Smurfs are beyond frustrating.

Wildebeast18·Jan 15, 2018·4 votes·967 views

I'm just a normal player. I'm silver and trying to improve. But when most games I either have a Smurf who snowballs and makes it super easy to win or I get smashed by a Smurf it is difficult to learn and improve. I'm trying to learn from my mistakes but I think smurfs are a huge issue. I get it you're really good, but destroying players far worse than you is a pitiful plea for pats on the back. I don't know if there even is a way to stop it or crack down on it but I just want to play a game with people that are a similar skill level to me. I'm trying to "git gud" but I also realize I will never be diamond and play the game for fun. Sorry for the rant.

16 Comments

SciFi ScrivenerJan 15, 20183 votes

There is no reason smurfs should be allowed in ranked games. With the new "clash" event mode coming soon, Riot has said they are working on a way to exclude smurfs from participating. If they are successful I hope they apply their smurf blocking system to ALL ranked play.

InfernapeJan 15, 20182 votes

I wouldn't mind smurfing if smurfs kept to a similar rank to their main account. Like how Pants Are Dragon's main account is challenger and his smurf is high diamond/master tier.

Wildebeast18Jan 15, 20181 votes

{quoted}

There is no reason smurfs should be allowed in ranked games. With the new "clash" event mode coming soon, Riot has said they are working on a way to exclude smurfs from participating. If they are successful I hope they apply their smurf blocking system to ALL ranked play.

That's great news!

hi ìm grootJan 15, 20183 votes

Unless the smurf is trolling, which is bannable, they dont stay around an elo they're significantly higher than for very long. And you got to figure, even plat is only 5% of the playerbase. Its statistically impossible for smurfs to ruin a large margin of games.

Zed geniusJan 15, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=hi ìm groot,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EXz2LPPK,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2018-01-15T18:34:32.206+0000)

Unless the smurf is trolling, which is bannable, they dont stay around an elo they're significantly higher than for very long. And you got to figure, even plat is only 5% of the playerbase. Its statistically impossible for smurfs to ruin a large margin of games.

this^

Wildebeast18Jan 15, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=hi ìm groot,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EXz2LPPK,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2018-01-15T18:34:32.206+0000)

Unless the smurf is trolling, which is bannable, they dont stay around an elo they're significantly higher than for very long. And you got to figure, even plat is only 5% of the playerbase. Its statistically impossible for smurfs to ruin a large margin of games.

But even if they ruin a marginal percent of games its still a problem.

hi ìm grootJan 15, 20181 votes

{quoted}

But even if they ruin a marginal percent of games its still a problem.

And how would you suggest it be fixed? It already takes 10 years to level a new 30.

XIVIVIXJan 15, 20182 votes

Smurfs are only the issue if you're only occasionally running into them. If you were to be dropped down in Diamond ranks or even Challenger ranks, you'll learn the game and become a better player exponentially faster than you would working your way up from Silver to Diamond or Challenger. It's a proven fact in psychology that your growth is in part determined by your environment. If I were to stick you into a house of monkeys (no, not bronze and silver players, actual monkeys) and cut off your interaction with the outside world you'd end up more like the monkeys than the monkeys like you.

The only TRUE way to help people improve in this game is to make Normals completely random with matchmaking so you're exposed to talented players more often. This also holds true in Ranked play where the only true competitive environment we'll ever see is to hard-reset the MMR each and every season. You'll quickly see people in Bronze that normally go 0-15 with AP Tryndamere start playing like Platinum and Diamond players by the end of the season (depending on how often they actually play, that casual dude won't benefit as much as the hardcore 1600games a season guy).

Wildebeast18Jan 16, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Smurfs are only the issue if you're only occasionally running into them. If you were to be dropped down in Diamond ranks or even Challenger ranks, you'll learn the game and become a better player exponentially faster than you would working your way up from Silver to Diamond or Challenger. It's a proven fact in psychology that your growth is in part determined by your environment. If I were to stick you into a house of monkeys (no, not bronze and silver players, actual monkeys) and cut off your interaction with the outside world you'd end up more like the monkeys than the monkeys like you.

The only TRUE way to help people improve in this game is to make Normals completely random with matchmaking so you're exposed to talented players more often. This also holds true in Ranked play where the only true competitive environment we'll ever see is to hard-reset the MMR each and every season. You'll quickly see people in Bronze that normally go 0-15 with AP Tryndamere start playing like Platinum and Diamond players by the end of the season (depending on how often they actually play, that casual dude won't benefit as much as the hardcore 1600games a season guy).

I suppose that's true.

Zed geniusJan 15, 20181 votes

Smurfing is not against the ToS. Anyone can have a smurf as long as they level it up by themselves. That said, there aren't many people that actually have smurfs, let alone high elo players that have smurfs in silver (which is again a lie, because all u need is to win 5 games in silver-gold mmr,which is a piece of cake for a plat+ player, and u get to gold on a new account) so the chances of you encountering a smurf every single game are less than 0.000001 %. If a higher elo player does have a smurf in silver and they are popping off every game as you say, they would climb really quickly by skipping divisions.

WariosJan 15, 20182 votes

This happened to me about a month ago, I am a sliver 5 player, and faced a Yas player one game, think he went 24/2/4 or something along those lines.

Soon as the game ended I looked him up on OPGG, saw a 85% win rate, so I made a comment in post game, "Nice game Yas, not often you see a 80+% win rate" The reply was, it's only Bronze, my main is plat.

It is what it is, 50/50 chance my next game I might have the same type of player on my team, so I am not really bothered by it.

But then my son, in B1, one win from promos, saw how this guy smoked our team and invited him to a group.

They proceeded to win 4 in a row, with this guy carrying each game. Was a good time for my son to get out of Bronze for the first time, but when he asked if the fellow wanted to do another game, this was the reply.

Sorry I can't, I need to loose a few games, I like to stay in Bronze for the fun of carrying my team.

Not sure if there are many people with this mindset, but if it is common, it can not be healthy for the game, imo.

Zed geniusJan 15, 20182 votes

If that is the case, the player mentioned should get banned. Not for having the account, but for purposely losing games. But still that is an exception it's not how everyone's smurf accounts are

WariosJan 15, 20181 votes

I am not a great LoL player, but I do know enough that if I wanted my team to loose, I think I would be able to do it in a manner that would not look very suspicious.

But I hope you are right, that this is an anomaly, and not the norm for players with Smurf accounts.

SpiritOfOdysseusJan 15, 20182 votes

[{quoted}](name=Zed genius,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EXz2LPPK,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2018-01-15T18:07:36.480+0000)

Smurfing is not against the ToS. Anyone can have a smurf as long as they level it up by themselves. That said, there aren't many people that actually have smurfs, let alone high elo players that have smurfs in silver (which is again a lie, because all u need is to win 5 games in silver-gold mmr,which is a piece of cake for a plat+ player, and u get to gold on a new account) so the chances of you encountering a smurf every single game are less than 0.000001 %. If a higher elo player does have a smurf in silver and they are popping off every game as you say, they would climb really quickly by skipping divisions.

You apparently have never played the game before. Why are you so ignorant? lol

"There aren't many people that actually have smurfs....", actually most players I know have an ALT account that they do not RANK and instead get on when they feel TILTED.

"Chances of you encountering a smurf every single game are less than 0.000001 %", where are you getting that data from? With those odds you have a better chance of winning the lottery than playing against smurfs roughly 3 times a day.

I don't think you realize how big league is Zed. Maybe you should rethink your numbers

Zed geniusJan 15, 20181 votes

smurfs are not the reason people are hardstuck in a certain division, it's just naive to think that way. As long as those players are trying to win and are not toxic or aren't duoing with anyone for boosting purposes smurfs are allowed as much as a person's main account is