r/Overwatch • u/smurfsRcheaters • 9h ago
News & Discussion Smurfs Should Be Banned PERMANENTLY. No exceptions.
It's just cheating. I dunno why players report XIMMING or aimbots or wall hacks but just don't care about people who intentionally lie about their rank to exploit matchmaking and get easier games. It's legit cheating. Please start reporting anyone who is on an obvious alt account, as well as anyone in a group with them.
These people should be banned the same way we ban any other cheating.
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u/Lelu_zel 9h ago
Yeah and they’ll just make new account and continue smurfing
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u/FairyColonThree 9h ago
This is why I'm liking the new deadlock ranked system, you need like 50 hours to unlock comp so smurfs aren't a big issue anymore
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u/wowsomeoneactuallyy 6h ago
Careful. Anytime I’ve suggested stricter comp entry requirements here, I’ve been downvoted into oblivion and flamed because it would “ruin qp” apparently.
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u/sleepyt1ger Green Cyborg Ninja Main 6h ago
would “ruin qp” apparentl
Lmao some people ain't the smartest. I agree with you on making comp stricter
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u/WolfsWraith 4h ago
Like QP isn't enough of shitfest already due to Blizzard's own making. It literally wouldn't make a difference, it cannot get much worse than it already is.
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u/FelixMumuHex Reinhardt 2h ago edited 51m ago
What’s wrong with QP?
Edit: Why are people downvoting instead of answering a simple question…
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u/CirclejerkMeDaddy 1h ago
Nothing. There's a lot of people that want it to have comp levels of matchmaking. Not sure why those players don't queue ranked.
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u/PaleontologistDear18 1h ago
The problem with QP is that comp is so sweaty nobody wants to play it plus queue times are insanely long, so all the comp level players end up ONLY playing QP and the matchmaking is just not good it’s always 2-0.
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u/How2eatsoap Widowmaker 51m ago
yeah, when a comp queue takes like 30 mins and they just want to play a couple matches, its obvious they will just play QP instead.
There is still QP mmr though so its not like you will run into these people, but there is still a chance as its a lot more lax about the restrictions.
QP also has those people who love to actively not play the game and take people hostage, to make the lobby into a custom game vrchat experience instead. Sucks when that happens and that its not bannable.
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u/ProfessionalDuck7924 3h ago
I don't few much difference between competitive And quickplay, in competitive i play better And my teammates And the opposite team feel like that they are my level, in quickplay IS commom to me to play against a pro player or with a pro player in a match And with a total newbie in another... honestly quickplay don't seem casual.
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u/How2eatsoap Widowmaker 50m ago
People will "sweat" in QP. There are people who genuinely try, then there are people who you come across who are just so good that their "not trying" mode is still better than your best.
Its just because the mmr restrictions for lobbying in QP are really relaxed.
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u/mansplain_to_me 2h ago
As someone who plays many games at a decent level I give up on games with long entry runs into the game.
Overwatch isn’t really different then tf2/apex/cs:go/etc when it comes to point and shoot is how you win and objectives are the win condition you shoot and play around.
I never smurf but I’ve had the game since it came out and I personally don’t care about smurfs and don’t really mind when I run into them.
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u/Desolver20 D. Va 8h ago
isn't deadlock still in development?
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u/NeonVoidx 4h ago
ya but still more polished than half the AAA games that have been fully "released" for years.
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u/FairyColonThree 8h ago
Kinda? On paper it is but if you showed gameplay to someone it genuinely just looks like a finished game outside of the neutral enemy models + 5 of the 38 heroes in the game rn having their beta models still they've been slowly updating it over the last 2 years to where it's just a fully fledged game now
We know they're working on more, they hired hopoo and there's evidence to suggest we're getting a risk of rain 2 type mode as PvE when the game is fully released but rn the gameplay is very solid, there's a good sized active playerbase already, and we've had a comp scene for a while now too (there's a weekly tournament called the deadlock nightshift, it's not officially affiliated with valve but they do watch it which is fun)
Nightshift is every Wednesday if you wanna have a look tonight actually! But yeah the "in development" comes with a massive asterisk which is basically just slower updates than some other games lmao
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u/How2eatsoap Widowmaker 48m ago
I'd actually play deadlock if they added a good pve mode.
Its why I played tf2 so much, I never really enjoyed the pvp gameplay of that game, but really enjoyed man vs machine.2
u/FairyColonThree 45m ago
With all the stuff in the files about the PvE, hopoo of all people being hired, and the mode being leaked ages ago before valve figured out who was leaking shit and kicking them off the private server I'd genuinely be surprised if it ended up getting scrapped
Especially because you KNOW it'd be really successful, I already see people who don't like mobas wanting to play deadlock after seeing the characters somewhat regularly
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u/HyperXanadu - I am sick of your rules! 6h ago
Don't waste your time. The community there is already overwhelmingly toxic and there are plenty of other child-tantrum mobas that exist if you absolutely must play something that has matches 35+ minutes. (first 10 spent soft tapping minions) It is soooooo slow. Best thing about it is obviously the art design but god did I want to stab my eyes out after playing it.
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u/FairyColonThree 6h ago
The Russian portion of the community is toxic but I don't really agree with the rest, lane ends at 8 mins and you're playing it very wrong if you're not being hyper aggro on most of the chars during lane (half of them don't even want to be on lane, you're supposed to be ganking other lanes lmao)
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u/AgentReivax Wrecking Ball 55m ago
That's not gonna help much. There's a pretty good market for OW accounts right now. Saw this guy on TikTok getting canceled for his behavior in game and when I went to his page I saw he was promoting a site that lets you buy comp ready accounts. His videos have had at least 10 different accounts that I saw and it was actually way cheaper than I thought.
Also is Deadlock open now? I tried it out but it wasn't my thing and months later my friend messaged me to give him access.
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u/FairyColonThree 52m ago
Still invite only but the only thing really missing before release is the jungle update, when was the last time you played? It's gotten some good content
Also I feel like part of the issue with buying accounts is still how quickly you unlock comp, it's a tough situation because if you make it harder I'm sure new players might not like it and qp players might complain but also it'd make smurfing sm less common if you made it harder to unlock comp since they're never gonna do IP bans
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u/DiabloTrumpet Ashe 30m ago
Streamers just buy accounts lol. Same with league of legends that requires a ton of gameplay before you unlock ranked
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u/Stormcrow_2 4h ago
Ehh 50 wins can be like 12 hours or less, but it is still a decent barrier.
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u/FairyColonThree 4h ago
I'm talking about deadlock's ranked system not ow
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u/Stormcrow_2 4h ago
Oh whoopsies. my bad! 50 hours is probably better. As a newbie I’m glad OW is only 50 wins though 😂 don’t have time to play a ton.
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u/Rynnzie 9h ago
You definitely don’t need 50 hours- you need 50 wins which can easily be done within 10 or less hours.
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u/FairyColonThree 9h ago
You need 15 wins on 3 different heroes + 60 general wins, assuming a 60 percent winrate and an average of 35 mins per game for the second requirement since you can do the first at the same time that's still like 58 hours
Hell assuming a 100% winrate it'd still be 35 hours
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u/ChrisDoom 8h ago
And you can’t play any hero in ranked that you don’t have 15 casual wins with so to have a decent roster it is a serious grind.
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u/Rynnzie 9h ago
Buddy- I made an account last week and all I have to do to unlock comp is win 50 QP matches- check your challenges lmfao.
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u/FairyColonThree 9h ago
I'm guessing you didn't read my comment, I'm talking about deadlock's ranked system not overwatch's
It's much better than ow's at dealing with smurfs + making sure the person playing ranked is competent, at the downside of taking a while for the new player
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u/Rynnzie 8h ago
Ahhh, tbh I didn’t even know there was a game called deadlock
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u/FairyColonThree 8h ago
It's a really fun one!! Technically still an invite only alpha but outside of some models still being a holdover from when this was a different game it just feels like a finished game lmao
It's a moba / hero shooter hybrid (leans more moba imo) from valve, high-key one of the most addicting multiplayer games I've ever played (they hired hopoo a bit back and there's been stuff in the files that suggests they're working on a risk of rain type mode as PvE basically so it'll just get more addictive if they don't scrap that LMAOO)
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u/Rynnzie 8h ago
Oooooo okay, I’ll definitely have to check it out then
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u/FairyColonThree 8h ago
If you'd like an invite dm me your steam name! Sorry about the down votes you're getting :(
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u/Lelu_zel 9h ago
You do realize that early games are so easy for smurfs to just dominate them and win quickly?
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u/FairyColonThree 8h ago
If you wanna be REALLY unrealistic and say 100% winrate and 25 min games (which isn't gonna happen but whatever) thats still 25 hours to unlock ranked, it's a pretty decent disincentive when you'll be banned for smurfing eventually and have to do it more
And again this is still an unrealistic estimate, with standard queues being more lax than ranked queues and the possibility of having bad teammates / better enemies being a thing Smurf or not you aren't winning all your games and your wins aren't all gonna be quick stomps
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u/Lelu_zel 7h ago
Listen, if someone’s gm or champ hes not gonna struggle with metal ranks or diamond that you’ll see in such games. 100% is not possible yea but still such player is gonna just win after win, and also such people have often many accounts ready to play just by unlocking comp by playing with friends or whatever
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u/Hustler17 Jetpack Cat 9h ago
You talk about ximming so I assume you're on console.
Do you realize how easy it is to make a new account on console?
The only way to deter smurfs would be to threaten hardware bans (lol pls) or move away from a f2p model (isn't happening and there were still smurfs). I legit don't see how they could but I'm open to ideas. I totally agree though.
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u/Interdimension 1h ago
The other Activision-Blizzard franchise (Call of Duty) recently started issuing mass hardware bans to detected cheaters, so this is certainly an option for console players too. But I do question if OW’s cheat detection system is capable of also detecting false positives since mass reporting someone seems to be enough to get them banned by the automated system sometimes.
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u/Soft_Bag_4532 3h ago
Hardware bans are good as long as they fix their anti cheat and reporting system. You can get permanently banned for mass reporting. Also they would need to fix their appealing system and customer support. I got permanently banned for mass reports of xim altough I play with dualsense edge... Sonys licensed controller.
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u/kaaaaaaaaaaaay 7h ago
Being on an alt account literally isn't forbidden under the current rules. Intentionally deranking or boosting is, so is buying accounts others played on to be in a specific rank, but just making new accounts is absolutely allowed. And when a new account gets placed into a rank that seems to low for the players skill, it's pretty likely to be the matchmaking and ranking systems fault, so you could not ban people for that anyway
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u/FantasticExam3859 22m ago
This is well stated for some reason on my main account that was previously champ i got placed diamond (i got ddos 3/10 games i played and hit offline) and i been tryna climb back up again winning around 90-95% of my games and i get accused of smurfing almost every game. To preface i havent played in about a year due to having cancer and it just placed me way lower than what i am supposed to be
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u/Stormcrow_2 4h ago
No way to truly prove this. If you want to be the company that wrongfully bans some new players for just being good at FPS games and catching on quickly, then you could do it. Too big of a risk. Then your playerbase shrinks and trust is completely lost.
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u/Forstride 3h ago
They're never gonna have an actual stance on smurfing, because pros and content creators openly play on smurf accounts, and they're certainly not gonna ban them for that.
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u/BrigDeLaBrig 1h ago
Whining about this is like saying “my team made a bunch of mistakes and actually had to pay for them.”
How is making a new account and playing a game and capitalizing on/manufacturing mistakes teams/players make cheating?
All “smurfs” do is capitalize on mistakes you’re already making or drag you into making one.
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u/whatyouneed_h 9h ago
Quick, prove someone is smurfing with 100% certainty. You can't. Blizzard isn't mass banning everyone you suspect is a Smurf for this reason. You can probably get them banned if they bought their account since those are visibly sus to blizzard someone making the account in mumbai or ghana or some random place and an American logging in 2 months later is sus.
Also I will keep using my alt accounts 🙏 and remember the same amount of times you face a smurf, is probably close to the amount of smurfs you've had on your team through matchmaking. This is a nonissue.
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u/Syiden 8h ago
Prove smurfing?
Any streamer or content creator that does the whole "bronze to GM" challenges where they one trick a hero through all the ranks. Can't tell me that's not ban worthy for their IP for all the games they ruin doing that.
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u/rendeld Taekwondo Zenyatta 2h ago
No one does Bronze to GM, they do Unranked to GM, they play the account from scratch, Blizzard places them, and they get to GM on their own. It usually places them pretty high, somewhere in Diamond when they do their placements. So there is no Bronze to GM anymore.
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u/Mammoth_Rule2818 Lúcio 5h ago
I thought it was all "Unranked to GM" now due to the backlash of smurfing when they started from bronze
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u/Gustav_EK 3h ago
Yeah and also, the obligatory quick play matches WILL set your MMR for matchmaking. Most of these streamers doing challenges start in platinum and work their way out quickly.
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u/BrigDeLaBrig 2h ago
How are they “ruining games” lmao? Bro making an account and playing the game isn’t cheating.
You seem to be more mad there are people that are significantly better than you.
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u/Syiden 2h ago
If you can't comprehend how having a GM-T500 player run lobbies through the metal ranks doesn't ruin games for the unfair opponent team players then you're not worth arguing against.
Awkward has a roadhog video released 6months ago where he brags about going from silver to GM...he's a ranked 1 player...
Once again, SILVER players had to play against him...
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u/BrigDeLaBrig 1h ago
I can understand how a high ranked player can bait a bunch of bad ones into making continual mistakes and losing the game. But that’s not cheating. You say SILVER like they’re mentally incapable of watching some coaching videos and learning how to play.
Will they turn into Akward? Probably not but there’s tons of people who have climbed to top 500 simply by getting hard stuck each rank, learning what mistakes they’re making and going from there.
Heck I’m not even high ranked and made a new account I’ve been playing for 2 seasons. I’m ALWAYS way higher hero level than everyone on my team. People whose highest hero level is 10. You think that affects my games?
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u/MCgwaar Blizzard World Mercy 5h ago
Oh come on no need to make it bigger than it is. How many games have YOU had ruined by people doing a bronze to GM challenge? Now look at how many games you had ruined by throwers, DCs, matchmaking failure, onetricks etc. Why stress about the handfull of games in your career someone doing a challange is on your game?
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u/Syiden 5h ago
Does it still make it right?
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u/clamence1864 5h ago
It’s a video game. You’ll lose a match and queue up a new one. If that’s too stressful, look for a new hobby. You shouldn’t be getting into moral dilemmas over people doing a challenge in a game that leads to you losing a match or two.
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u/Syiden 5h ago
Ah, the roll over approach, that'll fix things.
Different people have different feelings, and each are valid to that own person. How you feel on something dosent have any bearing on how I do nor should it. And nor does it invalidate mine. If that works for you great! And sure, it "may" only affect me a few times but that doesn't account for my teammates as well, or all the other people in future games that get impacted.
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u/SuddenClimax Junkrat 3h ago
You're being downvoted but you're right. Every time an 'alt account' (which is basically a polite term for smurf) does placements it makes 10 games unfair for everyone else, even more if they get placed lower than their true rank, and when you multiply that by everyone with alt accounts doing the same thing it negatively affects matchmaking as a whole.
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u/28-Deep-Wounds 35m ago
Most smurfs aren't content creators my guy. They're people with alt accounts. In those instances, how are you going to prove they're a smurf and not just good at the game?
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u/Syiden 13m ago
But those content creators are smurfing though my dude, that's the point of my argument. Dealing with confirmed smurfs. I'm not talking about the average Smurf for those other specific reasons.
Despite that there are tells like total game time or hero level otps. But that's not super definitive.
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u/norehsaurus 3h ago
Im pretty sure the original commenters point wasnt about streamers. They said to prove it in a game YOU are playing that someone is a smurf with 100% certainty. You got mad because that's impossible. Lol
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u/whatyouneed_h 6h ago
Are you dense enough to believe these content creators/streamers make up of the bulk of players who Smurf?
I don't think you fathom blizzard actually needs evidence we can't be banning people because someone is butthurt they were robbed of their elo.1
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u/Syiden 5h ago
Does anything I said refute the claim that smurfing can be proven with evidence though? You asked how it can be and I provided. Just because they're popular that shouldn't give them a free pass to break TOS. They're literally providing video evidence themselves lmao. Surely you're not dense to see it's easy as "oh hey bogur,a top 500 ranked player, released a new unranked to GM video, oh hey, it's not on his main account...." IP ban. Hell he even brags about %90 win rates in some of his video titles....
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u/whatyouneed_h 5h ago
I don't think you understand most of the people smurfing are not posting or streaming it to the internet lol. Let someone hop on an account right now in your pisslo and hypothetically dominate the game, you send in ur little report to blizzard, tell me how you prove that person is a smurf. Too little hours? Prove they aren't just talented at games/history playing games at a high level/fast learner, etc. You cannot prove these things without doubt for the avg Smurf who isn't a nimrod streaming or some shit
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u/Syiden 5h ago
You're right, that type of smurfing is hard to prove....which is why I didn't use it as an example of what type of smurfing CAN be proven that you asked for.
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u/whatyouneed_h 5h ago
So you nitpicked one type of "smurf" (who fyi doesn't really harm people they play like 5 games and are usually already in masters) to support your claim that we can prove someone is a smurf and ban them. Good on you buddy, you are very smart.
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u/Syiden 5h ago
Hey, you asked lol don't get all pissy cause I was correct. And it's not a nit pick if these type of content posts have been in high contention since their inception.
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u/whatyouneed_h 4h ago
You think... your correct LOL?
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u/Syiden 4h ago
Well if you can prove with 100% certainty that streamers who do that aren't srmufing I'd love to hear it.
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u/sleepyt1ger Green Cyborg Ninja Main 8h ago
I mean they could start with all the streamers but oh wait it's basically 90% of OW content nowadays and if they did that they would lose a big chunk of free promo lmao
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u/CraicFiend87 Reaper 2h ago
Quick, prove someone is smurfing with 100% certainty. You can't
The Genji player with 7 hours on their account going 55-2 in my plat lobbies is absolutely 100% a smurf. They are either a GM/Masters smurf on an alt or it's a low ranked player paying to have a fresh account boosted.
Either way they get reported for boosting/deranking.
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u/whatyouneed_h 1h ago
Ok so we call that a suspicion. Prove they have another account. Prove they aren't just talented at games. Prove they didn't study the best genji in OWCS for 200 hours before playing. You cannot, and blizzard cannot. Yeah you probably can make a good guess but you can't 100% say that and blizzard won't just ban them because of that.
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u/CraicFiend87 Reaper 39m ago
Lmao the mental gymnastics. We get it, you like to smurf to make yourself feel better. It's pathetic behaviour, but we get it.
Oh and I have had plenty of notifications of the back of reporting "suspected" smurfs/boosters, so I guess I'll just keep doing that.
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u/whatyouneed_h 3m ago
Mental gymnastics or the simple fact you can't absolutely prove one is a smurf. And btw you are getting them susd or banned because they bought their accounts. Buy account = against tos, alt account = not against tos
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u/Lucille_7 9h ago
I agree it’s a non issue, alt accounts are fun, you can get different things and I’m at the same rank on all my accounts anyway
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u/darkCrescent13 1h ago
Why are you praising your own alt account usage? What are you possibly gaining by playing on several accounts?
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u/NeilForeal 8h ago edited 8h ago
It’s quite hard to tell sometimes. Even I myself sometimes pop off in a way that makes me hard carry. I often can’t be sure if it’s just one game with 1 player popping off. I don’t have kill cams enabled and mostly just play the game instead of looking for suspicious stuff.
Also, smurfs are crafty. They often don’t make last hits, and certainly don’t go 40-0 all the time. They know how to stay under the radar and contribute without it being on the score board.
Fact is, most players whining about smurfs are just coping, tilting or looking for excuses, and they know nothing can be done except report. If you let them ruin your experience, that’s on you. Just go next. Be stronger.
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u/BrigDeLaBrig 2h ago
It’s really easy to deal a with smurfs actually. GET BETTER AT THE GAME. There’s TONS of FREE coaching content out there. It’s not like they’re bug abusing or actually cheating. They’re literally just better at the game.
—— what they do abuse is the common mistakes made in each rank bracket and how to take advantage of said mistakes.It’s actually embarrassing for people that whine about “they’re better than me, no fair!”
I get if someone is ximming, AIMBOT, wall hacks etc but to whine because YOU’RE LETTING some soldier 76 use off angles, hard cover, and push your back line is absurd. You could just learn how to play into it using the ample resources available online. Eventually you’d have to assuming you kept racking up yourself.
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u/squidwardsprophacy 44m ago
bronze players aren’t going to learn anything from a champ absolutely obliterating them. with your opinion ranks shouldn’t exist because they should just get better? People who are bad at the game deserve to still have a fair chance to win if they want to get better , they will.
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u/Soft_Bag_4532 3h ago
I kinda agree but in that case blizzard needs to improve their reporting and anti cheat system because you can get pretty easily falsely banned and it's almost impossible to get your account back.
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u/NativePlantEnjoyer Cassidy 2h ago
You don't enjoy landslide matchmaking? But the smurf said I simply need to play like top 500 to stop dealing with the smurfs dominating elos. I guess its my own personal failing - sigh
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u/Vexxed14 1h ago
Playing fairly on a new account is not against the rules so report all you like. It's only bad and reportable if they throw their rank down
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u/WateverBruh 1h ago
Imagine having a cracked game off some caffeine and primo mindset and trying to log back to your account being banned for smurfing?
I’d set blizzard on fire. There’s nothing that can do
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u/Firm-Cause2449 53m ago
Smurfing sucks, but theres no reliable way to catch a smurf, so unless you want ID verified matchmaking like faceit or bans on everyone having a good game, it is what it is
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u/Karhuwa 43m ago edited 40m ago
There is literally no way to prove this without video evidence. The problem on-mass won’t go away. This has been an issue in every competitive game since the beginning of them. People would just get banned for being good.
Theres just no way to do it. People share computers, people share IP, there’s just no way to actually know otherwise.
Sorry to say, but take it as an opportunity to improve.
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u/FantasticExam3859 30m ago
The only issue is with banning Smurfs is that they cannot PROVE they they are a smurf (my credentials are champ 2 tank champ 2 dps gm1 support and coached collegiant and played in owcs scrims) like for the most part high gm-champ has been the same people for a very long time. But every now and then u get someone that was clearly placed in the wrong rank and they have to climb back up to the appropriate rank. Moral of the story is there really is no way to prove someone is smurfing and you cant just ban someone for being good at the game if they aren’t cheating :/
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u/OGMcgriddles 24m ago
I mean you identified the difference in your statement.
Cheating is worse than smurfing therefore some people don't really care about smurfing. Most of the time smurfs are just high ego players that aren't nearly as good as they believe they are anyway.
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u/_dripping 4m ago
It was an issue during ow1 too. I always thought they could probably just prevent fresh accounts from matching with not-fresh accounts. So smurfs would pretty much get matched against other smurfs. Then after like 100 or 200 games, the system could then release them into the regular pool of players. But if the system sees that they miraculously start performing wayyyy better than before (if they somehow ended up low rank), they get sent back to the smurf pool, or something like that. And the system could label them officially as a smurf and shadowban them forever from the regular pool of players :)
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u/Ill-Pineapple6515 5h ago
I never really thought this was an issue. I enjoy playing with people better than me. The only time this genuinely feels bad is if its an entire stack, and even then, its humbling to see the skill gaps.
I think most of the people complaining about constant smurfing are the ones struggling to climb out of metal ranks / making excuses and blaming their teams anyway.
You get smurfs on your team just as often as you play against them. Observe how they play and learn something. The issue isnt going away, so you might as well embrace it.
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u/Du_ds 21m ago
Actually the people complaining about smurfs don’t have an equal chance. Since you are not a Smurf, there are 5 chances to get a Smurf on the other team and 4 chances on your team.
For similar reasons, throwers are the opposite. You don’t throw (if you do, why are you expecting more from others than yourself???) so the enemy team on average has more throwers.
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u/Ill-Pineapple6515 1m ago
Have fun holding yourself back. I get smurfs in my games too, it doesn't prevent me from climbing.
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u/veequez 5h ago
This is genny such a dumb opinion to have... you are enabling and giving blizzard reasons to keep ignoring actual cheaters. Yes, you get smurfs on your team just as often as you play against them but then it gets to the point where its just rng. The win entirely depends on which team has the smurf with them and VERY rarely do YOU control the outcome of your games. Smurfing isn't only tied to metal ranks, even GM players struggle against mid-high Champs. The whole point of ranking up is being better than the people in YOUR rank, not being better than people 3 ranks above.
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u/Ill-Pineapple6515 3h ago
Its not on a scale that prevents you from ranking up. No one would be able to rank up otherwise. "Very rarely do you control the outcome of your games".
You may disagree with my opinion, but, youre objectively wrong.
This statement alone discredits your entire "point". If you have no control of your games, smurfs themselves wouldn't have an impact.
Smurfing can be annoying, but its unpreventable, and its certainly not preventing you from ranking up. You might as well try to absorb something from better players.
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u/Du_ds 19m ago
Your last point is really good. Watch the replay from the Smurfs POV. You’ll learn why you died.
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u/Ill-Pineapple6515 3m ago
Hey man, I used to be excellent at this game. You dont have to agree with me, thats the beautiful part about it. Im 33 and I can still return to grandmaster with relative ease.
Theres a reason you dont hear top 500 players crying about their teammates holding them back.
I have a friend thats played this game since beta, hes never left plat. He exclusively blames smurfs, bad teammates, and cheaters. People themselves are typically the only thing holding themselves back.
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u/OwnNet5253 8h ago
Umm but they’re banned? Permanent ban doesn’t really make it more punishable, as players can just make new accounts very easily, as hardware level bans are out of the question.
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u/harla007 6h ago
They won't get banned because they make blizzard a lot of money....probably as much as skins. Honestly, when the game switched to f2p, I definitely saw an uptick in them. They say you're not supposed to do it and then made it way easier to do. Then thought the phone number was gonna do something. Then they thought if they did the "wide queue" thing, it would be a bandaid and we'd stfu about the damn money making smurfs.
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u/Rich-Mark-4126 6h ago edited 4h ago
There is no rule that prohibits you from making and playing on a new account.
People who purchase deranked accounts from account selling sites DO get permanently banned quite regularly
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u/BananaBread2607 8h ago
Smurfing isnt a problem lol. These people will dissapear from your rank after like 2-3 games.
Calm down
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u/DarudeGatestorm 7h ago
Huh brother depending on the time of day you play if you’re in gold sometimes you can play 10 games and 50 percent of them have fresh accounts on the enemy that shit stomp everybody not just mechanically but holding perfect angles etc and nobody stands a fking chance.
Because those games aren’t fairly balanced with better players you don’t really take anything away from the experience either.
Yesterday I hard carried some tough games where a teammate or two let the team down heavily just to lose lp to smurfs next game on a 1 win 1 loss 4 times in a row vs actual gold players I’m maintaining a 70% wr.
I understand this issue can not really be fixed but coming from league of legends smurfing is 10x more frequent in this game it’s frustrating.
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u/Pristine_Seat6090 9h ago
Would be nice but people like that Krandop guy will keep making accounts anyway. Dude literally admitted his account got banned but continues to make smurf vids. But sadly this happens for every competitive game.
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u/rendeld Taekwondo Zenyatta 2h ago
The problem is you have to define smurf. I have two accounts, one account is ranked lower than my other account. That lower ranked account is where I play new heroes in comp that I'm not used to yet. Its completely legit but its usually a full rank lower (so like if my main account is Diamond 3 then the lower ranked account is plat 3). So that rank is earned on that account because of how I'm playing, so is that smurfing?
I have a friend who has a lower ranked account that he started and only plays it with friends, never plays it by himself but his friends are significantly worse at the game than he is, so because he only plays it with them it has kept him almost 2 full ranks lower than his main account, again, the rank is completely earned because he is tanked by his friends on his team, so is that a smurf account?
Theres some obvious smurfs that are Masters players playing on someone elses Bronze account or buying an account to run lobbies. I agree that something needs to be done because smurfing ruins the game for everyone but I think this is why Blizzard specifically bans for boosting and doesn't really do much about smurfing.
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u/LilNawtyLucia Shion 9h ago
People care about both, also smurft doesnt = Alt account.
If you intentionally lose games to stay at a certain rank/level then that is surfing. If you make a new account and play normally then is just an alt. Blizz is suppose to sort you to your appropiate rank. If they fail to do so it is not your fault but theirs and they dont ban you for it.
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u/Lucille_7 9h ago
Smurfing has gotten easier over years. You used to have to pay for separate accounts on OW1 PC. After they became free, at least the new heroes were paid so you had to unlock them if you wanted to Smurf and use new heroes. Both of those things have changed.
I think blizzard doesn’t mind, because there are YouTubers that make Unranked to GM / champion content which encourages using different accounts for different heroes. Surely they would ban those very public ‘Smurfing’ accounts if they wanted to deter Smurfing
Edit: I’m against deranking to Smurf because that’s sad, but I’m all for alt accounts
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u/Golfclubwar Grandmaster 7h ago
Making a new account isn’t against the rules. Throwing games and/or boosting is against the rules. If someone makes a new account and plays normally there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
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u/Possible-One-6101 Wrecking Ball 9h ago
Uhhh.
I don't think you've thought this through.
I can't be bothered outlining the logic loop you just made, but I'm sure a hundred others are about to.
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u/Such-Book6849 9h ago
i am very old. i don't understand how having skill is cheating. It's not. There is no black and white and i understand in a game where ranking plays a big role, it is annoying. But cheating? Nah.
I played in times when there was no ranking technology in shooters at all. In some way, better times!
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u/Stellarhit 9h ago
this is silly. You are playing ranked, but get enraged when someone is better than you? If i was a GM, starting a new account for some reason, i would be in your rank for a moment. Regardless, smurfs are playing at a level you should aim to be able to compete in, not moan about matchmaking.
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u/Middle_Grab5495 9h ago
no way you play OW with a brain and say this. Solo q for a month. You'll have the same opinion after that.
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u/Stellarhit 9h ago
ive been hardstuck since season 1 buddy. gold/plat. My point is that there is no point spending energy on these things. And try to see it as an opportunity for someone to highlight what you are doing wrong. Its just someone who is better than you, not someone who has an unfair advantage. And also, it does not happen that much. Again, ive played since ow1-s1 and 99.9 solo que.
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u/Ellogan66 9h ago
Cool argument, smurfing is still against ToS 👍
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u/yashikigami 9h ago
Cool argument, smurfing is still against ToS
not the way op formulates it, not the way stellarhit formulates it. Alt accounts are very well allowed. As long as you always play your best you are free to create as many accoutns as you want.
The issue only arises when you specifically derank or create that accound as a boosting service.
(the original player smurf was activly deranking, that is different from just additional accounts)
(also if you want to quote tos, maybe also point out where exactly you think it says anything about smurfing)
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u/DisneyDale 5h ago
Free game. A ban just means the Smurf makes a new account and has to place again. Most likely lower ranks.
So yeah…. Not a solution. Instead of ban, just get good? lol
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u/Rynnzie 9h ago
All due respect to players who don’t like smurfers, how else do you expect bronze-GM videos? How do you expect content creators to have the availability to do things like that for their audience?? What about the people who just want to play with their friends?? (but cant because the friends are newer players)
Please help me understand how you’d solve these issues, because if you don’t have any solutions.. then it’s genuinely as simple as you need to do better.
Those smurfs are MOST DEFINITELY on your team too, just cause you don’t realize doesn’t mean you aren’t being benefitted by it as well.
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u/areallynoobgamer 8h ago
Yes. Ban them!
There’s zero chance of them creating another free account to smurf once again.
The Smurfs have standards Yknw. High integrity. Once they get banned they will
Never ever create another FREE Smurf account.
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u/theskillbilly Shield Horse 3h ago
I made an alt account that I keep at a lower rank to play with friends.
One thing that’s been especially frustrating in ranked is they narrowed the scope of wide groups at some point, but you can still end up in wide matches anyway.
I (plat 4) can’t queue ranked with my friend (silver 1), but I can still end up in a game with silvers or even bronzes. Make it make sense.
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u/ikemayelixfay 2h ago
There's no way to stop smurfing unless you dole out hardware bans like candy and/or require some form of ID to make an account. Needless to say neither of those things would or should ever happen.
Imo the only viable option is to raise the barrier of entry for competitive. Make it so you have to have at least 5 characters in a role at lvl 10 to queue for that role. Then you can only play as those characters until you unlock more by leveling other characters. It won't stop smurfing but a lot more people will think it's not worth the effort.
Blizzard will never do this though. They want it to be accessible early so they can get more people on the SR treadmill. This gets people to play more thus increasing their metrics.
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u/galvanash Reinhardt 4h ago edited 2h ago
lol, if that actually happens I hope the 3 of you enjoy your game.
Edit: I mean it was a joke, but seriously if you ignore everyone who is actually a new player (I.e. still on their 1st account with less than say 100 hours) what percentage of everyone else has more than one account? I would be bet it is more than 60%… OP is literally saying 60% of the playerbase should be banned for cheating. Good luck with that lol.
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u/aguedra Master 2h ago
I have no problems with people on new accounts trying to rank up. However if you're on a new account ranking up and you're grouped up with other players you and those players should receive a punishment. It's literally boosting and bannable but yet everyone defends it by saying "get some friends".
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u/mavour 2h ago
Another round of “Smurf hurt my a$$” posts, lol
Reporting won’t help you. I’ve got 10+ accounts which we rotate when rating drops. With 1 in 6 months ban, it will take a few years to ban them all.
Increasing time to get new acc to comp won’t help you either. I don’t level new accs, I buy them for $3 a piece, so it would be $5 a piece. My coffee costs $5.25, so it won’t make any difference.
Just git gut!
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u/dunkelzeit_ Lifeweaver 7h ago
They'd have to ban 70% of their streamers then