Just a thought, both as a returning player and as someone who had to play against them when I first started. Find a way to limit people to one account each server, and make smurfing reportable. Your new players are being discouraged by the smurfs and as a result we dont have many new players and its adding to the toxicity of the game. This also affects your bottom line as well if I need to present it in business terms for it to get any kind of notice or traction.
I created a smurf account to play with my friend who was just learning the game. I tried playing on my main in normal games with him, but then he'd go against level 200's in lane while he's still learning what all the champions do. He would end every game 0/15 because he was still learning, and needed to play against players closer to his skill level.
So when I made a smurf, I would try for the first little bit in lane, then once I was ahead I would just mess around and have fun. I wasn't scummy, I'd give my teammates tips, and I wouldn't run around on Yasuo or Draven trying to 1v5 new players, because I'm not an asshole.
Am I now a toxic person, because I have a smurf? Do I deserve a permaban for wanting my friend to learn the game at a slow and easy pace, against similarly skilled players, instead of rushing him into games against high level players? Should I have just let him play solo games, and quit by level 13 because otherwise he's playing 150 solo normal games just to get to level 30, and he specifically joined league so he could play games with his friends?
Smurfing is brutal when you have people who cherish their 90% winrates, and only play sweaty champs to style on new players because it feeds their egos. But if you start banning accounts that are smurfs, solely on the basis that they're smurfs, that's just ruining the games for potential groups of friends who just want to play some normals together.
Yep but Riot likes the # of Active player boost Smurfs give them for investors.
Just a thought, both as a returning player and as someone who had to play against them when I first started. Find a way to limit people to one account each server, and make smurfing reportable. Your new players are being discouraged by the smurfs and as a result we dont have many new players and its adding to the toxicity of the game. This also affects your bottom line as well if I need to present it in business terms for it to get any kind of notice or traction.
New players don't play against alts.
Normal games don't matter I guess, having a smurf, well, at least you don't lose LP? You can still have fun, and I play normal games to relax and don't care about the outcome at all.
About the ranked games, if you are iron - gold, having a smurf in your opponent team will trigger you, and if you think positive, you will say ''i could be this guy''. You'll watch replay or just kills and notice why is he better and what has he done better than you. At least I did that, I was bronze before, last season I ended up plat 2 (not high elo, but I'm fine with it). I never had problems with smurfs, the real smurfs, good players, they will never be toxic, because they know they are not matched up against their elo, and are there to help a friend climb or just made another account, you can ask these guys for tips. There are other smurfs aswell, baby smurfs I like to call them. They aren't high elo, but high enough to carry games in bronze/silver, like plat, I can carry games till gold 4 without a problem. The thing is, they are toxic because they are frustrated for not being able to climb anymore in their elo, so they just want to feel the joy of winning a game, stomping someone and having a high score. You just ignore those, because they don't climb anymore, they reached their max elo. Just focus on realizing your mistakes and turn that ''having a smurf'' into having an opportunity to play vs a good player and realize why is he better than you, at least for now ;) Hope I motivated you because I've experienced it myself, I don't smurf and even when I do play on a lower elo account, I don't feel above anyone when I win because I know I'm not matched up against my elo.
Smurfing IS reportable, and I report it wherever I see it. Only rarely is anything done about it, but hopefully, it helps riot improve MMR system. (And sometimes, coincidentally, I notice that the offending player's normal MMR has suddenly seemingly jumped up a few hundred points...)
Riot KNOWS which alt accounts belong to which primary.
Norms DO count. Smurfs generate a lot of toxicity on the enemy team, many don't realize that the feeder is laning vs a smurf. A high percentage of bans occur from offenses instigated by smurfs.
At least, it should be easier to identify a smurf in the match. Most players do understand that a player only a couple divisions up in equivalent MMR can make everybody else in the match look like idiots.
