The console smurf issue is a real threat to the health of the game

Increase the lowest level for comp to level 50, not 25.

Problem solved for at least a few years. Grinding to 25 is tough for smurfers (I have two smurfs to play with friends), doubling the amount of time it gets there would be a chore. Not that people won’t do it, but it makes it a longer process.

Getting to 25 can be done in half a day.

Yeah by playing non-stop all day. I’m not familiar with people doing that, but those that do that won’t change. Adding more time to their grind won’t matter because they’ll just do it anyway.

Right now its the combination of the low level to entry and that there are little to no punishments people are just doing it for fun now. Which is the opposite of what’s needed if they want this game to be competitive. Its just not taken seriously by anyone, including the devs.

Console overwatch isn’t meant to be competitive, not in the same way as its PC sister at least.

Blizzard doesn’t care at all about the console community. If they did they would constantly do separate balance changes for each system and crack down on K+M. As long as you aren’t hacking the game, lag switching, excessive toxicity selling/boosting accounts, or using aimbots/wallhacks they don’t care.

Upping the minimum level for comp is probably the only thing possible that Blizzard would do to slow down the issue.

I will readily admit I made a second account to play on, but it originally wasn’t intended for Overwatch comp. Though, the more I thought about it, the more appealing the idea seemed to be.

Let me state that my intention was never to play at a lower elo than what I currently sit at on my main account. My intention was to see how well I would do if I started on a blank slate account (honestly I’m a little bit higher on my alt than my main.).

The outcome is that I seem to play better or just have better matches on my alt in terms of DPS and Support but I’m roughly the same (maybe about 50-75 SR lower) on my Tank.

It was more of an experiment than anything.

But I get a lot of matches where I’m matched up with some people that just don’t feel like they belong in the rank they’re at. While I won’t straight up call everyone that bests me a smurf or an elo grinder (lets face it, a lot of people decay and then when they come back they’re usually stuck in Plat for a bit because they have to wipe the dust off their skills.) it is rather frustrating when you get matched up against someone that feels like they belong a few ranks ahead of you.

I won’t say that this happens every game because that would be overexaggeration. It does tend to happen more often than I’d like, however.

Yeah no.
That’s awful.

Because new players don’t exist?

Or create a better matchmaking system that goes by skill rather than level.
Because that would just make it better for smurfs.

It needs to be 100, at the least. Gives actual new players time to learn a few things, while really requiring smurfs to waste a lot of time to get to that point.

They’d do it, though. That’s the problem. There needs to be some kind of unique authentication involved to stop this problem.

But first, Blizzard has to have any integrity and actually care about it. They don’t, and they never will.

The thing is though if you are an actual new player, waiting to level 100 would be a drag. Most people think they’re ready for competitive play after 25 or around there, I personally didn’t play comp until I was around level 70. Some people don’t have friends to play with and just want to play comp as the competitive experience is a huge driving force to this game.

They’re not. There are people with hundreds of hours on the game who aren’t ready for comp. That’s part of the problem. Some of that is Blizzard’s fault, since the game does a terrible job of teaching players about its intricacies. In many ways, the game’s presentation actively promotes bad habits, or nullifies learning.

But these players should need to spend a lot of time learning before they jump into competitive.

That, or Blizzard could work on solutions that include unique authentication for each account. How many phone numbers can a smurf have? You can make dummy emails all day, but there are other methods.

LMAO my first game on my late night session…
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We already have MMR. No system is gonna classify “skill” on a reasonable level anyway.

And matchmaker is, as previously stated, very desperate right now to make queue times as short as possible for damage.

They can introduce more factors, but the matchmaker is already set up to sort of “discard” these factors the more desperate it gets, including SR differences in competitive. The only difference in 2020 matchmaker and 2019 matchmaker pre-RQ that I can tell is the former gets/starts off a lot more desperate

Jeff has acknowledged that it’s a problem and that they’re working on a solution but it’s not an easy fix given the way consoles handle accounts.

Yeah it’s pretty bad issue on console. All lower ranks (plat/gold/silver/bronze) are littered with smurfs. I’m a high diamond/low masters DPS and have been playing tank in gold/plat lately. I can tell straight away the DPS smurfs at those ranks, they;re everywhere

That post from JK is specifically what I was referring to. Again we’ve been hearing this for years now.

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They don’t even check console reports or do anything about smurfs on pc. I really think it’s a nonissue for them

It’s def an issue but it’s because the toxicity is so bad. Everyone I’ve met that smurfs say they’ve intentionally deranked because voice chat gets so toxic and once again, console reporting is a joke. Can’t even remember the last time I got a notification for a report

As much as I hate dealing with smurfs, there is no reason to turn console into a PC clone where the only REAL bar to being a smurf is whether or not you feel like dropping more money into the game. Personally, when I buy a game, I want the game for my entire family, not just one person (and I’ve already had to buy Overwatch twice when I bought a second console, because of the login limitations.) If I own the game on console, I should be able to play it without having to give another 25 bucks or more to use a different account on the same console.

True, but this is the first time we’ve had confirmation from Blizzard that smurfing is considered a problem.

So your “solution” is to match based on levels?
Where actual new players will be against smurfs?
I thought you wanted that not to happen.

I think the solution is to make a new matchmaking system, one with a better queue time set and skill match set.