So I started leveling my smurf, and I have to say that I early levels are hell.

Bârd·Mar 31, 2016·124 votes·15,405 views

With the new player experience we have, I don't know how this game keeps attracting new players.

Early levels are easily more tilting than solo queue.

Smurfs everywhere, being toxic as shit to the new players.

Differences of a couple levels losing games entirely (enemy team has flash/smite and your team does not).

Masteries don't feel good (Oh I leveled up! +0.4% lifesteal and spell vamp for me! WOOOHOOO).

The beginners hextech crafting chests are a joke. I hope I just got unlucky, but I got and champion shards. If that is bad luck, so be it, but if you coded it to happen like that for beginners, that is just annoying as shit.

Ok, so what can we do here, as a player?

I am here to tell you people who are currently playing on low level accounts to STOP BEING A DICK.

Your doesn't have 9 stacks at 20 minutes because he is trolling, he DOESN'T UNDERSTAND NASUS (or cs) YET. You don't need to scream that he needs to go die in a fire.

That is not "Troll pick", he is trying out a fucking video game character.

Yes, just lost lane to . No, he does not deserve to get cancer.

89 Comments

qetzelMar 31, 201620 votes

After a few games (I think it is 3?) pretty much every smurf has been detected and filtered out of the newbie pile. That is why levelling your smurf is hell. After the first couple of games you are basically only against smurfs.

Spacesuit SpiffMar 31, 201614 votes

And smurf is being generous. Many are very clearly banned bronze/silvers

SeekerofSilenceApr 1, 20161 votes

Which is why I laugh when people I meet on my level 20 smurf claim to be "new players". They clearly f'in aren't.

Need Gold 4 TentApr 1, 20161 votes

naw. smurfs don't claim to be new players, they're all diamond mains.

SeekerofSilenceApr 1, 20161 votes

I've only encountered one person who claimed to be diamond smurf, but I've met many who claim to be new. It kinda is the new trend I guess, try to make other smurfs feel bad about themselves. "I'm new but I managed to beat a smurf, hah!"

Need Gold 4 TentApr 1, 20161 votes

That's your experience maybe. In mine, it's more often "Gimme mid coz I iz diamond lee sin i carry ur assez" and proceeds to feed and blame everyone else for not being on his level.

I can see the reasoning for claiming to be new though.

SeekerofSilenceApr 1, 20161 votes

EU and NA smurfs seem to differ, apparently... Interesting. d:

DeloricVIMar 31, 201614 votes

Yeah, I've been saying this for years, but I only get downvoted into oblivion. I swear to god, people would stop quitting league early if Riot would make smurfing a bannable offense and let everyone know what a smurf is. Put it in the tutorial, and get these people banned. These kids ain't gonna learn shit if they get their face kicked in before they can actually play the game.

Privileged JewMar 31, 20163 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, I've been saying this for years, but I only get downvoted into oblivion. I swear to god, people would stop quitting league early if Riot would make smurfing a bannable offense and let everyone know what a smurf is. Put it in the tutorial, and get these people banned. These kids ain't gonna learn shit if they get their face kicked in before they can actually play the game.

I would go so far as to say that smurfing in ranked is as toxic to the game as smurfing pre-30. No one likes having to deal with a diamond player on the enemy team in their silver match. The enemy team also doesn't really benefit because they're not actually learning anything by getting carried.

DeloricVIMar 31, 20167 votes

Ugh, I know, right? Let me report this s%%%%%%ing smart-ass Graves jungle that, after ending my 5-0 streak top as Sion and nearly single-handedly taking out my entire mid lane's towers and inhib only to admit that he's actually platinum. I'm in bronze 5, and I swear to god, every time I do well, someone straight up admits to smurfing as they crush my hopes and dreams before my very eyes.

Rito, please. Stop letting these people crush my dreams.

And besides, what am I going to report him for now? Being better than me at the game? As far as Riot is concerned, that's how it should go. You should have lost. The enemy was better than you. There's nothing we can do about that.

edit: Really riot? I can't say the actual english word sni-gger-ing? A verb meaning, to laugh in a vaguely patronizing and insulting way?

3ofGot40veMar 31, 20166 votes

Anyone else always think of Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter when you hear the word Snig.gering?

DeloricVIMar 31, 20162 votes

Not going to lie, that was sort of the image I was going for. Smug, self-satisfied, and with an oh-so-punchable face.

3ofGot40veMar 31, 20165 votes

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/topic_images/p192jqb5oq1npgiq5be11sgt70u3.jpg

oh so punchable.

SSJTribeMar 31, 201613 votes

http://rs291.pbsrc.com/albums/ll291/tsdrama/Gifs/HermionepunchingDraco.gif~c200

3ofGot40veMar 31, 20164 votes

Glad it is an endless loop. I hope he feels every single one.

DarktoonzApr 1, 20162 votes

I've been watching for hours.

MegaLobunnyMar 31, 20164 votes

Probably because it's spelled snickering

SwagathaChristieMar 31, 20164 votes

No it isn't you god damn pleb. Snig-gering is an actual world. Learn to google before making an ass out of yourself. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/s%%%%%%

TallyZrgMar 31, 20162 votes

Both words have the same meaning actually so they are interchangeable.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snicker http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snig-ger (take out hyphen if you want to go to the webpage)

I also love how on that website a couple of scrolls down under "definition of snig-ger" it is just a link pointing to "snicker". So much for googling I guess. :)

SwagathaChristieMar 31, 20163 votes

Yes, which means that snig.gering is an actual word as it is in the dictionary. His post implied that it isn't a word and I corrected him. Looks like google worked when you did it.

3ofGot40veMar 31, 20163 votes

Snig.ger and snicker are 2 different things. Although they are both kinda associated with laughing, Snickering is more cheerful while snig.gering is kinda dark

agbudarApr 1, 20163 votes

i think you mean snickering.

no it doesnt involve anything with a snicker bar ( altough maybe it could?)

DeloricVIApr 1, 20162 votes

Did you not read the last two comments where people tried to tell me what I meant? I'm in college minoring in literature; I know words, and I know what I meant. Please, I implore you and anyone who wants to make the same correction to google the word before you try to correct me. Just because you've never heard it before doesn't mean the word doesn't exist.

KazaJhodoMar 31, 20162 votes

Agreed, smurfing is another form of trolling for sure.

Jack TTMay 10, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, I've been saying this for years, but I only get downvoted into oblivion. I swear to god, people would stop quitting league early if Riot would make smurfing a bannable offense and let everyone know what a smurf is. Put it in the tutorial, and get these people banned. These kids ain't gonna learn shit if they get their face kicked in before they can actually play the game.

I personally think that that's starting to get a bit silly. Smurfing itself isn't a bannable offence, no way in hell will it ever be a bannable offence. If you want a secondary account to practice not champs without affecting your rank, you can do this. The toxicity levels of the smurfs is however unacceptable, and I agree punishments should be more severe for those who are needlessly toxic just because it's a new ID and they think they can get away with it. On top of this, there's also a reason why it makes you select "beginner" "Novice" and "expert" at the start.

tcxmageOct 15, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, I've been saying this for years, but I only get downvoted into oblivion. I swear to god, people would stop quitting league early if Riot would make smurfing a bannable offense and let everyone know what a smurf is. Put it in the tutorial, and get these people banned. These kids ain't gonna learn shit if they get their face kicked in before they can actually play the game.

there is nothing wrong with smurfs, riot just needs to sell lvl 30 accounts like wow once you have completed one your self.

Taric the GayMar 31, 20169 votes

I am a smurf. But I made my smurf because a friend from real life joined the game and was experiencing a lot of toxicity. So I made this account playing as one of the weakest champions in the weakest role as a handicap. Not going to lie my presence did win more than a few games for him but the ultimate goal was for me to be one less toxic player on my friend's team and to give him constructive feedback on how to play the game better. He plays less and less with me because now he wants the training wheels off and because he met some nice people at his skill level to queue with. So I would consider it a success.

http://www.auplod.com/u/ulaopd785ed.png

World EnderApr 1, 20166 votes

I remember starting League in August 2014 after some of my friends recommended it, and after getting to about level 7 I got so tilted that I stopped playing the game for almost a year. I'm sure that has happened to more than just me. Riot, you're losing business because of your crappy new player experience.

Privileged JewMar 31, 20163 votes

You're viewing this through the perspective of a veteran. You've played countless games and several champions. The euphoria from playing something new and fun has worn off. You still enjoy it, no doubt, but it's probably not nearly as exciting as when you first picked it up.

That excitement is what keeps new players going to level 30 even when they have to deal with the negatives you mentioned. You leveled up and only got +0.4 lifesteal/spellvamp? That's okay, because in 2 more games I can afford Ahri, and I've never played her before, nor have I seen her ingame.

See what I mean?

XonraMar 31, 20163 votes

[{quoted}](name=Triple K Maf1a,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2FAcAfEQ,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-03-31T05:09:45.855+0000)

You're viewing this through the perspective of a veteran. You've played countless games and several champions. The euphoria from playing something new and fun has worn off. You still enjoy it, no doubt, but it's probably not nearly as exciting as when you first picked it up.

That excitement is what keeps new players going to level 30 even when they have to deal with the negatives you mentioned. You leveled up and only got +0.4 lifesteal/spellvamp? That's okay, because in 2 more games I can afford Ahri, and I've never played her before, nor have I seen her ingame.

See what I mean?

I started playing this game in 2010. You know what's different about the new player experience since then? Not much.

You have the option of playing a few more bot games that still doesn't explain much, and you still have Ashe being told to build thornmail and screaming at you to stay behind your minions.

When I started playing even then, there was NO euphoria about leveling, and being excited. I had played other games before LoL, so it wasn't like I was some wide-eyed kid new to the experience, so the leveling grind was ass in a can (and still is). Grinding xp was a pain, grinding IP was a pain, unlocking stuff was a pain, the difference between those with and without summoner spells was a pain (though more people were actually new and little to no smurfs back then so that directly wasn't an issue like today).

The new player experience was so ass I actually quit playing for an entire year and wasn't even planning on coming back to this game until 2011 when I started watching pro play more and a friend wanted t pick it up.

The new player experience has always been terrible, whether you are completely new or smurfing. It is a terrible grind, now you have to deal with toxic smurfs (which is why I gave up on leveling mine, because I got chat restricted after 1 game somehow for standing up for a new player that was being told to go kill himself after a bad game on Xin). Riot has done little to nothing to fix it (and they have to be aware of that fact).

The game is "exciting" until about level 12 ish, when you start realizing you have about 18 levels to go before you start playing the real game. Until then you are just grinding out level after level.

CrankyChipmonkApr 1, 20162 votes

Which is prolly why they just halved the amoint of exp you need in total to hit lvl 30.

For me I think it was about lvl 18-22 where I really started to feel upset about the grind.

XonraApr 1, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Which is prolly why they just halved the amoint of exp you need in total to hit lvl 30.

For me I think it was about lvl 18-22 where I really started to feel upset about the grind.

Which only makes problems worse in one area while better in another, because that is the most half-ass way to "solve" a problem.

Sure it is less of a grind to 30, but now people will be hitting 30 with even less IP and less champions, as well as less runes, putting them in an even greater disadvantage when they jump into "real" pvp.

They need to give it some real attention, but sadly they never will for no reason I can understand.

CrazedPorcupineMar 31, 20163 votes

The beginner Chests are always going to have Ashe or Garen, a skin for them, and enough shards to permanantly unlock both the champ and the skin.

PikmintsMar 31, 20163 votes

There are a small handful of reasons why people make smurf accounts. Some can be noble like wanting to play with a friend who just joined the game and not having them jump into matchmaking against level 30 people with your main account, but others can be simply because people want to stomp others. Let's also not forget that if someone gets permabanned, they still know how to play the game and can just create a new account while spreading whatever toxicity got them banned.

People who make accounts for latter reasons are typically the people who are frustrated with either their banned status or are in lower elo and did so to make themselves finally feel satisfied with the outcome of a match. People who rage are more likely to be people that are either bad at the game or just bad people in general. This same principal applies to anyone that intentionally tries to make someone else's enjoyment of something less than it otherwise would have been. Those people aren't the same people that listen to reason, they seek out only that which satisfies themselves and they wouldn't bother to read posts on the boards unless they're champ/mastery/item rant posts, posts that ask for free stuff, or other posts along those lines.

Unique TravelerApr 1, 20162 votes

The beginners hextech crafting chests are a joke. I hope I just got unlucky, but I got and champion shards. If that is bad luck, so be it, but if you coded it to happen like that for beginners, that is just annoying as shit.

No, you weren't unlucky. Just tried a smurf account to see if you were, and I was given Ashe and Garen champ shards along with a garen skin shard. My next chest (somehow free) was a fiora skin and ward skin. Im pretty sure the new player chest is for either just garen and ashe, or maybe for two of the free week champions.

PeponiPoroApr 1, 20161 votes

I remember when I started playing this game I was pretty new to playing video games in general, and I didn't understand I was being insulted until well past level 30. I also didn't figure out all chat until long after level 30. To be honest it does suck at that level, but you usually get in to the game because of a friend's suggestion, and when your figuring the game out it is really freaking fun. I might also add that I didn't really figure out building and how to level abilities until well past level 30. Maybe I'm just slow... but I remember starting out with this game being a pretty great experience. It could be getting worse as well, I started two years ago.

My Waifu VanillaApr 1, 20168 votes

Lower levels seem to have gotten worse over the years with more perma bans going out to toxic people (so they just make new accounts) and Riot basically improving smurfing (and thus making it more appealing) by giving out the free starter packs on amazon and halving exp required to 30.

When I started playing in season 1 (Orianna first champion to come out when I started) I remember having fun leveling up because league wasn't the monster of a game it is now so toxicity was at a low and there was no set in stone "meta" at the time. I still remember a majority of the games I played pre-30 and having fun. My first champion was Middlesticks (Jungling3hard5me before 20 and T3 runes), and then it was Kassadin.....who was on permaban. I then settled for level 20-30 on Jungle Olaf with Trinity Force because it worked at the time and your burst was off the chain. Sure it could've been top lane metagolem Olaf at the time, but no one batted an eye at me and I still did well and there was very little toxicity iirc.

Compare that to nowadays where you get yelled at in a level 5 (!) game for going duo top or something (don't get smite until 6 I think) or playing something not LCS material and it is a HUGE deterrence to newer players.

PeponiPoroApr 1, 20161 votes

I can't disagree with any of this.

I remember many of my starter games to, and not because of raging but because I was impressed. The first game I ever watched was my sister playing Sivir (I have far surpassed her now...) on a laptop in our basement. I remember quite a few details, and I remember leveling up as well. The first champ I got was Sivir(with my starter RP no less...), because of my sister, and my second one was Poppy. At the time I didn't know how refunds worked and I really didn't like playing Poppy. Looking back on that I deeply regret it, since I bought her again 5 months later and loved playing her...

I additionally remember using Teemo a ton at early levels(the third champ I bought?) and building him with stupid stuff like Warmog's Armor. All I knew was that I saw a change when I bought health, and I had no idea how magic resist, armor, and ability power worked. A friend who had been playing for years saw my terrible build and showed me a better build. I didn't know why it was better, but I used Teemo and that build quite a bit, leveling up a bit faster...

The first RP I ever bought was spent on getting two skins for Teemo. I also spent a ridiculous amount of RP on champions, which I never refunded and don't regret doing but would never do now. I was hooked by this game, and the only game I have ever spent anywhere near as much time on is Skyrim, which still doesn't even come close.

I love League of Legends, and I think the community as a whole is awesome.

I wish new players could have that same experience... I got a friend from school to start playing with me, and he hated playing unless I was there with him to help him laugh off the nasty comments. We now spend the majority of our time together on League, and he has gotten his siblings interested as well. That never would have happened if I hadn't gone through it all with him.

While I enjoy smurfing to a degree, I would understand completely if Riot made it a bannable offense.

Edit: I went back and edited this like four times but it still feels a little weird, like the repeat of "this game". Gets the message across though!

arleneApr 1, 20161 votes

I had an idea that would help **a little **with this problem. This is the post i made on it. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/9hVkB3T2-creating-a-league-account-that-has-smurf-slots

WolfBVApr 1, 20161 votes

Ahh lower levels. Playing Teemo mid because I thought that was the lane he goes.

Papa AndreiApr 1, 20161 votes

Or MasterYi Adc cause he did physical damage, and thats what i thought attack damage carry meant

TotalJerkApr 1, 20161 votes

Actually I remember at some point during Season 5 Teemo mid was almost as played as Teemo top on champion.gg

DealthApr 1, 20161 votes

You mean it's almost as though the leveling process isn't made for smurfs, but rather new players?

Facinating

SilverthaneApr 1, 20161 votes

This is so true.

MONSTER ABUS3R Apr 1, 20161 votes

I feel you man, my main got banned so I had to make a smurf, I generally just dont type and unbind my enter key but holy shit the people who flame are so stupid! They actually think people who have played like 3 matches will know how to play the game! Thank you for making this post man, I think its a thing many people agree with

SeekerofSilenceApr 1, 20161 votes

When I started playing I was more often than not placed with smurfs in my botgames. I remember being yelled at for "KS" and when I politely asked what that meant I got yelled at again for "trolling". When I started doing normals I tried teambuilder, and picked Diana adc. Fun times... I was yelled at from the smurfs in the teambuilder, sadly because I hadn't played normals before so the system would see me as a newbie and not put me with the smurfs.

Played bots until well past level 20, which was nice since the more games I played there the less smurfs I encountered. Honestly, being new isn't that bad. If I'd picked up blindpick instead (which is the only option for newbies now) I probably wouldn't have gotten angry retorts which ultimately scared me off from normal games.

And yes, I started/found this game on my own and played the first 10 levels alone before I earned a friend irl that helped me out. It wasn't too tough starting out as a newbie at all. Don't worry! :)

JQKAndreiApr 1, 20161 votes

Riot stated that you get tagged pretty soon as a "smurf" and you will then be matched with people that are also tagged. It doesn't work 100% but it does a big difference.

KSredneck69Feb 16, 20171 votes

I suppose it kinda works both ways? I'm leveling a smurf account with a friend of mine who just started playing and I genuinely feel bad when I go 16/1/8 against new players.

I can't even give them tips because all chat isn't enabled for them usually. So I feel kinda shitty helping my friend learn the game while unintentionaly destroying new players :(

MizayaOct 15, 20181 votes

I got flamed and called bronze for taking 3 cs from my midlaner in an intermediate bot game when he was halfway across the map. On my first game on a new acc...

DeracadaVenomOct 15, 20181 votes

So true When I was new I decided to play Illaoi and this Lux flamed me the ENTIRE game and after I’m lucky our blitzcrank was so nice jeez Plus I didn’t know how to mute yet! Even the ENEMY felt bad for me at that point and avoided me My KDA was still 0/13/0 but it’s the first game I ever played okay