by charging 1v6 off-cooldown without zarya bubble or coordination only to die immediately in MASTERS). Etc.
While ranks below GM suffer from smurfs (there are smurfs in masters, esp t500s 6 stacking with friends)…
The ranks above plat (most noticeable in diamond+) suffer from boosted players who climbed with a broken hero (ex: release brig, moth meta, etc), or got boosted by friends, paid for a boost, bought an account higher than they belong because they THINK theyre good, havent played in forever but their sr never decayed etc.
Sadly blizzard stated they don’t really see this problem as a priority (probably because smurf accounts are the only thing floating their bills right now aside from OWL lol)
I don’t think blizz will do anything during OW1, where accounts still have to get bought.
OW2 will be f2p, so there is a small chance that they will implement a smurf report when it’s a much lower entry barrier to simply create a new account.
You’re a Mercy main. It’s not hard to be good on that hero coming from Console. I know it’s a meme, but Mercy is not hard. The skillset you need for mercy on Console and PC are identical, and due to her mechanics you don’t have to adjust for things like panning speed, the lack of soft aim assist, etc.
Try dueling with Widowmakers or Tracers in Masters who have been grinding the game on PC for 4 years. Things are different, there.
Good, report them. They are ruining games and after a few wins they start inting games so they can stay in that rank.
I will say though, some people’s smurf radar is broken. I’ve been called a smurf before (I’m high silver), and I’ve had someone on my team be called a smurf when the enemy team has just stood there like potatoes letting themselves get hit.
A lot of people in Silver probably below in mid-high gold - especially when they play predominantly one hero they are good at. On this account, I’m in Silver but on my other accounts I am in Gold/Plat - and I’ve played dozens of matches on them (not just placements).
If I play Ashe/Widow or Tracer on this account, people get pissed because I am better than Silver on those heroes. So, I tend to use it for practice only, in Quick Play, for other heroes.
I stopped playing comp on this account. The people in Bronze/Silver (you often get Bronze people on your team in that elo) are too low IQ for me to be bothered to deal with them in matches that “matter.”
Noticed a huge influx of streamers doing “Unranked to GM” streams that they’ve now been tagging as “Educational” to get around the fact that they are destroying matches for 11 people every time they queue into competitive. Sometimes missing shows on purpose, shooting at the air, etc. just to try to force some facade of fairness into the match.
Amazing that Blizzard stands for that, as well. They should be monitoring and insta-banning those accounts, IMVHO.
So, how do you know that they’re a Smurf? You might be reporting smurfs or you might be reporting someone innocent. Unless they admit it, how can you really be sure?
I actually don’t see much of a problem with unranked to gm because it’s a new account doing placements and they end up in diamond and have to climb from there.
And from what I have seen, there’s not much difference in mechanical skill, just positioning, awareness, and tactics.
Seriously ~ anyone saying that they ‘dont’ know’ how to identify a Smurf is just lying or outing themselves as the stupidest, blindest MF’er on the planet.
It’s a level 15 Genji that just decimated your entire team. It’s not rocket science, guys.
Not exactly sure what that means, but I’ll clarify my own statement anyway:
It is not possible to “smurf” the way forum dwellers imagine. If you are an experienced player and you start a new account, you will be at or above your main account’s MMR within 50 matches (less, really). In order to “smurf,” you would have to intentionally play poorly for your first 25 levels so that your MMR would be low. Then you’d have to throw a few placements to stay below Gold. At that point you could “smurf” for 5-10 matches before your MMR would go up and you’d be exclusively playing against other “smurfs” at the same rank. To lower your MMR again, you’d have to play poorly and outright throw a few matches.
It would be a huge time-suck, and you wouldn’t be able to actually seal-club for very long before you had to wreck your MMR again. All the while, you’re facing 3-15 minute queue times.
What you are seeing when you think you see a “smurf” is either a professional account booster who is using an aimbot to boost a client account in a 2- or 3-stack, or it’s just a random jerk who bought an alt account on sale and thinks he can get to T500 with a one-month aimbot subscription. These are not good players by any measure. They stand out in the open snapping to headshots, don’t play with their team, use ults whenever they’re up, pick heroes they want regardless of group composition or counters, and in general they have no sense of strategy and no ability to adapt to changing conditions. They suck at Overwatch, but they have an aimbot, so they can push through some of the metal ranks on the strength of those hacks, but they’re not going to go much beyond Diamond unless they L2P. By that point they’ll have been banned anyway.
Secondly, top-tier Overwatch players (not streamers – a lot of them cheat – I mean OWL players, and coach-run scrums) don’t have aimbot-level aim. Forum dwellers have a relativity problem when gauging game skills. The data says that weapon accuracy doesn’t change much from Gold to GM. Anyone who has consistently unrealistic aim should always be reported for cheating. If they aren’t cheating, Blizzard will exonerate them. I guarantee it will never get to that point, though. The only people who have ever been falsely banned for cheating in the history of Overwatch are people who play on Linux, and their bans were overturned.
Just report all suspicious play. It does no harm, and will make the game better for everyone.
It’s a meme from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
It’s a joke about someone who is trying to deny something very obvious as being true.
Time suck doesn’t stop people from doing it
You can buy accounts.
And how do you know that?
None of what you said disproves smurfs.
Smurfs exist, and they don’t not exist because of things like ‘time constraints’ or 'people don’t have aimbot skills"
We need to remember that a masters, diamond or even high plat alt on the other team in silver/gold is more or less the same thing. Players who should be in that rank won’t be able to identify the difference and seem to assume the worst case scenario.
Yes, meeting a masters or gm smurf in gold is relatively rare but that doesn’t really matter. Regardless there’s going to be a stomp.
I know I’m far from the best at the game, there’s loads out there better than me. I mean, ffs I’m in gold. But a level sub 30 widow shouldn’t be landing every trickshot they try, and a pharah of the same level shouldn’t land direct hits all game. You can tell by the kill cams who should or shouldn’t be in their rank. I only report if I’m dead certain
Smurfs are skilled players on new accounts, they’re not throwers or people on a friend’s account. “Smurf” exclusively refers to newly purchased low level accounts, and as previously stated by the former lead designer of Overwatch — as I’ll link below — this is not against the rules.
Good luck with that. Smurfs are never gonna get banned for being smurfs, seeing how they’re the only ones making money anymore. Find a better reason to report them at least. Like if they keep going alone and feeding or playing support only to DPS, or if they go full “useless team” in chat.