I usually go for the gameplay sabotage option.
Technically you’re right if we use the real definition of smurfing which requires you to play on someone else account which have a lower rank since that’s not allowed AFAIK.
Playing on an alt account though isn’t cheating as long as you try. Aka not de-ranking the account on purpose through throwing which is a very bannable offense.
For example, if you one-trick something and is rather good at it which results in being a high rank on a main account and use an alt account to practice other things but every now and then get salty and switch to what you’re really good at, that’s technically not against the rules.
It actually is, as the player has an unfair advantage which, per the rules, is cheating.
Better to report it for what it is - cheating.
No it’s clearly been stated that having another account as long as you don’t purposely put yourself in a lower rank isn’t a bannable offense. Think Jeff touched the subject in the last ama/Q&A on reddit or the long interview around the time ashe got released in which he also talks about one-tricking.
The ruleset is very poorly written because it’s extremely open to interpretation and you can use it as a ground to report anyone for anything.
The unfair advantage isn’t refering to having better hardware, skill level or whatever. It’s about being a good sport and trying your best to win your games in the spirit of the competition without resolving to the use of obvious exploits/glitches, hacks and so on.
It states otherwise in the reporting system definition of cheating.
Anything that affords an unfair advantage is considered cheating.
So a Diamond player on a Gold smurf/alt/whatever you want to call it account is cheating per the reporting system.
Comixfan, what you’re saying should be true. By many player’s definitions, smurfing is cheating for the exact reasons you’ve laid out. The issue is that the system and developers don’t agree with you, so reporting people for smurfing, unless you have proof that they’ve intentionally de-ranked by throwing or something, can only ever backfire on you as you’ll get sanctioned for filing false reports.
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The reporting system defines it as cheating so it’s not false reporting.
Again, what you’re saying should be true. I wish it were. But history has proven you wrong, and the dev’s have specifically said as much themselves. Flat out denial will only hurt you, no one else.
That’s the problem.
It SHOULD be against the rules.
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Again, you’re wrong. You can report people best you want, doub’t you’ll ever get banned for false reporting because it’s rather unheard of but I’m pretty sure that blizzard use a credibility system similar to what you find in many games (like CS:GO) which render your reports rather useless anyways.
Like I’ve already stated, there’s plenty of reasons to why someone could be a lower SR than they should be and most of the people who you come across that outplay you aren’t smurfs, it’s actually rather rare to see true smurfs, de-ranked alts on purpose is more common and yes, there’s a clear difference in definition between a smurf and de-ranked alt however due to ignorance or convenience people often just say smurf. Anyways in most cases it’s impossible to tell if the one outplaying gotten there legit or not.
And again, people have explained to you all of this in the thread yet you seem hellbent on reporting anyone just because you think they are better then you and with that mindset you wont get far in this or any other game not to mention life.
You can’t really have that as a ruleset in a competitive game, it’s up to the devs to code the matchmaker in a way which tries to garantuee a rather equal playfield for the participants and in some cases it will always get it wrong for very valid reasons.
If being “too good” was a reason rather than how you’ve gotten there anyone who’ve decayed, new to this game but with much experience from other FPS, people who’ve taken a break which lead to a much lower rank initially which changes once they’ve warmed up so to speak, those who’ve been practicing to get other heroes up to their best ones, taken a break from comp to grind DM or similar which lead to much improved mechanics, been on a losing streak due to bad luck, tilt and so on just to give a few examples would have to dumb down their play if noticing that they’re doing “too” good, that if anything would be rather ridiculous and create an impossible atmosphere for competitive games.
ehhhh smurfing in low ranks should be bannable, cause it makes a unfair skill disadvantage. Plus in low ranks its mess up from smurfs that don’t care about people in low ranks.
I’m not wrong. The reporting system is quite clear when it comes to what Blizzard considers cheating.
But the actual reportable (and eventually bannable) offense here is throwing or de-ranking in order to stay at low elo.
I’ve seen Stevo’s streams and youtube vids where he went from bronze to GM, and he never throws, and is never abusive or griefing in any game. He always plays his best and towards the team objectives. (same with Kabaji’s unranked-to-GM streams)
There is nothing wrong with having a second account, or tenth account. The problem is not with someone that has better aim than you, or better positional sense, or better communication.
The only problem would be if that player throws matches to lose, in order to stay at low elo.
And throwing is reportable.
You can, however, report them if they throw
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no you cant because they are doing nothing wrong…
the only way you can report a smurf is
- if you’re in a game they are throwing (to maintain their lower rank)
- if they admit they are boosting a lower ranked friends account.
other than they them buying a new account or making a free one on xbox they actually arent doing anything wrong as blizzard has no rules against doing that
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If they’re a Diamond player on a Gold account then they have an unfair advantage over those players actually in Gold and, according to the rules, anything that affords an unfair advantage is cheating.
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SMURFING is not bannable; BOOSTING is though, as is throwing to get to a lower MMR / SR.
I’m split on smurfing, personally. I know many Masters and GM tank and/or support mains who have secondary accounts where they play mostly DPS, they tend to be lower than their mains and their aim may or may not be above average for their elo but their game awareness is far better than the average gold or plat player which tends to help them more often than not, ie knowing and predicting ults or knowing where a sombra might be. Smurfing isnt a bannable offense, Jeff has stated that. Or at least he stated its not an issue so they most likely will not ban for it.
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Blizzard’s rules say otherwise.
That’s not what he said about it at all.