Do you think players have a hard time getting up ranked and losing a lot per loss is because of smurfs?
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No, i doubt there are enough smurfs in the game to actually cause you to be unable to gain SR. If you cant gain SR and your SR losses are higher than your gains, then youre most likely playing below the level of others on that hero at your rank (Below diamond at least). Even if there were so many smurfs that it were to affect this at all, it would over time affect all players at a given rank equally. Blaming smurfs, trolls, and leavers for the current state of your SR, regardless of how high or low your SR is, is simply a way to defer responsibility off of the player and on to the system and other players.
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At this point in the game’s life cycle, EVERY game has at least two players on an alt account.
These players involuntarily throw by playing characters they’re terrible at, getting too high, getting too drunk, or generally just not caring or playing competitively because “it’s not their main.”
That’s why the SR is broken at this point.
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Except that happens at all ranks, and in general all players are affected by it. Stop using this as a crutch for why you cant get out of a certain rank, it stunts your improvement at the game.
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This season, I made it up to mid-diamond, then lost ~500 SR due to having router issues, and huge lag spikes. I was trying to play on my cell phone while I waited on resolving the issue so I was pushed back down into upper plat.
During that time, I have run into Smurfs and I think Diamond is more equipped to handle it than perhaps Plat players are. That said, I don’t think that’s the issue as much as other things.
The thing I noticed about Plat has been the complete lack of focus fire or understanding of the game, along with the players on the team unwilling to switch to a needed hero on the comp type being setup. To give you an idea, I was around 80% win rate when I got to ~3250.
I’ve also had Plat players send me messages explaining to me how what I am doing is either wrong, or they claim I am “trash”. Firstly, I seriously think about their point and try to apply it to how I was playing. Then I explained to them why I made my decisions. Those players seem to not want to listen. I write their names down, and I watch their SR to see how they are doing. Most of the continue to go on losing streaks, and one is even in Gold now (he was in 2900).
The plat turned gold player is the best example. Told me I was trash and the worst player he’s seen. The problem was he was trying to play Bastions and I was trying to play Rein. When he switched to Bastion, I did my best to protect him but where he would plant (at least in my opinion) was terrible spots. Constantly between to enemy angles where he could be shot. He didn’t take the time to prevent himself from being flanked, and when I supported him doing that, I would be killed due to it as well. After doing this for a few deaths, I switched and stopped helping him. I started assisting the rest of the team that was actually doing really well. We went from being hard stuck at a choke to moving the payload again.
Plat players can kill things, have in most cases really good aim and understand the game, but I notice they tend to completely lack wanting to focus fire or follow someone else lead.
When I am playing with friends and we are facing a smurf, we make a plan to shut that person down. After winning against them, you def feel good.
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True, smurfs are not the main issue, but they add to the problems which are killing the game.
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If a player commits to playing a lot of games in a season than the smurf issue sort of evens out over time as far as win/loss rates go. The smurf helps you one game, hurts you another. Same thing with throwers.
The real problem with both smurfs and throwers is they leave such a heavy tilt inducing like wake in their path that it makes some player just give up playing comp.
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have a seperate comp for low level accounts. It’ll be easier to filter smurfs and you’ll be able to place new players properly on the ladder
I don’t think that Smurfs have any effect on your rank as they are just as likely to be on your team as the enemy team.
I think the problem is that people assume they should rank up because that is how ladders work, but competitive ladders only reward you if you improve.
Another issue is entitlement; players think that because they popped off one time three matches ago that they are entitled to rank up. But again, the only way to rank up is self improvement.
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Over the long run Smurfs have no impact on your SR because they affect everybody. Over the short run, they can have an impact if you get unlucky.
It’s basically like playing poker. Good players will make money over time. Bad players won’t. The luck involved equals out for everybody. In the short run however, even bad players can take the good players money.
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Honestly who cares if the sr system is not 100% accurate. What are you gonna gain from climbing the 100-200 sr to “where you belong” ur just gonna have harder games and heavier teamates. Stop caring about others and focus on urself
Nope.
Losing a lot of sr means you’re unperforming, it’s not related to smurfs.
And how exactly this would fix the issue? You won’t just “filter smurfs” as there are also legitimate new players who have just enough experience to be good. Not every low level account has to be a bronze/silver material and not every low level account that is good is a smurf. If they are unlucky they may stuck for 10 placements with inexperienced people just bc they can’t play with people of their rank bc ThEY haVe LoW lEveL aCcoUnT. Furthermore it won’t change a thing for those ugly smurfs who just want to get placed as low as possible you may only make it easier for them this way.
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The game is almost three years old my dude. 99% of new accounts are players smurfing.
map awareness, hero match ups, general strategies etc.
We still have no idea what stats are being checked for PM, PBSR etc. in order to evaluate once skill. What we do know though is that it takes time to find the proper rank. If that process is flawed, encapsulate it. I doubt actual new players would mind playing against fellow new players while slowly transitioning into the actual ladder. Smurfs account on the other hand are required to bypass another barrier which gives the system more time to filter those players. The basic idea is to grant the system more time to filter actual new players and smurfs, 10 games isn’t enough IMO.
SR on its own isn’t necessarily broken.
PBSR is a broken nonsensical mess.
What makes it all appear broken is the uncontrollable factors; basically the other 11 players in game.
As a support, let’s say Moira - you will get great amounts of healing when your team is working together. Thus SR will look great. If you have a team scattered about, you won’t heal half as much as you’re capable of doing. The game thinks you suck and don’t deserve your rank.
Take into account leavers which I’ve had more this season than past seasons and people who decide that after defending and the opponent goes all the way on junkertown and they throw on attack. Your SR will look like crap.
Nah dude I switched to PC recently and I can’t aim so I play support and I’ll get 5 gold medals and win 4 out of 5 placement matches with moira and place 1600 SR and then get carried with dps because I can’t aim worth crap and lose 4 out of 5 games and place 1800… the system is broken I see people in diamond that only played one game after placement matches like dude you never play and how the heck do you place 2500 on support makes no sense man they seriously need to change something.
(wow, 2 years necro 
)
Well, it’s not that difficult to get gold medlas with Moira and medals don’t mean anything when it comes to evaluating your performance (and not the one of your team)
Also, 200SR are really nothing, they come and go with one longer gaming session and placements don’t really mean much if you don’t play the game actively (in your case DPS)…
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All of these people will hate on you. Say yes. When you look at your team comp … look at your healers. They will almost always have the lowest rank or no endorsements. (like has this person ever played this game?) How ever that’s what going on. I can’t play as a Plat TANK WITH SILVER BUT SOME CAN? WHY! HOW? WHAT IS GOING ON?? OH BLIZZARD IS BROKE AS F!
WHY CANT I GET A WIN PLAYING DPS AS A HEALER? Yeah get wrecked! you are playing support but playing DPS? well if you are support and um DPS but only doing DPS… WHO’s doing support to fill in for you?