I point to 2 pieces of evidence. I’ll post links later.
1st, ML7’s youtube video titled Sigma Smurf shows a Sigma account playing their second game in ranked in a top 25 lobby. This happened because they went 49-1 in quickplay to unlock the competitive mode.
Second, Awkward’s recent unranked to GM video of Reaper was only 5 games. Why? IMO, because he was already high rank in tank and support (if you see his profile in the video, its true). This made the system start his dps rank at a mid-master lobby, and by the time he was 3-0, was already in GM.
This is fantastic. No more blaming smurfs on your losses y’all, hallelujah.
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Tbf I’ve never blamed smurfs. I already know I’m garbage-just need to see my Rein and Reaper gameplay lol.
But I’m happy to see the smurf accounts are being shot up asap IF this is true.
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Those are alts, not smurfs. I know people are dumb and use them interchangeably but they’re not the same thing. Actual smurfs don’t shoot up because they throw games that’s the point
The thing though is that someone who is having a really good day going against someone on their worst day also makes it seem like one is smurfing. I know for myself I could be 2 ranks higher on some days where I am just hitting every shot somehow
Remember kids: elo hell doesn’t exist… when you are on a smurf.
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Yeah elo hell doesn’t exist if you just get better
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Right, that is why 90% of the matches in this game are stomps. Because everyone is in their proper rank?
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No, because some people are better than the rank they’re in. They got better and moved up. It’s not that complicated. No game will ever place everyone in their proper rank at all times. Metas shift, people get better or worse lmao. It’s just not reasonable to expect otherwise. Sometimes I play like a gm support and sometimes I play like a gold player it happens.
Making fair matches in OW is an extremely complex problem, because there’s just way too many variables to consider. Think about it, how many players of the same rank have entirely different preferred set of heroes? In theory two people of the same rank should work well together but if they play opposite heroes then they’re going to have a miserable time, there’s nothing you can do about that.
This is why I think going 5v5 and having more emphasis on individual play versus teamplay is going to be better, because the outcome of the game is getting shifted more in your hands than what team you get. And honestly, I don’t think OW is ever going to have good matchmaking unless it has consistently large player numbers which it definitely doesn’t right now
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Nobody gets better over a night to a point they stomp and then get stomped the next day.
It happens during the same match. That’s why the ‘stomp’ problem in OW is so complicated. It isn’t uncommon for one team to stomp one round and then be stomped the next round.
You don’t even need to wait a day, you just have to wait for the next round. Once more people understand that, things will get a bit better. Part of the problem currently is that people give up too easily (which obviously creates stomps). But if people realize just how thin the razor’s edge between stomping and being stomped is, they won’t give up so easily and there will be fewer one-sided stomps.
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Also that sometimes losing 2 fights is fine because you’ll build ults first and then win the 3rd fight. However, most people don’t realize that sometimes that’s the only way you’re going to build ult decently so you need to trudge through that to build 2-3 ults to win the 3rd fight, then use 2-3 more ults for the next fight.
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If that is legitimately a thing then that is good news
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Yep. It’s interesting how much of the ‘obvious stuff’ isn’t really taken for granted until you get to Masters+ lobbies. In the metal ranks, people often aren’t thinking about things like win conditions and the difference between a neutral fight and an ult fight.
You can win a lot of OW matches just by winning your ult fights and being aware of the enemy team’s ult advantage. (Of course, some of that requires comms since the rest of your team won’t be aware of that.) I think that’s one of the reasons support is so strong- they can shut down the enemies ult advantage with their cooldowns and then use their ults to win the next fight.
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Awkward U2GM Reaper
ML7 Sigma Smurf
Awkward talks about the rank he’s in at the beginning of his matches. ML7 talks about it right at the start of the video.
Yes I suppose we should just call them alt accounts now 
OW players be like
One-trick who won’t swap? Bad matchmaker
Team has no synergy while enemy has synergy and makes adjustments? Bad matchmaker
Enemy team built a quick ult which in turn allowed them to get kills and build other ults? Bad matchmaker
Tank dies twice and supports say “gg” and give up? Bad matchmaker
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I was also really only trying to cast light on what I thought was a good thing for comp matches. Interesting psuedo-tangents here, right?
Match-making is a divisive and complex topic. I mostly think Blizz is trying to get it right, but is generally a victim of its own declining popularity and the subjective nature of how people view what is a “fair match.”
I just think its a relatively good step forward if obvious top 500/high GM players can’t loiter in lower ranks on alt accounts. Its better for the overall health of the game, imo.
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I’m a good support player and a far-less good tank player. Guarantee when I perform well on tank, enemy team thinks “loser smurf” and when I struggle, my team thinks “loser throwing smurf” when in reality I’m just bad. My profile is public and they’ll see GM support and Diamond tank and everyone probably hates me lol.
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Yes, was it in season 5 they introduced the change that for new accounts QP is used as a “seed” for initial comp placements.
All in all, its probably better that the system tries to push people up to their correct ranks as aggressively as possible.
But I dont know if it makes “actual smurfing” harder or not, hopefully it does.
You don’t know most players, do you?
They will blame. Oh boy, will they blame.
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