Boards›Gameplay

Smurfs.. Elo boosters.. It's gotten out of hand.

NookGerbil·11/8/2016, 1:47:03 AM·5 votes·998 views

Hi. I am a returning player after 2 years of being away from the game. Coming back I am amazingly surprised over the amount of smurf accounts and people who plays "on their friends" accounts to rank them up. This needs to be stopped! It's unpleasant, not just because it ruins the game, the fun, a balanced and proper learning curve, but also due to being laughed at and flamed for any mistakes you make.

I am currently silver 3.. Again.. Several games with these a-hole smurfs and boosters made me drop for the 2nd time. Before I "quit" I was "plat trash", and after 2 years of not playing my mechanics as well as my map awareness is trash compared to what they used to be. But I can STILL sniff out a smurf, tell who is a real silver and who is not. In silver it's really not that hard.

That you at Riot actually endorse smurfing is disgusting. I know you claim you don't really endorse it, but that's easily a load of crap. Sure I wanna get better at the game again, but not like this.. Having to face players frequently who utterly stomps me as well as other TRUE silver players can only be compared to a grown man kickin babies around. And all you "learn" is how flawed every match is and that the "elo design" does not work. It also messes with my mindset, I'm SUPPOSED to be facing players who are my level, but all these encounters with players who are way higher level than my own has made me lose confidence. Made me scared of even trying to trade. Add to it the toxicity and literal roasting because you "suck and fed" the smurfer/elo booster and you're left with what? Certainly not motivation to play more. Or even play at all anymore.

It's time you take some extreme measures against this problem. I know you can, YOU know you can.. You can prevent this to large degree by implementing a system that binds accounts to IP addresses. And should a different IP connect to an account, then have a password requirement for that IP to access that account (sent to account owner via email). In addition make it so that every account can only be accessed by a limited number of IP addresses as well as having an IP address going through a verification process of sort, where should that same address exceed a number of access to other accounts then that address will be denied access to a new account it's trying to access.

For VIP's (accounts owned by streamers, pro players, people whose jobs/income relies on LoL etc) make their accounts "special/unlocked" so that they can access them from anywhere as they travel a lot.

Nobody would have a problem with this.. Except for smurfers/boosters/players that wants their accounts boosted.

Sure it wont restrict ANY smurfing or boosting from happening. But It's a good place to start.

Thanks for reading.

12 Comments

Deep Terror Nami11/8/2016, 1:55:44 AM1 votes

HOW DOES RIOT FEEL ABOUT SMURFS?

Riot does not officially condemn or condone smurfing. We understand the cases where players make new accounts in order to help teach new players the game, but are working on newer systems to provide a similar experience in a more positive way.

https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201752954-Matchmaking-Guide#q9

Mr Carbon11/8/2016, 1:58:02 AM1 votes

get gud [slayer-jinx-catface]

Finn Teh Human11/8/2016, 2:44:25 AM1 votes

I have a smurf but it's because I want to level it and put it in Bronze 5. Here's how you can look at it tho. When I was new I wasn't only playing with smurfs but a few of my friends who were Diamond. So you can imagine what the enemy teams ranks were, granted it was normals. It was so hard and I fed EVERY game. And y'know what? If I gave up and simply said I can't fight against them then I wouldn't be where I am today. Not everyone is a smurf and a lot of the people who always play on smurf accounts almost always feed their asses off on their mains. There's always going to be boosting and smurfs, but if you learn to play against better players it'll make you one.

Shadowkrag11/8/2016, 2:58:54 AM1 votes

Maybe just don't play at the end of the season where its consistently a problem? Just grind out your rank in the beginning or middle of the season where you have a low chance to play against smurfs. You are asking to play with them when you play towards the last month, and especially this week.

FioraWillCarry11/8/2016, 11:06:57 AM1 votes

{quoted}

You can prevent this to large degree by implementing a system that binds accounts to IP addresses. And should a different IP connect to an account, then have a password requirement for that IP to access that account (sent to account owner via email). In addition make it so that every account can only be accessed by a limited number of IP addresses as well as having an IP address going through a verification process of sort, where should that same address exceed a number of access to other accounts then that address will be denied access to a new account it's trying to access.

I don't think you understand how the internet works mate. Between NAT and dynamic addresses, this is gonna cause a whole lot of problems.

0GvDeKTNBD11/8/2016, 1:01:03 PM1 votes

D5 is absolute trash at the end of the season... ... ... ... nuff said...

DeathBurst11/8/2016, 1:10:59 PM1 votes

This is stupid. A lot of ISP don't even give you a fixed IP, it may change over time even if you never move.

Also, tons of people "travel a lot", even (and especially!) when their job doesn't relies on LoL. Like, I mean, if your job depends on LoL, you can stay at home and play from there, whereas a different job may force you to travel.

And Riot never endorsed smurfing. They said they tolerated it because they couldn't offer an alternative solution at the time.