If you think discriminating against a large number of innocent, collateral players and denying them the ability to play the game that they paid for and enjoy is an acceptable behavior, for a minor incremental increase of the quality of games you play, you should look inwards and ask yourself who’s really the villain here.
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Speaking of which, how much do you want to bet that Blizzard’s precious content creators will be somehow exempt from this “no smurfing” rule for their Bronze-to-GM streams? 
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Are you familiar with “The tragedy of the commons” game theory issues?
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I would say that given that MOST Smurf accusations are false….that we’re not going to notice a difference….
People are going to accuse people doing it all the time anyway
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If making the game better for more people makes me a villain then ok lol.
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Well, I mean, like I said, if he was on my team in the one game that I queued into him, I wouldn’t see a problem with it, lol.
I’m not saying you’re inherently wrong. People should stick to where they belong, and aim for quality games, and always try their hardest to win, not throwing matches, and not playing for free wins. If they smurf, they should stick to the characters they are bad at, so that they may improve them, and still have a quality game.
But I also can’t say smurfing is inherently wrong either, it can be used in such a negative way, or it can be used in a positive way, like, as stated before, practicing different heroes.
I mean, I would never play Widow in a comp game on my main. I know I’d be throwing. I don’t have an alt account, but I could see how it would be nice to be able to practice Widow in a supposedly serious environment. Because, let’s face it, QP is just not a good place to practice, lol.
That’s why you don’t understand comp mode and why people are mad about smurfs.
People who actually care about comp mode rather have quality games instead of rolling over the enemy team or getting stomped.
I rather lose a good game than having an easy win because it feels lame.
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I’m not interested in reading all of that, but to clarify, the “innocent, collateral players” was referring to the people who will now be unable to play because they use prepaid phones, MetroPCS, Cricket, anyone who has an account not in their region, who is locked out, etc. (Apparently people who have US accounts, who aren’t from the US are unable to connect their phones, too, at least as far as I’m understanding from a non-US friend.)
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If they require a 2fa code to login every single time then yes it will put a damper on smurfs.
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You and I just have different interests. You play to compete, I play to win.
It makes it harder for new players to get in the game rather than making it harder for smurfing.
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Wrong, I play to win but it needs to feel like an accomplishment.
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I agree that the actual smurfing problem – at the ratios they currently actually exist at – won’t change any on PC. However, given the sheer number of people on the forums/reddit/discords that think this is the silver bullet they’ve been waiting for, perhaps the perception of the frequency of smurfs will change and those excuses and claims will subside a bit.
Console is another beast entirely, since alt accounts there have virtually no cost associated with them. Adding anything there is a net gain. Console players are the winners here; PC players will see no functional difference.
It’s just too bad Blizzard can’t sort out some of the minuta with the implementation and, as I predicted months ago, legit players are being blocked as a result. Hopefully they’ll take the fairly obvious paths forward, and improve the system or scrap it entirely.
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The point is not to prevent smurfing, but cheating and toxicity. Smurfing has never been an issue in blizzard’s eyes. Nor should it be. Just cause a player is better than you, doesn’t mean they should be restricted in playing the game
Well, kinda depends on the region.
Craig/WyomingMyst mentioned some regions will be exempt from phone verification, because there’s too much density of prepaid numbers. (Probably less affluent countries)
Where as Belarus/Russia, has more to do with those countries exiting the SWIFT global financial transactions service that almost all companies use for international payments.
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Fair, but you also just said you’d rather lose a good game, than to win an easy game. I’m the opposite. If I was playing Comp, I’d much rather the easy, free win, than to waste my time losing a match of a close game.
Nothing is more unsatisfying than waiting 15 minutes in queue to play a 10 minute game, just to lose and drop the SR I worked so hard to get up to where it was. 25 minutes of time wasted. Not to mention the fact that my previous win is now invalidated, so an additional 25 minutes wasted.
Nah wth is this take. You are joking I assume? Do you know what smurfing is?
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If there is winning, there must also be losing. If you lose a good game, it’s not a waste of time because you had a good match along with other people on your skill level, both teams did their best, but there can only be one winner.
So you can reflect on yourself during and after that match and think about what you or your team could have done better to win it and with that knowledge you’re going into the next match and win it - if the matchmaking works right and puts the correct players together, which doesn’t work with people who smurf.
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Again, this is just where we’re going to disagree, and why I say that I’m the one who truly plays to win, between us. Because, for me, any loss in Comp is not only a waste of my time, but a waste of my time before, as well. But that’s how I play and see pushing rating. I’m there for the gold, not to compete against everyone else. Honestly, the fun competitiveness I save for QP, lol. Because in QP, losing doesn’t cost me anything but my pride, and it’s there I am trying to have fun.
Would be a lot cooler if you did tho
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