Smurfing is a Problem Denying it is Pointless

M07VNT
there is no arguing that I had any fun this game
their dps were duod and smurfing

I do agree sure smurfing helps people improve but I play dps to have fun not improve
and just because it helps someone improve doesn’t justify it
these 2 people forced 6 people to not have fun and waste their sr (if they care about it depends on person) and time

one quick edit:
lots of responses I know smurfing is a very…interesting topic in the gaming world but plz don’t insult people guys everyone can have their own opinion

17 Likes

My main problem with smurfing is when people intentionally throw down to lower ranks for the sake of being low ranks. Alts aren’t amazing either but I don’t personally mind them. The issue is people who deliberately throw and stay down in low ranks since you’re also ruining your teams games on the way down

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I agree but I think alts are just as much a problem
I feel there’s a difference between having an alt and smurfing but in general now that rq is a thing not so much

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Personally I’m just gonna step away from OW. Aside from playing with my friends when they get together its just not worth the stress and the stupidity. Its only worse that the devs endorse the wholesale destruction of their own game. To be fair considering everything else going on at that company I really shouldn’t be surprised they promote toxic gamer culture so… :man_shrugging:

…but play nice and play fair right?.. :roll_eyes:

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you play to have fun, they play to have fun, they want to have fun more than you, simple as that, here is where your problem appears.

You can go into Looking For Group at just about any time.
Selling freshies
selling smurfs
selling boost
looking for smurf
peak 4200 dps smurf looking for mercy pocket
gm in bronze
road to bronze
not winning

Seriously… it’s everywhere

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They are. There may not be malice behind them, but they have the same effect on the integrity of the matchmaker as a smurf does.

Im all about live and let live, but when your idea if fun is kicking puppies, we are going to have an issue.

1 Like

It really doesn’t.

I have a Masters in the Art of Teaching, I went to school and for literal years and learned how kids learn things, how people learn things.

They do not learn by being beaten so badly that they become demoralized and want to give up, or being shamed or ridiculed or mocked. Those are not good teaching methods, and if anyone tells you otherwise they’re literally, statistically wrong. Research studies have been done by the hundreds to say otherwise, and some haughty teenager that wants to feel good about smurfing so they say it’s a ‘learning experience’ as an excuse is not going to change any of that literal science.

Smurfing doesn’t help anyone learn any more than pitting a pewee football team up against an NFL team would.

There’s a difference between being challenged and being smurfed on - challenging players are maybe one, two ‘pegs’ above your personal skill point. Smurfs are 20 pegs above your skill point, as in, there is precious little you can do to actually beat them.

If someone is just giving you a challenge or slightly better than you, that is not a smurf. Smurfs are purposefully finding enemies that are significantly less skilled than they are so that they can stomp them, that’s literally it.

Frankly it’s disgusting, I don’t know how anyone can do it and feel good about themselves afterwards.

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Alts/smurfing weren’t as big a problem till the past 2 years. Just not enough new players coming to the game so when you see a new low level account it’s one of the above. Getting increasingly rare to see a legitimate new account in gold and above.

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Perhaps.

But complaining about it with no suggested solutions is kinda pointless too.

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No one needs to have a solution to a problem to point out a problem. If a Tsunami is heading towards you and a dude behind you sees it and you don’t, do you really want him to go “Welp, I can’t stop it or come up with a solution, guess I won’t point it out.” and you both drown? That’s what that mentality is at the end of the day.

A society is people working together to build something; people are able to observe problems even if they lack the answers for them.

The solution is to perma ban these people, there is no excuse.

Failing that, segregate these garbage people to play only against themselves until the MMR can properly adjust them.

And then perma ban them when it is clear they are smurfs.

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They smurf because they are losers that have no self confidence to actually play at there own level they are low life scum

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smurfs and hackers, game is infested by them. i do think hackers are more of a shameful type of gamers but unfortunately every online fps competitive game are infested with them. was just watching a video how an apex streamer got caught with hacks live lol… thats why you try and not take any fps online game seriously. its an age old battle since the first fps game came online like 22 years ago (i think unreal tournament?) … never have been a solution. smurfs then too but no one cared bout them

Not one of you have ever played against a smurf in ranked…NONE OF YOU.
its called “getting outplayed and outgunned by the better player”

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How do alts have any sort of effect on Arcade’s essentially non-existing matchmaker? Because alting there is apparently evil according to some recent threads here.

Smurfing is a problem, yes.

The real question is: who’s gonna stop them? Blizzard encourages smurfing.

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No it f-n’ doesnt. You CANT improve when you’re getting steamrolled. You CANT improve when its a team of Smurfs vs you, the one competent player & 5 people that are messing around, basically 1v6.

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Getting clapped by Papa Smurf and his gang is a national past time in Overwatch

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What do you call it when someone stomps the whole game and then claims they’re a 4300 on their main? Over 1000 points difference from the SR of the current game?

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