Smurfs: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - Q&A

[Trias-2243]

@MrQuaggot-2924

Regarding the smurph argument: in my experience (Plat 3) at least 1/5 of my games are against smurphs, maybe 1/4 if I include the uncertain ones. Honestly I don’t care too much about them, it’s like playing in very hard mode, but they remain good training sessions. However sometimes the skill gap is so huge (I would say people from high diamond or maybe even master) that the match is so one-sided I can feel it during the game aleeady, and I wouldn’t consider those matches as training anymore. It’s strange because I imagine me beating a silver league hero and it would be boring and a waste of time, no challenge at all.

According to my EU stats, there were between 20 and 24% smurfs at the MMR area you’re playing in. So between one over five and one over four players indeed, your impressions are spot on, Quaggot.

@MrQuaggot-2924

Honestly I don’t care too much about them, it’s like playing in very hard mode, but they remain good training sessions. However sometimes the skill gap is so huge (I would say people from high diamond or maybe even master) that the match is so one-sided I can feel it during the game aleeady, and I wouldn’t consider those matches as training anymore. It’s strange because I imagine me beating a silver league hero and it would be boring and a waste of time, no challenge at all.
It seems to me the smurphing grew up after the Blizzard announcement of stopping support to SC2, I hope this is just my impression. As I said, I don’t care too much about it but things would be different if smurphs should become the majority of my opponents.

You’re taking this in the best possible way : dealing with it, and trying to learn in the attempt. Yet, for the training to apply, the army sizes and timings must be somewhat comparable, otherwise you get stomped whatever strategical choice you did.

And so the most common reactions after such an unequal confrontations are :

• Rage (which is why ≥50% of the smurfs have comments disable aside of their friendlist).
• Despair, which can convert itself into
• • Balance whine ^^… which can later turn into smurfing
• • A stop of the game (or its 1v1 ladder), temporary or not
• • A refusal to continue playing at the same level, bringing some users to deliberately lower their MMR to play at a lesser one. In other words, to smurf themselves

Take a look at that :

@fnord-2131

At this point it’s mostly smurfs in lower leagues. Personally I’ve joined them, I can’t be bothered to ladder properly any more because it’s ruined by smurfs so I’m just like if you can’t beat them join them.

@Ramshack-6836

I posted a couple weeks ago about how smurfing at the lower leagues is killing the ladder. Naturally Blizzard can’t make money from fixing this problem sothey would never even attempt to fix this problem. So now i intend to do the same. I will be smurfing my way down to silver and bronze to frustrate and drive away the newcomers from the game. It’s exactly what Blizzard deserve. It may only make a small increase in players not playing anymore but Blizzard need to be taught a lesson.

@Exterminator-11377

Smurfing is the most ridiculous thing to do but its so rampant that the only thing you can do about it is smurf yourself. Contribute to the death of this game by taking a slice out of the player base yourself just so you can clown on them. The amount of players I have faced with 350+ apm in diamond is absurd.

So in a way, smurfing either frustrates regular users (even very poised ones, such as you), or induces more smurfing. If that goes on, the regular players base will thin and the smurfs proportion will increase simultaneously. In other words, little by little, they’re going to kill the game. Which is what I’m trying for quite some time to warn the devs, as countermeasures could be implemented rather easily.

As for the gap in skill being too high to learn, I’m currently around P1-D3, and look who I found at my door two weeks ago :

The most remarkable fact being that they’re unaware a lot of their profiles, choices an attitudes are common between smurfs. And so I’ve built for myself a small algorithm to recognize them before even checking their profiles , and he checked a lot of items. So I knew he was a smurf in the game’s first seconds, and took my chances. I didn’t beat that one of course (best I’ve beaten are masters), but in that very case, since I knew he was a smurf, I realized I made small mistakes who might’ve been game changing against a player of this level.

@MrQuaggot-2924

Trias I would like to thank you for all the efforts you put in this. Your work is great for the community, especially on this forum which is made of whining freaks. I lost hope and stopped to read the forum months ago, but it’s reliefing to find some good content from nice people once in a while.

As it’s good to read from people who value that, and kind enough to highlight, it Quaggot. Balance related debates, being the most passionate, are the ones who get the most attention. So it’s not easy for a thread, however well constructed, to get recognition. Thanks for your words and appreciation, both help.