Lots to unpack there. Here’s PiG’s video :
- Uthermal is doing it for content, doesn’t smurfs too far below his skill with the mentioned strategies (he often starts in masters), and doesn’t prevent the rise in MMR. PiG argues that the skill gap between M3 and a progamer is still considerable, and while this is true, it’s not fair to present Uthermal as a smurf Masterchief when BeastyQT has been doing the same for years starting his runs in platinum.
- Neither Uthermal, nor BeastyQT nor PiG having to smurf for content is actually that much of a problem in itself. The issue is that some use said content in order to present smurfing as a reasonable, alternative way of playing. The failure here being that streamers’ content actually encourages playing, while smurfing yourself actually discourages your opponents to. Most smurfs will deny this, but at one hand they often have no idea of what they’re talking about (lots of smurfs don’t even know what “smurfing” is) ; and at another hand when interrogated about their motivation to to so, they are most of the time trying to evade the very elements they induce in the players they get matched with.
- Current chart/ToS does not explicitly punish smurfing, but only the toxicity that often surrounds it. And even if it did, Bli² doesn’t have the means to even fight offenses that are clearly disallowed, so don’t expect them to punish any individual smurfing.
- Smurfing for content is an extremely small part of the whole smurfing scene. You might encounter BeastyQT some day, and get trolled by him during one game. But it’ll remain only one game. The issue are the smurfs that ensure they stay at the same level, by freelosing (freelosing smurfs) or repeatedly creating new accounts once they’ve reached an MMR where they start being challenged. Bli² could easily implement highly dissuasive countermeasures against freelosing smurfs. Heck they even had a precise survey with the proportions of smurfs in each metal league, and detailed suggestions about how to solve the issue, all suggested by an user they used to listen in balance-feebacks… but did choose not to do so for years. So I would be surprised if that changed now that the game entered long-term mode.
TL;DR
- Uthermal smurfs for content, but this is a non issue compared to the extent of problem that those who smurf to play represent in the current game.
- Realistically, do not expect Bli² to help solve that problem.