Riot needs to address the smurf problem

MonkeyMadness·7/14/2017, 8:28:40 PM·2 votes·364 views

Now before you morons that only read the title and click downvote go to town, this DOES NOT apply to the well behaved people who just want to repeat the experience of leveling a new account all over again etc.

Let me give the most recent example of what I'm talking about: So I queued up for ranked and we had first pick. I declared that I was going Kayn, and asked first pick to grab him for me. He/she obliged. Our last pick proceeded to ban Kayn, despite this. I gave him a hard time (mostly jokingly, but also I was a bit pissed that he had totally disregarded the fact that we had planned it all out). He then declared he was a diamond smurf and that "low elo" games didn't matter to him and that he was going to be throwing the game and that if I cared about my elo, I should dodge. This is literally holding the game hostage. I screencapped it and prepared to submit a support ticket report. Luckily, it was an empty threat and he did no such thing. However, this is the kind of behavior that I see WAY too much from smurf accounts (or at least people claiming to be smurfs).

Now some smurfs don't even mention that they are smurfs. They just play, and maybe they mention it at the endgame. But then there are people that try to hold it over other player's heads like this. I've seen people use the "I'm a smurf" to literally attempt to force teammates to do virtually anything. Didn't get my role? I'm a smurf, let me play x. Someone higher pick wants "your" champ? I'm a smurf, let me pick y. The list goes on, and so very often when this happens, they threaten to troll or otherwise grief if things don't go their way. I urge Riot to permanently suspend any player found to be doing this, even on the first offense. Unless they are lying about having a smurf account, this won't even be a real punishment for them (as many players who are threatened with reports will make abundantly clear). Stop letting smurfs abuse other players. Take a real stance against this bullshit. Not to mention, too many smurfs really do make low elo an RNG game, because winning can really come down to who has the smurf.

11 Comments

RatSlugger7/14/2017, 8:32:51 PM1 votes

Players know that smurfs don't deserve any special attention and therefore smurfs don't deserve to be banned. They could always be muted.

FB Ospraey7/14/2017, 8:38:22 PM1 votes

I'm technically a smurf. people like that aren't who say their rank. we don't say our ranks unless someone asks. the whole point of smurfing is to relieve the stress of playing on your main account. most peoples smurfs are higher ranks then their main because of the sole fact that its a lot more fun to play on an account that they don't show off. the only time people really say I'm a smurf is if they want specific role. and majority of the time theyre cool if they don't get it

RallerenP7/14/2017, 8:53:43 PM1 votes

Wouldn't it already be reportable to harrass someone. No matter if they are lower rank than you or not. Seems like a problem that already is being solved tbh.

Nik Nikerson7/14/2017, 9:16:38 PM1 votes

It isn't smurfs that are the issue, it's people being asses. Treat them like you would any other troll, because that's all they are. Also, if someone is legitimately a plat+ player, their smurf shouldn't remain low elo for long. Yes, it sucks when you have to play against someone better than you, but in the long term it doesn't have that big of an impact, and even without smurfs, there will always be a skill disparity within any elo.