Unpopular opinion: Smurfing doesn't ruin games (Hear me out)

we havent met·Jun 27, 2019·7 votes·3,259 views

Sure the idea might be toxic in some way or another. But think about it this way Smurfs generally have high mmr from the start, so you'll see them in gold games rather than bronze ones from the start. And if they are ACTUALLY smurfing, they will skip most of the elos that are lower just by default. As far as i know riot tracks your apm and as a result can indicate whether or not you are new to the game. As a result if you're a fresh 30 they will put you where your actions have shown in both pre 30 and in consistent behavior.

Not to mention smurfing would indicate that the top 2-3% of players are going into games. Meaning their numbers are much lower than yours. So if anything its just rare. And very well might possibly be, that they are just better than you and not smurfing. Just some opinions for thought

30 Comments

CrazyMonkeyCZJun 27, 20195 votes

"But they are the reason why I can't climb" guy with 1000 games in silver

Zeppelins circusJun 27, 20191 votes

{quoted}

"But they are the reason why I can't climb" guy with 1000 games in silver

I think the minimum of a person "deserving" should take no more than 150 games. "Grinding" is around 230. ...And if your games go around 300, people should start seeking help from videos and texts and actively try to change their playstyle. Over 400 and not changing anything is nearing insanity or giving up.

...And I legit saw a 800 game silver in one game "lecturing" others. Dude, you are literally a troll that lives in a cave.

we havent metJun 27, 20191 votes

This made me shriek hysterically holy shit

Zeppelins circusJun 27, 20191 votes

{quoted}

This made me shriek hysterically holy shit

"I dEsErVe PLaT aT LeASt!"

we havent metJun 27, 20192 votes

I've unironically heard this from my hardstuck bronze friends so this hits me so hard LASWDMKLSNMDFKLJMRDFGHB "i dEfINiTelY pLaY aT dIa+ lEvEl"

ZardoJun 27, 20194 votes

"I beat a diamond player once in an aram I'm pretty much a masters player"

letsfeedtogetherJun 27, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Zeppelins circus,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=8JBVqYw9,comment-id=000100010000,timestamp=2019-06-27T08:27:44.255+0000)

"I dEsErVe PLaT aT LeASt!"

CHALLENGER not plat

Zeppelins circusJun 27, 20191 votes

{quoted}

CHALLENGER not plat

Do you remember the glorious meme of vvvortic? The Alpha and the omega who played AP lee song support and deserved challenjour? (He was actually diamond *tips fedora)

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2qeejg/how_to_pray_ap_support_lee_song_by_vvvortic/

BadboyUGJun 27, 20194 votes

I wish they could allow low elo players to 'smurf' in high elo games too :) Then everyone would understand how annoying smurfs are. So........ if you say smurfing ain't bad, then you should have no problem with people buying high elo accounts too.

we havent metJun 27, 20192 votes

I wish they could allow low elo players to 'smurf' in high elo games too :)

This literally happens. Check youtube for "i placed bronze person in masters to see if he deserves it" so many fucking vids. The amount of smurfs that are ACTUALLY out there are very MINIMAL. Not to mention riot's system more often than not puts smurfs against other smurfs. It's literally been proven. You wanna be salty you lost to someone who just is better, Go right ahead but don t blame it on smurfing

Zeppelins circusJun 27, 20192 votes

{quoted}

This literally happens. Check youtube for "i placed bronze person in masters to see if he deserves it" so many fucking vids. The amount of smurfs that are ACTUALLY out there are very MINIMAL. Not to mention riot's system more often than not puts smurfs against other smurfs. It's literally been proven. You wanna be salty you lost to someone who just is better, Go right ahead but don t blame it on smurfing

I totally agree. Most people just have a different skillset and some of it is superior, but hardly a player that is overclassing ALL exists. After one player exploits another players weakness by his skill the systems snowballing does the rest.

It is pretty much just intuition and experience. Smurfs on the other hand have a "written script" and list of how they move and break the game. Because of this most of them are junglers.

ThingamajigJun 27, 20193 votes

as far as i see it smurfs allow players to first hand experience what they need to do to climb when someone complains about smurfs they don't really care about climbing they just want the borders and skins and smurfs are an unfair road block

preternaturalJun 27, 20191 votes

{quoted}

as far as i see it smurfs allow players to first hand experience what they need to do to climb when someone complains about smurfs they don't really care about climbing they just want the borders and skins and smurfs are an unfair road block

sugoi an actual good take.

DenelixJun 27, 20192 votes

I agree on this. Thank you for explaining to these people kind of annoying reading these "SMurfs ruining game" threads

Zeppelins circusJun 27, 20191 votes

"That diamond Yasuo is not smurfing, he is actually hardstuck silver on his main account phenomenon" lmao

Yeah I agree on this, people have multiple accounts because people like to practice champions, or do not have confidence in new role which would greatly harm their main accounts MMR and tiers. The "Role position placements" were meant to give limited freedom for this, but it was not done in a positive way the players wanted.

...I have 2 accounts and when I practiced Zoe I had 45% winrate in gold 4. I thought I was lacking something basic so I made a account dedicated to train and in one month I got 54% winrate at the same tier as my main in the long run. "Smurfs" hardly exist. Most of them are just veteran players who are trying stuff. But because of this they have some experience or knowledge advantage a new player would not have.

letsfeedtogetherJun 27, 20191 votes

i agree and disagree. i don't have a problem with smurfs. but facing a smurf could be really frustrating. every time i go against one its mostly not against me (adc) i give the laner all of the tips he needs and he still get out of lane 0/5 because he is trying to fight. that is frustrating and i can see why people are mad. but in the end of the day i agree with you

5050BSJun 27, 20191 votes

Smurfing 100% ruins Ranked games.

You are most likely too young to remember The Dream Team in the Olympics. Pros playing vs non-pros = games with The Dream Team winning 116 to 48.

This is what Smurfing is in Ranked.

we havent metJun 27, 20191 votes

Yet smurfs get placed with other smurfs/ far higher ranks 90% of the time. But ok go off lol. You're comparing something that existed to something that doesnt exist.

5050BSJun 27, 20191 votes

So then Riot thinks Im a smurf because I see them ALL the time. At least every 2-3 games The enemy has a smurf.

we havent metJun 27, 20191 votes

I just scrolled through 10 of your most recent games, didnt see a single smurf so FEEL FREE to point one out to me. Meanwhile i am actually* smurfing and im silver 1 in high plat low diamond games almost around where my main is. So please try again. Thank you. Honestly how you even won that last game is beyond me... lol But no , there arent smurfs around every corner waiting to beat you. Take off your tin foil hat

uNhoLeeeJun 27, 20191 votes

the only time i really ran into smurfs was on the chinese server. usually d1 / master+ duo boosters steamrolling through diamond / plat. and even if they were boosting some silver / gold scruberinos, as you said, their mmr skyrockets so you only really see them 1 game, which isnt enough to make a difference really.

SubdueJun 27, 20191 votes

The second account itself is not problematic. The problematic part is that the account is not (yet) accurately rated. So for whatever number of games it takes the smurf to reach his true mmr, he is ruining matchmaking unnecessarily for everyone with whom he plays.

we havent metJun 27, 20191 votes

. The problematic part is that the account is not (yet) accurately rated. So for whatever number of games it takes the smurf to reach his true mmr, he is ruining matchmaking unnecessarily for everyone with whom he plays.

This is honestly just inaccurate. Riot tracks how you preform through data and can recognize if you're a new player or n ot and as a result your mmr will be a lot higher than most new players. Hence why smurfs go against other smurfs. Or end up in REALLY high elo.

SubdueJun 28, 20191 votes

{quoted}

This is honestly just inaccurate. Riot tracks how you preform through data and can recognize if you're a new player or n ot and as a result your mmr will be a lot higher than most new players. Hence why smurfs go against other smurfs. Or end up in REALLY high elo.

Yes Riot tracks your data. This does not mean it can immediately identify who is a smurf and who is not, as it still requires a reasonable data set. Imagine if it didn't, and you could have a lucky first game and suddenly you're stomped every game because the matchmaker assumed you are better than you actually are.

Plus, even if you're a smurf, smurfs themselves come at different levels of skill. Even a Diamond player, if you place him in Iron 5 will take 50-100 games to get back into Diamond, minimum, just because there's such a long distance for the MMR to travel. In the meantime, every game that the player is part of is a poorly matched game.

we havent metJun 28, 20191 votes

Yes Riot tracks your data. This does not mean it can immediately identify who is a smurf and who is not, as it still requires a reasonable data set

30 levels is more than enough data. So idk what point you are making.

Plus, even if you're a smurf, smurfs themselves come at different levels of skill. Even a Diamond player, if you place him in Iron 5 will take 50-100 games to get back into Diamond, minimum, just because there's such a long distance for the MMR to travel. In the meantime, every game that the player is part of is a poorly matched game.

Again incorrect. This account has about 20 games max. I went from bronze 2 to g4. Meanwhile my mmr has been around plat since i was silver 4. I think you just dont really know what you're talking about

SubdueJun 28, 20191 votes

{quoted}

30 levels is more than enough data. So idk what point you are making.

Again incorrect. This account has about 20 games max. I went from bronze 2 to g4. Meanwhile my mmr has been around plat since i was silver 4. I think you just dont really know what you're talking about

Smurfs don't wait until ranked top start ruining games. They start from the very first game.

Also Bronze 2 to G4 in 20 games, or Iron 5 to Diamond in 50, I don't know why you think the pace of climbing between these scenarios is different.

And no, your MMR was not Platinum when you were in Silver 4. That's not how that works.

Besides, many smurfs are bought, not leveled by the player. A level 30 account can be bought for something like $5.

Titanium70Jun 27, 20191 votes

So... in others words. If a dude races right through a village at 200mph it's not that bad cause he gets out of it very fast?

we havent metJun 27, 20191 votes

Imagine trying to compare real life to a video game... Yikes. Meanwhile once again if anyone fucking read. Smurfs go against other smurfs more often than not.

Critmaster GarenJun 28, 20191 votes

"having 25 year old major league players compete in a junior league game of 6th graders isnt toxic"

i dont ever agree that this game should be balanced around low mmr in any form of fashion. people need to individually grow as players, and not the game be dumbed down for them. but i also believe the people playing down there at low mmr deserve a chance to grow, and improve by gradual learning.

somehow i dont feel like they learn a lot by getting roflstomped by a high mmr player who makes shitty troll videos for his youtube channel.

fact is that smurphing is heavily abused by content creators on twitch and youtube (of which there are hundreds who all want a piece of the cake). each of them is cycling through dozens of low mmr smurph accounts while they let the other accounts degrade, to be able to stay at low mmr and play specifically against people who are less skilled at the game to make themselves and their content look better. so much for your argument that theyd start skipping divisions quickly. no, they just make more accounts to have them degrade fast enough to perpetually stay at low mmr.

there are smurph accounts that arent bad. riste is running two or three smurph accounts around diamond/masters for example to warm up for his more serious games on his main account, and to prcatise new matchups and experiment with new builds for his champion. he isnt specifically trying to keep himself at lower mmr and the smurph isnt far off his main account as a result.

but for every 1 smurph account like that there are also 50 of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onq0Dd3OT48

youre telling me this isnt toxic?