Smurfing: WTF??!

1 Wing·Apr 10, 2015·25 votes·4,424 views

Can I just say how dumb it is that people smurf? Playing ranked is just: "which team has the better smurf" a lot of the time.

Last game, an upper platinum Nidalee smurf stormed through my game, getting at least 3x the kills of anyone else. Yes, I do expect that I will lose against someone 10 ranks above me; I shouldn't be playing against them! In fact, I'm not even laning against them, so they're just totally destroying some dude, and then rampaging across the map :\

It would be nice if I had an option to play in a sort of "all random skill level" mode, to maybe learn some tricks from better players, but it's pretty rough to go in expecting everyone is about the same skill level, and then someone is way above everyone else. :\

I don't even get why people smurf? Don't you want to play against people in your own skill level? If you want to play against weaker players, then you can play in one of the other queues, or maybe do a custom? I have no idea why so many people smurf here. It totally tilts the ranking out of balance when skilled players are taking up multiple positions on the board. :\

60 Comments

JLauApr 10, 20158 votes

The thing is, when I play with my lower level friends, I get matched up with unranked people who haven't even reached level 30 yet. I agree this is unfair, but there is no way to combat the issue of players playing with a friend who is not as skilled as you.

rinsujoApr 10, 20151 votes

This is ranked smurfing, not level smurfing. So a plat who intentionally plays in bronze/silver games for example.

SaiannaApr 10, 20151 votes

but then, creating smurf account just to play with friends is pointless. Why? Because you'll still wreck new players even without runes/masteries/fav champions.

Smurfs are cancer to LoL. Majority of them just wants to feel powerful. They ruin other teams time and nerves just to feel important.

t0ad5Apr 10, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Unborn Legend,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=bmvVd078,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-04-10T02:14:38.230+0000)

The thing is, when I play with my lower level friends, I get matched up with unranked people who haven't even reached level 30 yet. I agree this is unfair, but there is no way to combat the issue of players playing with a friend who is not as skilled as you.

That is why normals exist

AnomanderApr 10, 20156 votes

I remember playing against a diamond...... He raged because he had to play against a silver.... And he lost.

ColdSteelerApr 10, 20151 votes

some people i know pay 3rd person to play ranked on their account

AnomanderApr 10, 20151 votes

Then the account needs to be banned for boosting. However this was not ranked so I don't think this was the case.

Syn ZykanApr 10, 20156 votes

I had a game recently against a Plat 1 smurf (added me to his main profile afterwards and we had a pretty good time) and we had went to top lane against each other. I wasn't prepared for it to be Udyr top rather than in the jungle but it happened. I took first blood on him with an outplay as Viktor, was beautiful. But he managed to out farm me since he grabbed early MR to shrug off my harass along with his turtle stance. He kept going into our jungle to counter jungle gromp as well to try to shut down our jungler (I was helping setup vision but could never get my team to collapse when he left lane). Late game he was a split pushing monster and my team wasn't coordinated enough to properly siege like our comp was basically built to do. He essentially won by ignoring his teams faltering and capitalizing on our teams lack of coordination.

Used the matchup to learn how to lane against something I am not used to seeing really, and had a pretty good time with it. He was smurfing because of being a mid lane main and wanted to test out a champion he hadn't played, in a lane he wasn't used to, so he wouldn't get stomped which is fair. He learned a lot too in the game. He also took the time to help me afterwards to be able to react to a situation like the one I was put in (like I should have rushed m.pen since my team was mostly magic damage instead of the high AP build I was going for) and used my laser to stop his split pushing while my team focused sieging instead of me trying to force towers with them and essentially giving him free roam.

I like it when smurfs like this exist, he used it to practice something he isn't used to and repaid it by sharing his knowledge he had with people in his match.

GodhriApr 10, 20153 votes

I have never heard of or seen such a nice smurf. It's usually "STFU you're Silver/Bronze/Gold" or "GG pwnt noob".

Syn ZykanApr 10, 20151 votes

well considering he is the only one to have ever done it, and who knows how many smurfs I have played with XD It is obviously super rare but it is really nice to know people do exist like this. Prior to that experience I hated the fact that this account is technically a "smurf" because it is a low level account even though I have a level 30 (different servers). But going to try to pay it forward to anyone that I feel is a good person in game, and clearly has things I could teach them without me just seeming arrogant XD

Luci0usApr 10, 20151 votes

I agree that people like him are overall good, they may have an obvious skill advantage but they try to help those around and teach them how to play better in a non-arrogant way (I would be 100% fine with more people like him existing in the game).

But if the purpose of the smurf is to practice something you're not used to and can't do on your main acc. in ranked b/c you'll get slaughtered... why not just practice the role or champion in normals? Its not as hard as ranked so that solves the problem of being immediately crushed in lane, and it allows the low-level ranked players to continue their climb in fair games.

Athenes LuluApr 10, 20155 votes

Because they want to look great by beating up noobs, carry his friends to a certain rank by duo-smurfing, and/or because his main is banned. Easy as that.

Like most things, smurfs have tradeoffs. Sure, you can get an easy (and undeserved) win, but when they're on enemy team you're gonna have a tough time dealing w/ them. Personally, I don't like them, but there's nothing Riot could really do to get rid of them. I mean, they're already making IP gains and having to "buy" champs to discourage smurfing...

As of now, nothing can be done, as much as we don't like their existence.

Sáx ManApr 10, 20155 votes

Every time there is a post about smurfs, it involves a story with a "smurf" wrecking a game. After reading the story, I decide to look up the game in question by using the details provided. From your case, the nidalee went 23-4-0. A hefty score for sure. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean the person is a smurf. In this instance, i would highly doubt that the person is a smurf. They were silver last season, they're silver this season, and they have almost 500 normal games played. My point is that doing well in a game doesn't equate to smurfing, just as doing poorly or feeding in a game doesn't equate to being boosted.

So with that, I want to point out a few ways to spot a smurf. 1. Generally, A smurf account will have a very low number of normal games played. This is because the account will most likely be used in ranked, and once the person hits level 30 they stop using it for normal matches. 2. A smurf will actually be pretty close in mmr to the main account. Unless the player is intentionally throwing some of his or her games in order to remain at a certain elo, it's easy to win games and climb quickly. 3. As a consequence of number 2, winrates will generally be high. However, high winrates doesn't necessarily mean that the person is smurfing. This account is my first account, with almost 4k or more games throughout all of the queues. I have above 50% winrate on my top 7 played champs in ranked, and most of them are above 60%. (http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Sax%20Man%2010). 4. Very few rune pages. You know how expensive they are. If they have a lot of pages, they're either spending a lot of money on the account (in which case they still wouldn't have a lot of pages filled), or it's not a smurf.

There are also a few common misconceptions about smurfing. 1. In most cases, a smurf will not blatantly announce being a smurf. If they are truly smurfing below their actual mmr, then they don't need specific roles to carry every game. The people that say "im an X smurf, give me mid i'll carry" are definitely NOT a smurf. Every single time someone has said this in champ select, I look up their profile. it's accompanied by thousands of normal games played and hundreds of ranked games each season, as well as terrible winrates with all of the "main" played champions. 2. Smurfing is not just to dominate lower level players. As someone mentioned in a previous reply, some people do it to try unfamiliar roles, some people get their mains banned, some to play with a friend. Now, this point isn't 100% a misconception; there are people that just want to pubstomp lower level people. At the same time, those people are the ones that will rage in game at the slightest mistake. When that happens, report them. They're likely to get banned. The reason i added this as a point is because it's not the main reason for deciding to smurf, at least not from actual upper elo players. 3. There are not smurfs in every single game. As i said earlier, winning a lane hard happens in EVERY ELO, even diamond and challenger. Also, in the leveling up process, not everyone does exclusively normal summoners rift games. a lot opt to spam bot games for a quicker win. 4. If someone is toxic on a smurf, it's pretty likely that they're toxic on their main too. If someone is respectful on their main, smurfing doesn't innately cause them to become toxic.

Now I'd like to talk about my personal smurfing experience. I can't remember why I originally decided to start my smurf, but I do remember that I was somewhere in silver at the time. I played mostly bot games to level it up until around level 20, and then started playing normal games and doing twisted treeline. When I first started ranked, I used it to duo with my brother that was in bronze. At the time, my main was about gold 2, I think. I did not play my main champion pool or my main role while duoing with my brother, and I used that as a way to teach him how to learn and improve on his play. I went 7-3 in placements and placed silver 2, and continued duoing with him until he reached mid silver. I started playing on my own, and quickly jumped to gold 3, where I decided to stop playing on my smurf for the season and got my main to plat 5, where I decided to stop there, too. Throughout the whole time I was smurfing, I didn't rage in chat, and I didn't announce that I was a godsend and would carry everyone. If someone asked if I was a smurf after a game, I didn't lie. I tried my best to be courteous and helpful to my teammates, as I do on my main. This season I decided for the most part not to duo on my smurf and I placed into gold 3 (i think i went 8-2 or 7-3). I placed Gold 2 on my main. This refers back to a previous statement i made, saying that a smurf's elo should be pretty close to that of their main. In fact, I reached gold 1 on my smurf before my main, and now both accounts are at plat 5, with my smurf's elo/mmr being much higher than that of my main. Here is the link: (http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=king+of+pangea)

tl;dr Smurfs aren't necessarily bad terrible people, and doing well in a few games or with a few champs doesn't mean the player is a smurf. Read the post, it'll only take a few minutes.

IziMytTJd7Apr 10, 20154 votes

Gaining ranks was made a slow and painful process. Therefore this problem will persist until they change the system to focus more on actually getting you to your proper rank rather than making you grind it out for no reason.

DeloricVIApr 10, 20153 votes

Well, smurfs are actually kind of good for the game, in moderation. I agree that there are far too many. But in smaller numbers, they can use skills that may not be available to lower level players. Those players may go, "Hey, that's a good idea, I may want to do that!" Too many, and you get a total crapshoot for who wins the game, as dictated by who has more/better smurfs on their team.

1 WingApr 10, 20152 votes

I would like to be able to play with experienced players regularly, to see what are good techniques.

However, I do not want to see this in ranked matches, where I'm trying to determine how good I am. Losing through little fault of my own isn't a good judgement of my skill.

DeloricVIApr 10, 20151 votes

I agree; as I said there are far too many, and probably should have mentioned that ranked is no place for smurfs. Should be a reportable offence in ranked, imho.

1 WingApr 12, 20151 votes

Haha, agreed with them in ranked!

Leti the YetiApr 10, 20153 votes

My dream is to have a pro twitch streamer's smurf to be in my ranked game and carry my ass :<

too much to hope for? :L

Only Play DariusApr 10, 20152 votes

Why would a smurf ever play twitch? He's literally the weakest ADC in the game.

Another thing is that many smurfs actually avoid playing ADC's because they are reliant on the (non-smurf) support.

It's why smurfs tend to gravitate to the solo lane carries like Yasuo Rengar Leblanc Zed Akali and so on.

Leti the YetiApr 10, 201515 votes

So, there's this cool streaming site called twitch idk if you ever heard of it

Ancestor007Apr 10, 20152 votes

I smell a short joke. But idk why.

DedriusApr 10, 20151 votes

I had Irelia Carries U smurfing in my game before on my team.

SlushieDeeApr 18, 20151 votes

;o; Someone else actually knows about ICU.

ValyrianBladeApr 10, 20152 votes

I think the primary reason is streaming. People want to watch someone hard carry a game. Steamroll people and get a huge lead and win fights 1v5. So high elo players make smurfs to do it.

Otherwise it's people who, even at gold, platinum, diamond, think they're in elo hell because of bad luck in teammates and want to start over. Or people who get banned a lot and need another account to play on?

SwiftKitten88Apr 10, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I think the primary reason is streaming. People want to watch someone hard carry a game. Steamroll people and get a huge lead and win fights 1v5. So high elo players make smurfs to do it.

Otherwise it's people who, even at gold, platinum, diamond, think they're in elo hell because of bad luck in teammates and want to start over. Or people who get banned a lot and need another account to play on?

they probably are in elo hell. elo hell in relative to your skill level, and is the point where you are good enough to win your lane about 90% of the time but no longer are so much better than your opponents that you can carry if another teammate feed if you not also fed.

its basically the point slightly under your actual play level. where you can almost always carry they game if your teammates don't feed, but cant carry if they do. this them makes it so you feel like its completely random whether you win or lose because every time you win your lane, and you still only manage about a 55% win rate. so you basically stay where you are in the rankings

GaleWinUnleashedApr 10, 20151 votes

Where's the fun in watching a stomp? Close games that could go either way are far more interesting in my opinion.

WheatloafApr 10, 20152 votes

The people that smurf for actual decent reasons are usually just testing themselves to see how quickly they can get a second or third account up to their main's rank. Unfortunately, this might mean someone in bronze meets Wildturtle's umpteenth smurf, in their promos, on its way to join its brothers in Challenger. Other than that, yeah, quite a bit of them are just there to have an easy game, so they deserve to be called assholes. Unfortunately, finding a solution that both will be accepted and can actually be implemented is... difficult. Unless Riot already has something to help in the works, it could be neat if they came onto the Boards to spitball ideas with the community, though there's a limit to how much that can accomplish, too.

OJ191Apr 10, 20151 votes

{quoted}

The people that smurf for actual decent reasons are usually just testing themselves to see how quickly they can get a second or third account up to their main's rank. Unfortunately, this might mean someone in bronze meets Wildturtle's umpteenth smurf, in their promos, on its way to join its brothers in Challenger. Other than that, yeah, quite a bit of them are just there to have an easy game, so they deserve to be called assholes. Unfortunately, finding a solution that both will be accepted and can actually be implemented is... difficult. Unless Riot already has something to help in the works, it could be neat if they came onto the Boards to spitball ideas with the community, though there's a limit to how much that can accomplish, too.

There is no decent reason to smurf, period, it ruins low level games.

The only reason that even comes close to being "decent" is high tier players with massive queue times doing it for those reasons, and even then it's still pretty disgusting.

AkeydelApr 10, 20151 votes

I made a smurf account to learn new champs. For the first few games, I'm as bad as everyone else, then I start to carry, then I move onto a new champ. I dont think this is incredibly negative, or "disgusting".

GetBoomedOnApr 10, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I made a smurf account to learn new champs. For the first few games, I'm as bad as everyone else, then I start to carry, then I move onto a new champ. I dont think this is incredibly negative, or "disgusting".

Everyone else does. It's not about you, this is what you smurfs fail to realize.

Sergeant StephenApr 10, 20152 votes

From what I've heard, some people use their smurfs while waiting for their queue dodge timer to wind down :/

CansemaApr 10, 20152 votes

let me tell you a story of being humiliated and success... now this is deep thought so .. bare with me.. example #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9XZQttjc-g now if you look at this video and search the players names you would realize that the ones doing the dunking dont really play their accounts anymore.. verses the ones getting dunked.. they moved up in elo.. (and the names you cant find... heres a trick to locate name changes... just go to the match history page on the league page and type in the old name and it will reroute you to their new name..) i am not saying getting pounded on makes a person stronger, but... there is a connection with competition and success. From body builders to athletes to whatever... being confronted with someone who is greater is skill or talent can motivate an individual to perform at a higher level then they currently play at.

Now lets look at some thoughts of how people gain elo... me personally i made a graph.. hours i played verses success. i basically narrowed it down to certain times of day i would play ranked around the times i had the highest win %. and i also factored in how many hours i played and wouldnt play when my curve started going down. from bronze season 2 -> gold season 3 -> plat season 4

i know this doesnt help you, but... one diamond player wrote how he climbed... he utilized a persons win /loss record. he would play jungle and look up the enemy team. he would spend the whole game camping the person who is on a loss streak till they just went AFK. Some people get to the edge and just keep playing tilted and this guy figured he could cause them to just go alittle over.

Mind games are fun... i am not saying harassing them, but poking at them to get them off their game. Some people tilt being praised for how well they are doing.. other people tilt from pointing out their failures. I have won more games giving the enemy advice on how to tighten up their game and become a better player then i have harassing them for their failures. example: wait in a bush and face stomp someone... then comment "you should really ward to avoid things like this. hope this advice helps you in the future."

your problem seems to be with the smurfs themselves. I have 3 accounts.. i really dont know why i have 3 accounts.. i was actually happy with 2 plat accounts ... i would give them different champions pools to see who could succeed better... then i made a 3rd because i wanted to play with a group of people who where lower elo then me... so i did my placements wanting to play with my bronze/silver friends... i placed in gold... i was actually hoping for silver 3, but i did do better than expected.
Now with that out in the open... when i played games i treated them like i was in a higher elo and respected the basic rules that i have learned to live by... when the enemy showed obvious signs of unskilled or lack of awareness i punished them by over extending and doing silly things because i expected to get away with it. most of the time i would at that low level. I would also run into other smurfs at the time as well... They would do the same thing and sometimes i would catch them out a punish them for playing sloppy or we would hunt each other because we both knew one of us would carry the game if we could just lock down the other one. It became a game in a game... a 1 v 1 with 8 other people struggling just to taste the tail end of a silver boarder at the end of the season.

it brings me back to my early days when i played this game and had no clue what i was doing. someone played shen and was (to my perspective) everywhere. this guy was in every lane whenever anything happened... its as if he could sense a fight and would magically show up and take ever ounce of abuse my team could muster. in the end i asked him "how did you do that? jump thru walls and appear out of nowhere?"
he responded, "i was hacking noob. GG. uninstall" so i reported him. but i always look back on that match as the day this game changed for me. the day a smurf completely carried his team. the day i realized that yes its a 5v5 but 1 person with a well placed ability could change the results of a match.

in the end here is my true advice.

"Dont hate the people who try to help you become better. Crush them and drink their tears as you become better than them."

-your welcome for helping you become better.

FearEngineerApr 10, 20151 votes

tl;dr

You're a real piece of work. Shine on.

ZinjuApr 10, 20152 votes

People smurf for a few reasons. Playing against low ranked players is not their goal.

They might want two accounts at diamond ranked. (Or whatever gold + rank you are )
A smurf allows them to play ranked from a clean slate if they have wrecked their mmr.
The most common reason being to improve. Say I main and play support 90% of my games and I get to diamond. But my other roles, I play at a silver level. If I don't get support, I am a liability to my team. So I make a new account, and main other roles to get my skill level up without messing up my main account.

Also, players who are high ranked, have been where you are. Experienced the same thing. Regardless of what rank you are, you have three options : You vs Higher Skill, You vs Lower Skill, and a equal skill match up.

HrudApr 10, 20152 votes

All random skill level is called normals. For real.

Bard in a DiaperApr 10, 20152 votes

because you guys in silver/gold dont know how good you have it. (Platinum is actually a shithole, sorry for anyone stuck there)

Diamond is literally a boring cesspool of 20 minute games, win or loss. It is horrible. Nothing redeeming about any game. I smurf to play decent games again. Even if im smurfing its still a lot more fun then diamond and i try to play stuff im bad at so its fun for everyone.

1 WingApr 11, 20151 votes

Yah, I can see how being in silver could be nice: you can do a "bad build" and be pretty confident in your opponent not being capable of stomping you out of lane, so you can do lots more things.

I built straight up 3 zeals and won, in a world where that probably shouldn't happen.

SwiftKitten88Apr 10, 20151 votes

i agree.. smurfs are REALLY annoying and if they are on the other team is almost a guaranteed loss. but honestly i don't think the are the biggest issue right now.

for every game i lose to a smurf i lose about 20 from teammates who feed. i win my lane about 90% of the time and can carry most games if my teammates don't feed. but about 50% of the time they do. even when they do feed i can still sometimes pull a victory making my win rate average about 55% for the few time i pull off a win when my teammtes feed.

but if my teammates DON'T feed i pretty much have a guaranteed win.

GetBoomedOnApr 10, 201510 votes

{quoted}

i agree.. smurfs are REALLY annoying and if they are on the other team is almost a guaranteed loss. but honestly i don't think the are the biggest issue right now.

for every game i lose to a smurf i lose about 20 from teammates who feed. i win my lane about 90% of the time and can carry most games if my teammates don't feed. but about 50% of the time they do. even when they do feed i can still sometimes pull a victory making my win rate average about 55% for the few time i pull off a win when my teammtes feed.

but if my teammates DON'T feed i pretty much have a guaranteed win.

To carry is to win despite the feeders. If everyone does average, then you're not really carrying, you're just using teamwork like you're supposed to. I feel like people throw around the word carry way too much where it's not really carrying

OJ191Apr 10, 20152 votes

{quoted}

To carry is to win despite the feeders. If everyone does average, then you're not really carrying, you're just using teamwork like you're supposed to. I feel like people throw around the word carry way too much where it's not really carrying

Well, all carrying means really is that you contributed more to the win than anyone else on your team. I mean it does somewhat imply that you carried to a win, but it doesn't necessarily have to.

wopApr 10, 20151 votes

Why would you carry your team to a loss. Seems like a bad idea to me. Carrying means you contribute the most by a pretty large margin to your teams victory.

YOU BEEN WARNEDApr 10, 20151 votes

Yeah smurfing is :\

AkeydelApr 10, 20151 votes

I love shaco. However, I used to be VERY BAD with him, especially assassinating late game. So, I made a smurf account (i think it's at like level 3 right now) and played nothing but shaco, who i bought with the 400rp they give you at level 2. I honestly think this is the best way to learn champion mechanics: bot games are pretty much a ks race, and teammates flame if you do poorly in normals.

Just my two cents.

MinrogApr 10, 20151 votes

I have 3 accounts. My first one I bought the Digital Collector's Edition for, and like a week later I saw the Retail Collector's Edition at Target and I bought that and added it to a different account because it seemed redundant. Then my girlfriend at the time started a new character and my 2 were already level 30 and I didn't want to screw up her leveling experience when I played with her.

This was before Ranked though, but I imagine that people still make a different account for similar reasons. Especially if they want to duo queue with a girlfriend/wife and not have her get completely dumpstered every game.

OrbvApr 10, 20151 votes

If I ever get a streak without dying, I'll post "I apologize for smurf". You can't trust anybody. Because the very next game I'll be 0-6-2

warpenguin555Apr 10, 20151 votes

were you corki that game, because if so i was morgana

Doubtful TrapApr 10, 20151 votes

Or they are just trying to play on another account and got placed lower than they are because of some bad losses. And are just trying to play the game like you. Stop complaing, if he is a smurf he will only play one game at that rank if he is just stomping the opponent every game...

1 WingApr 11, 20152 votes

him and his 100,000 smurf buddies.

Woodsy2575Apr 12, 20151 votes

I've always hated smurfing, I especially hate when LCS players brag about their multiple accounts in Challenger. It's like, come on guys, give the rest of us a chance!