“Smurfing is not really a huge problem”

Because a smurf account = more $$$. It’s not a problem to them because they’re profiting from it. (Edit: just realized I read this wrong oops, but still)

Though smurfing isn’t really a big problem on PC because of that fact, but on console it’s a MASSIVE problem especially in Diamond > GM. Every single match I play on XB1 at this point has a smurf in it, and it really, really sucks. Everything up to GM from mid-Diamond is essentially one whole rank.

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I have like top 1% damage as a plat with Ashe (and Widow, but I was screwing around with her. So it might have lowered). Probably still have top 1% deaths or whatever too. Pretty sure it is because the games are easy as heck, fam. I am staying alive and dealing truckloads of damage with decent accuracy. Like… What do I need to do to consistently stay diamond. I will tell you friend. Rely on my 5 teammates to win.

Again, not that I care, I have more fun this way. So if I am plat, so be it. I am like the best plat out there, though. King of my domain. Rofl.

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I believe it’s more than 1 in 8 in Bronze, if you count not just matches where they win against you, but also matches where they win for you and matches where they are throwing. Smurf matches aren’t only the stomps…

But even if it is “just” 1 in 8, that’s still a lot of games being ruined when it can take hundreds of games to climb a rank.

As for the ‘what-abouts’ … it doesn’t matter. That other problems occur in the game has no bearing at all on whether or not smurfs are a problem.

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No. That’s 1 in 8 matches where there’s a chance that a smurf will show up on the enemy team, 1 in 9 for your own team, based on the assumption that 1 in 50 people are smurfing. Realistically, that number is most likely much lower since very few people actually take such enjoyment in stomping bad players.

quote=“DreadPirate-1795, post:43, topic:347628”]
As for the ‘what-abouts’ … it doesn’t matter. That other problems occur in the game has no bearing at all on whether or not smurfs are a problem.
[/quote]

You misunderstand, these are the problems that people attribute to smurfs, but are unrelated to them.

1 in 8 matches is actually a lot of matches getting spoilt.

And they spoil games when they’re on your own team as well, often by being toxic, usually by hogging all the action. Even by causing the enemy team to tilt and leave; which no one enjoys. So actually, it’s many more than this.

I’m still surprised you’d consider 1:8 games as being insignificant…

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Oh. Hmm. That would 1 per 4.5 matches that’s a smurf match though (well, not exactly because some of the 1/8 and 1/9 overlap, but close enough). Bronze is more like 1 per 5 or 1 per 6 matches, in my experience. Well… in soloq that is.

If you 6-stack, you’ll face against smurfs in the majority of your matches, but at least some of them will hard-throw to you since they are deranking.

As a percentage of the playerbase, the number is likely much lower. However, Bronze is only 8% of the playerbase. Gold and Plat are the majority of the playerbase. It only takes 0.2% of the playerbase to want to smurf to get 2% smurfs in Bronze, since there’s a factor of >10 size difference between Bronze and above-Bronze.

It’s also a misconception that smurfs are only there to stomp bad players. They all end up doing so, but smurfs are there for lots of reasons… playing with friends, boosting friends or boosting for profit, fooling around doing stupid tricks with non-meta heroes. Noob-stomping is just one reason to be there.

I’ve only seen three or so obvious smurfs in the last month.

but smurfing really isn’t that big of a problem tbh

smurfing helps you learn a lot. you can take notes from the higher ranked player and learn effective strats to counter a player like that.

I learned a lot from getting socked in the face by higher ranks. I’m still not perect but it helped me a lot.

You’ve gotta get bodied to start bodying other people

This is true only on PC, Console smurfing is where the problem is and has been for well over a decade.

Yeah, spawn camping is totally a valid strat.

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I have seen that video multiple times and his central argument is “there is more times than not also going to be a smurf on your side which balances it out” and that argument has been debunked numerous times by anyone who has actually played both with AND against smurfs.

If you are playing AGAINST a smurf, your matches are impacted by the other team having an unfair advantage (obviously) and if it’s the other way around where YOU have the smurf, then your games later on will inherently put you at a bad diasadvantage because of how the algorithm of the matchmaker manages your performance making your win just inevitably lead to a loss which, in turn, just wastes your time in unbalanced and broken matches making his argument that “you hardly stumble upon them” straight up useless because that is under the assumption that merely the games with the smurfs in them are solely the problem and not the games after.

Also, let’s assume that what this guy argues is legit and understandable.

Does that remotely make it okay for smurfs at all, whether on your team or the enemy team, to waltz into a lower level lobby and inherently deliver an unfair skill difference between both teams?

Nope.
Most are bronze to GM.

Fitzy did it
Stevoo did it
iddqd did it
There was some YouTuber/streamer in GM who mained Moira that did it (can’t remember the name)
And I can go on and on with names from super high level players that did bronze to GM smurfing.

An alt account is a 99% separate entity from a smurf account which is not what we are talking about.

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You play on PC which is a vastly different experience from console. Console is filled to the brim with smurf accounts and they make it painfully obvious with their usernames.

bBuT EVIL GUAC MAN TROLL MY GAME KEEPING ME IN BRONZE D:

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That doesn’t mean anything though, it doesn’t increase the statistical probability of actually having one. It just means that something with a very small chance of happening actually occurred.

Wrong. If they’re in the process of throwing, which is half of what they do, the likelihood of you winning is instead higher because you have a lower chance of getting one on your own team.

That will happen regardless of smurfs, that’s how the matchmaker works.

No, but that isn’t what we’re currently discussing. I’m saying that they aren’t an issue because they’re far less common than the gold players who “deserve gm” on the forums claim. You can report a smurf while they’re deranking for throwing matches.

Prob this guy, although he wasn’t actually going in and stomping people.

Yes, but I was replying to a claim that a lot of the alt accs are smurfs (which is blatantly wrong), the alt accs are vastly more prevalent than smurfs, and these are what people are complaining about in 90% of all cases when they lose to one, because “There’s no way I could’ve been outplayed by someone at my own rank, I’m gold but deserve T500 REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”, and then proceed to blow it massively out of proportions on the forums. Hindsight is 1/20 on this forum.

Not a “very small” chance. 1-11 games is 1-11 too much and it is not always as cut and dry as simply 1-11 not to mention that statistic doesn’t take into account your team having a smurf(s) which is another issue in and of itself.

And yet another claim that doesn’t take into account the boosting process which is a whole different ballgame from a smurf throwing which in turn just screws up the skill balance in future games at a major level.

Not nearly at the major extent that happens when winning with a smurf.

If I win a balanced match where everyone is of equal skill or close to that, then my games later will rival that until I hit a wall where it requires some adjustments on my part to climb.

If I win a very unbalanced game with a smurf, then my next game (since I always avoid playing with and against smurfs at all costs) will be that much more difficult to win because the skill between both teams will became more scewed in the enemy team’s favor to “balance things out” making it not even worth anything if I win with a smurf and therefore a huge time waster.

If it truely isn’t an issue according to you, then why are you admitting that it is not okay for smurfs to be smurfing to begin with?

been seeing an obvious smurf in my diamond games like 25% of the time. feels bad