I know what kind of comments ill get from this post, and before you type it, please ad-knowledge some of the points i make here.
From a post i made before, i talked about a difference between Alts and Smurf accounts. Alts are perfectly fine, since its just practicing another character and no real harm is done, but Smurfs are much worse, and surprise surprise, they still exist.
As a console player, i find it annoying to have to confront a smurf who i know very well is going to cause all the possible problems in my comp match.
So, i message them, i ask them what rank they are, they tell me, i report them. Now, let me just go over what Smurfs essentially do.
They purposely play on a lower ranked account to work their way back up to the top by playing against much lower ranked people. People that obviously arenât going to stand a chance. In the process, its giving an unfair advantage to the team with the smurf on it, i wonât call anyone trash by saying its carrying, its more like a secret illegal weapon.
There are two words in that whole paragraph that are very important. UNFAIR ADVANTAGE. Face it, you donât want to be a platinum going against someone who is a GM Tracer Main that looks like a low-level platinum player.
Doesnât sound so fun, right?
If i am a plat queuing into a match, i want to see other platinums, not Masters, GMS, or Top 500s in disguise.
Now about those 2 important words, do something real quick, go into social, go to the reporting tab and choose the cheating option. Look at the description for what Cheating is.
Cheating Is:
Using third party programs to automate any facet of the game, exploiting a bug, or engaging in any activity that grants an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE.
Smurfing in a way is a activity done by many that grants an unfair advantage.
That is why i report any smurf i see, regardless if they are my teammate or not. I want to win/lose from a FAIR match.
And its very easy to spot a Smurf too. Low level, possibly looks like they are in elo heIl, probably never died the whole match, etc.
I only put Etc. because of how easy it is to catch one. Heck, their names can even be total jokes, showing off the fact that they are a smurf and you or the enemy team is about to get ROLLED.
However, whenever i point out the harmful actions to a smurf themselves, they give me the same answer.
âIts not against the Terms Of Service so its fine.â
That is disgusting. While Blizzard may only allow it because it makes them money or for some other crazy reason, this is just ridiculous. Now that i pointed out how Smurfing CAN be a reportable offense, its finally time to put an end to it.
While it may not be a widespread issue to some, its definitely the most annoying inconvenience you could possibly find on this game.
Blizzard, please listen to this, i donât want to lose simply because someone in the same comp match as me was a few ranks higher anymore.
There are plenty of ways anti-smurfing can be implemented, as shown in another post, like Verifying Phone Numbers, for example.
I know this isnât the most major problem, but itâs a problem that can ruin the experience for at least 1 person at the bare minimum, not including me.
End Smurfing Today!
Wrong. Smurfs arenât indestructible, non-smurfs CAN be good at their hero and you wouldnât know whether it was a smurf or not.
Itâs not cheating, just get better? Then âsmurfsâ wouldnât be a problem for you.
Iâve suggested this before. Everyone already knowâs that is is kind of reportable but kind of not.
Lmfao, not one of these people again. Youâre in silver, and youâre telling someone smurfs are easy to deal with if you just get better. Are you serious? And in answer to that, itâs a no. Getting better dosenât make you the level of a GM playing in a Plat match does it? If you were better, youâd already be in GM. So stop with all this stupid âget gudâ crap because you know itâs not true.
Yay someone agrees with me
Oh youâre one of them. Considering I was 100 away from Platinum a while back, friend stopped playing and solo played in groups that threw the game and didnât cooperate, which happens a lot down here.
Why do you even care about âsmurfsâ mr pro high player. You can be a smurf and still have crap games. People need to stop crying about it and stop making it out to be cheating when it clearly isnât.
There is this post from Jeff Kaplan, countering the argument of âsmurfsâ being a problem:
- Smurfing. I would define this as an experienced player buying a second account to reset their account progress and internal matchmaking rating (MMR)
âŚ
Smurfing â and I know this isnât what you want to hear â isnât really that big of an issue. For example, a few weeks ago one of the Pro Overwatch players created a smurf account and was streaming from it. We were able to watch his MMR internally and compare it against his âmainâ account. Within 15 games, the MMRâs were equal. I know there is a very bad perception of Smurfing. But the reality is, skilled players are moved rapidly out of lower skill situations.
However, something that should be mentioned is that Jeffâs definition of a âsmurfâ is equal to your definition of âalt accountâ. So alt-accounts arenât a problem because they get to their proper MMR anyways.
Sonic-Smurf (your definition of smurfs), on the other hand, intentionally play at a lower MMR. That would give them an unfair advantage, making it reportable for cheating.
A counter-argument might be that some players get a low MMR accidentally and then they get reported for cheating, even though theyâre innocent. Yet they are not cheating by definition:
Engaging is the keyword here. It means that you deliberately try to get a low MMR thus getting a low MMR accidentally is not cheating by definition.
Thereâs also the fact that they were doing an ongoing âcrimeâ. Before they get a low MMR, thus cheating, they have to play terribly on purpose. In a nutshell, they have to sabotage the game to get to a low MMR/SR.
While reporting a sonic-smurf for cheating would be justified, the more difficult problem is to identify a smurf. There has to be a system where you can clearly find out whether someone plays a smurf or "just got gud".
A phone verification seems to be a good idea. Blizzard already implemented it by requiring a phone verification to get to the top 500. However, that should be discussed in the relevant forum.
Long story short, if it makes money for blizzard they allow anything.
Donât tell people to âget betterâ when that isnât the answer. Especially when youâre in Silver. 100 away from Plat? Thatâs still gold. Iâm Plat, idc. I know itâs not a great rank. I donât tell people to get better at the game.
Back to my main point. Getting better at the game isnât going to do anything. If you were better, youâd be in a higher rank anyway. And letâs say you did improve, Iâm pretty sure you didnât improve to a GM level, which the smurf most likely is. Youâre one of those people who just use âget gudâ as an answer to everything, but complain when it happens to you.
Not really,
Buying alternate accounts isnât a problem.
Smurfs who rank down on purpose, however, are a problem.
It doesnât if you consider the consequences.
If the game gets a bad reputation of Smurfs being on the wrong elo (is it called elo?), then and fewer players play the game and blizzard makes less money.
Long story short, smurfs arenât allowed because they make money.
And just to make it clear a second time:
Alt-accounts are not a problem, smurfs are.
Being skilled isnt reportable âŚ
Of course not, but we arenât talking about skilled players in their correct rank.
We talk about a smurf who played terrible on purpose (gameplay sabotage) just to get a low rank. Those smurfs then have an unfair advantage against the other low skilled players because the smurf even isnât supposed to be in that rank.
Remember the definition of cheating:
âengaging in any activityâ is the act of ranking down intentionally. The âunfair advantageâ is the skill-gap between the smurf and the other players. It is an unfair advantage because matchmaking is programmed to pair equally skilled players and the smurf exploited a minor flaw in the system.
I understand what you are trying to say but you are wrong. Playing in a lower rank than you should be isnt reportable. Thats a fact.
Now throwing is reportable. So what I am trying to tell you is that just because someone is a smurf, that doesnt mean you can report him. You can ONLY report him if he is throwing, not for being in an âwrongâ rank.
Actually, you could but only partly.
being in a âwrongâ rank isnât the only factor for making a cheater-report justified. Whatâs also important is whether the person is in a âwrongâ rank by accident or on purpose.
If the player is in the wrong rank by accident, then itâs clearly not cheating. They hadnât the intention to get an unfair advantage and thus havenât engaged in an activity to derank.
If, however, the player is in the wrong rank on purpose, then itâs by definition cheating. Except for getting from bronze to GM, the sole purpose of deranking intentionally is to get easier enemies and thus to have an unfair advantage. He does achieve that unfair advantage by intentionally playing terribly (gameplay sabotage)
Let me make one thing clear: My argument is that a report against a smurf for cheating is justified. I am not saying that you should report smurf who are on the wrong rank because you can not know whether that player is in that low rank by accident or on purpose.
Lets agree to disagree then. I still believe that only throwing is reportable, not the consequence of throwing which is being in the wrong rank.
Yes it is, because then you wouldnât have a problem with âSmurfsâ.
This people payd 40 euro for that account blizzard by law cant take that away from them, its just how real life works if you buy something you can use it and smurfing isnt reportable since its not an offence in the code of conduct.
The fact that someone can be much better then you in this game shows that you have alot to work on.
Smurfs are in all the competativ games and they have always been a part of them. Ive been dealing with smurfs since the year pre 2000.
The more unskilled people are the better they make smurfs look yet overwatch is a easy game and blizzard prove that people just dont want to better them self or get to know the full game.
Hold on,
The competitive mode sorts each player by their performance. Depending how well you play, you get the rank you deserve (if the ranking system works properly).
That allows you to have a fair fight with a winchance of 50% (main objective of matchmaking).
However, if you rank down on purpose you suddenly are a high-skill player in disguise, shifting the winchance from a fair 50%, to an unfair 60-80%.
The argument âitâs normalâ doesnât work here because the main issue of this topic is not wether smurfing is ok, but wether smurfing can be considered cheating.
Also,
Are you sure about that?
Cheating
You are responsible for how you and your account are represented in the game world. Cheating in any fashion will result in immediate action. Using third-party programs to automate any facet of the game, exploiting bugs, or engaging in any activity that grants an unfair advantage is considered cheating.Exploiting other players is an equally serious offense. Scamming, account sharing, win-trading, and anything else that may degrade the gaming experience for other players will receive harsh penalties.
A a reminder, we talk about smurf who downrank on purpose.
We are not talking about players who bought an alt account to reset their MMR just to get a fresh start. Jeff Kaplan himself that this kind of âsmurfingâ i completely ok.
Back to the downrank-smurf. I basically explained why such smurfs are cheating by definition:
If a downgrade-smurf is complaining about a report for cheating, he would lose because downranking on purpose so you have an unfair advantage against weaker opponents is against the code of conduct.
You can do whatever you want but you have to follow the terms of service and code of conduct you agreed on. If you donât follow their rules, you get penalised.
That makes reporting a downrank-smurf for cheating justified.
Yet again, how to detect a downrank-smurf, thatâs another big problem to tackle with.
Since when is being better an unfair advantage? Blizzard them selfs commented that its ok and Jeff himself has at lest 6 accounts that he payâd for.
Remember what Jeffâs definition of a smurf is:
That defines basically every smurf but if you read the following text, you know what kind of smurfs heâs talking about:
âMMRâs were equalâ⌠That means heâs talking about smurfs who still play as well as with their main account.
He is not talking about smurfs who ranked down on purpose. Heâs talking about smurfs who just start new.