Anyone else feel that smurfing is unsportsmanlike? (Specifically smurfing to stream it)

Spicy Rice·Oct 17, 2016·90 votes·4,525 views

title

EDIT:

As a clarification, I'm referring to ranked play only. As it is, normal queues are grabbags of skill levels already.

101 Comments

Azure HamsterOct 17, 201624 votes

Smurfing ruins the game for us lesser players. When they show up against us, we lose games we perhaps shouldn't. When they are with us, they boost us beyond our MMR and that's not good either.

Caitlyn

ƒoesOct 17, 20168 votes

are you associating caitlyn with smurfs xD

TalisidOct 17, 201620 votes

I hate smurfing, so I agree.

Although I do sympathize somewhat with the champion and master players with their 10+ min queue times. I'm sure it is tempting to get another account just so you can play more games.

Sona PingOct 18, 20162 votes

10 minutes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB-jq2fDFyU

HadesBladesOct 17, 20167 votes

No. Smurfing is fine in certain circumstances. It is one thing to smurf to practice champions, builds, play with friends that are new, or even try to show an audience mistakes of lower elo plays vs higher elo. It is another to boost, be toxic for fun, and demoralize new players. If people are streaming a smurf account it might be for various reasons, if it is to boost or be toxic that is a different story.

Edit: this was referring to normal play not ranked. but i dont care about downvotes so it's cool.

AttackOnTeemosOct 17, 201613 votes

[{quoted}](name=Deathmaster Kat,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=l4ZEYbAG,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-10-17T20:16:15.747+0000)

No. Smurfing is fine in certain circumstances. It is one thing to smurf to practice champions, builds, play with friends that are new, or even try to show an audience mistakes of lower elo plays vs higher elo. It is another to boost, be toxic for fun, and demoralize new players. If people are streaming a smurf account it might be for various reasons, if it is to boost or be toxic that is a different story.

This is where I disagree highly, there are OTHER ways to show people their mistakes. Custom Games would be perfect. Going into a rank game as a smurf does two (Technically three) of the following that ruins the whole fundamentals of RANK. 1)If you high elo starting in low elo you going to literally blow through the ranks and also end up having low elo people piggy back off you. 2)You are going to have match make system believe that people starting in low elo rather they are really good or really bad be placed in matches that don't give fair odds. It's a system not a human being watching the game.. 3)Nothing positive comes from smurfing other then pissing off players that are ACTUALLY trying.

I've literally called out multiple streamers who smurfed to play in their elo and you see the result flipped on them. Where it looks like they are challenge tier when fighting in bronze, you stick them in a game at their level its like seeing them be the bronze. They only appear good cause they fighting against people who have no clue about some of the key components of game.

ManiacalCoyoteOct 18, 20161 votes

What about those who smurf to teach everybody high-elo skills? The guy who shares tips for map control, etc?

rtbf76109271Oct 18, 20165 votes

They can stream or write guides then. Unless the are doing personal coaching and queued with their student on a smurf account, that sounds like an excuse to smurf

NeckRomancer015Oct 19, 20161 votes

queued with their student? Sounds like boosting lol

SwaggyMcGhee420Oct 18, 20161 votes

{quoted}

2)You are going to have match make system believe that people starting in low elo rather they are really good or really bad be placed in matches that don't give fair odds. It's a system not a human being watching the game..

So you would rather have my brand new friend play against tryhard level 30s in his first few games instead of people his own level...

AttackOnTeemosOct 18, 20161 votes

{quoted}

So you would rather have my brand new friend play against tryhard level 30s in his first few games instead of people his own level...

So let me say this again, He shouldn't be in rank if he isn't level 30. I REFUSED to touch rank until I hit 1000 wins in normal. After that I haven't touched a NORMAL blind game in years.

There is a different between normal games and rank. I'll play around with my buddies in normal, but in rank if my friends are not a certain skill level i WONT play rank with them period. I don't believe in having people peggy backing off me, I pull my own weight and they should do their own weight. I've made and lost friends for that but that's just how I play.

SwaggyMcGhee420Oct 19, 20161 votes

I'm not talking about ranked. When I try to play with low level friends when I'm on a level 30 account they constantly go against other level 30 players that mercilessly crush them. It's much better if I just make a new account and play support Taric or whoever's free.

AttackOnTeemosOct 19, 20161 votes

{quoted}

I'm not talking about ranked. When I try to play with low level friends when I'm on a level 30 account they constantly go against other level 30 players that mercilessly crush them. It's much better if I just make a new account and play support Taric or whoever's free.

Okay again NORMAL Games I don't care about, RANK games is where I expect people to actually do right. If your friend is catching hell against level 30s. Tell him/her to look for that icon that says VS A.I. And play them until they get good. >_> There is just no nicer way to explain it.

I'm one to admit before they even had ai in the game I got my head knocked in cause I didn't understand the store. After a good fifty or so games I got a better understanding and by 200 games I was familiar with nearly every champion and explored other roles.

Most people make the mistake in this game and just playing a character they think is "cool" and get sucked into playing one trick pony.

SwaggyMcGhee420Oct 19, 20161 votes

There's a big difference between real players and bots. It's a lot easier to learn how to play against people with a similar skill level to yours. You can't just get good by playing AI exclusively. Also, there's nothing wrong with smurfing if you're not going to go tryhard every game. I'm fine with playing against players that are much better than me as long as they don't absolutely stomp and talk a bunch of trash while doing so.

AttackOnTeemosOct 19, 20161 votes

Quick Fix: Mute them

Think about what you are saying, You don't want to go try hard, define try hard? I mean you can't really dumb down your play style unless you go "Hey I'm not going to ward that bush..I want to give the enemy a chance.." Hell you can give me support and I could just play karma or brand and say hell with my adc...if they are bad.

SwaggyMcGhee420Oct 19, 20161 votes

Here's an example: I'm on my plat 3 account, playing with my friend who is new to pvp. The first problem is that this causes matchmaking to be very skewed. Most likely, there are a couple golds/silvers, and maybe one or two level 20s. Now, I have the ability to play Draven and go 26/1 or something, but that isn't fun for anyone except me. Instead, I choose to go bot lane Nami with my friend. He ends up dying twice to their gold Vayne, and she ends the lane 6/0 or something. She then continues to stomp and make the game miserable for my friend.

AttackOnTeemosOct 19, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Here's an example: I'm on my plat 3 account, playing with my friend who is new to pvp. The first problem is that this causes matchmaking to be very skewed. Most likely, there are a couple golds/silvers, and maybe one or two level 20s. Now, I have the ability to play Draven and go 26/1 or something, but that isn't fun for anyone except me. Instead, I choose to go bot lane Nami with my friend. He ends up dying twice to their gold Vayne, and she ends the lane 6/0 or something. She then continues to stomp and make the game miserable for my friend.

Okay for the final time, If your friend dies that many times and you are playing with them. Perhaps the first death would make them go "Hmm maybe I should play safer.." Issue is it's like playing with a bee, sure may seem fun to smack at it when you were a child, but sooner or later you will get stung and not want to ever do that again." Learn from the mistakes-you get better.

SwaggyMcGhee420Oct 19, 20161 votes

Have you ever played with a new player? They obviously don't know how to play safe, no matter how many times they die. They simply don't understand the game. Even bronze players will go 0/6+ in lane against an aggressive opponent. It takes more than one game to develop an innate sense of how and when to play safe, and there's literally no reason to make your new friend suffer through learning that against level 30s.

Celestial Lion12Oct 18, 20165 votes

I consider it fine in normals for high elo players to unwind or play with friends but smurfing in ranked is unsportsmanlike

Spicy RiceOct 18, 20166 votes

Well, i'm assuming they are smurfing in ranked, norms have always been a grabbag of players (skill wise)

RainbowIceeOct 18, 20161 votes

I don't think it's fine in normals either because most smurfs make new accounts to pick on / bully newer players. It's a true struggle to invite a friend or someone new to league knowing most lowlevels are just assholes trying to grieve new players. They're not even good that's the worse part they pick on new players because those are the only ones they can beat.

Nameless VoiceOct 17, 20164 votes

I've previously spent some time trying to think of a legitimate reason to smurf, and the only one I could think of was to help bring new players / friends into the game - and that is only necessary because the game is missing some kind of "mentoring" system to help people bring in new players (and because its new player experience in general is terrible.)

People being able to have multiple accounts leads to lots of problems, the main two being poor game quality / matchmaking and people being more toxic because they feel that their account is disposable.

The game would be a better place without smurfs, but at a minimum all punishments accrued by one account should automatically also apply to all of that player's other accounts simultaneously.

HazyCloud7Oct 17, 20164 votes

Popular streamers do it because for a lot of them their livelihood depends on it. Long queue times on main = less viewers

GayFluffyUnicornOct 18, 20161 votes

Tbh it's just a fucking excuse most of the time. I watched rekkles streaming the last three times he was on. You know challenger in EUW top 10 or something and at most he had 10 min+ qs. It's actually funny that many streamers IF they play on their main look like boosted harambes.

35denKcYNjOct 18, 20164 votes

Smurfing is fine, and not a big deal anyways. I am Diamond 4, and have 3 smurfs, all of which are in platinum now. If you put a diamond player in bronze, he won't be there for very long. But if you're barely scraping by in your elo, you shouldn't climb anyways.

And a lot of the smurfs are not even that good. If a gold player smurfs in bronze, it's not a big deal, and if someone is plat 5 playing in silver 1-gold5, its not that big of a deal.

The point of you playing ranked is to climb correct? What happens when you climb.. you play better players, so stop crying if you're playing against a better player. Learn from it. I got to diamond from gold in 6 months by literally playing against high plat/diamond level players and getting stomped 24/7 until I stepped up and could compete with them. Just like you probably got stomped early when you started playing league and got better. Take your beating, learn from it, and cherish the chance to play against someone higher elo if you actually want to get better.

TheorcheroOct 18, 20163 votes

{quoted}

Smurfing is fine, and not a big deal anyways. I am Diamond 4, and have 3 smurfs, all of which are in platinum now. If you put a diamond player in bronze, he won't be there for very long. But if you're barely scraping by in your elo, you shouldn't climb anyways.

And a lot of the smurfs are not even that good. If a gold player smurfs in bronze, it's not a big deal, and if someone is plat 5 playing in silver 1-gold5, its not that big of a deal.

The point of you playing ranked is to climb correct? What happens when you climb.. you play better players, so stop crying if you're playing against a better player. Learn from it. I got to diamond from gold in 6 months by literally playing against high plat/diamond level players and getting stomped 24/7 until I stepped up and could compete with them. Just like you probably got stomped early when you started playing league and got better. Take your beating, learn from it, and cherish the chance to play against someone higher elo if you actually want to get better.

This.

League isn't a game like CSGO where smurfs are so much more impactful. In League everything they do is apparent. They bought items, they roamed, they killed, etc. It might be a surprise to you, but you could do the same things to them.

CSGO has so many niche tricks on top of being all about aim and precision; a smurf in CSGO will kill you over and over and over and over and there will never be anything you can do about it. Your ability to respond to a smurf from highest ranks in the lowest ranks is essentially like dealing with a hacker, you have absolutely zero chance on top of the fact that you aren't going to learn anything because you get headshot instantly whenever you peak the guy. Though in all fairness dead teammates may learn a thing or two but if he's smurfing he'll win the rounds incredibly quick anyway.

Spicy RiceOct 19, 20161 votes

Except it almost is like that, especially when you aren't laning against said smurf.

When I play ranked, I'm doing my best to ignore my teammates and focus on my own play, but 7/0 adc comes from bot lane to attack me, it ruins my entire game.

Now, it true, that it happens even without the player being a smurf, but then I can at least play around them. They make mistakes that I can react to, but when i'm playing against someone who is ranked miles above me, I very rarely, if every get the chance to react.

And i do understand that playing against better players makes you better, that's why i 1v1 my friends in master/challenger, and take my beating without complaining.

However, they are actively trying to help me, by telling me what i did wrong, what i did well, how to respond, and when to drop back. When to expect ganks, when to ward, how to get the best vision.

The smurf told me none of those things. All they did was come wreck a lane, and then come and wreck my team, with us getting little to no learning out of it, and losing elo/Lp to boot.

Handy Sandy Oct 17, 20163 votes

yes

CrazFight Oct 17, 20163 votes

The only time I really hate smurfing... is like when your lets say faker... playing in bronze - or even silver MAYBE even gold. Like why ruin everyone else's day... if your gonna smurf..... pls stay somewhat in high elo if that means plat or dia idk.

ƒoesOct 17, 20162 votes

faker...playing in EUW bronze

fixed that for you

GayFluffyUnicornOct 18, 20161 votes

Yeah no thank u. There are already enough master/challenger in low dia/high plat because they rank up their smurfs so fast. It's not even remotely funny to get trashed by a chinese challenger teemo jungle.

NeckRomancer015Oct 19, 20161 votes

lol

GayFluffyUnicornOct 19, 20161 votes

Yeah that's what i wrote when our eve jungle said "lulz teemo jungle, free win for us". 2 mins later firstblood on eve by teemo. GGEZ

Athenes LuluOct 17, 20163 votes

Yes.

Unfortunately they are very hard to enforce and therefore things will stay as is.

P0IS0N IVYOct 18, 20163 votes

I smurf to practice champs I'm bad at in ranked. Also sometimes I can't play with my friends in ranked because my rank is too high, so I smurf.

The DeckownerOct 18, 20162 votes

Also sometimes I can't play with my friends in ranked because my rank is too high, so I smurf.

soooo you dynamic boost your friends?

P0IS0N IVYOct 18, 20161 votes

Practice, ranked and play with friends. What's the matter?

The DeckownerOct 18, 20163 votes

if you are hust having fun with friends, why not play in normals?

why would you practice in a lower ranked enviornment? being a higher ranked player you are effectively bossting your friends by smurfing with them in rankrd. that only comes back and bite them(and their team) when they play solo with a higher mmr/rank thsn they deserve.

P0IS0N IVYOct 18, 20161 votes

Should read everything I've said before you jump to conclusions. I would play at a lower skill level because my smurf consists of champs I'm bad at. I cannot practice those champs properly in normals.

You can call it boosting, sure. I have no qualm with speeding up the process to gold if they've already been there in the past. What I'm doing doesn't fit Riot's definition of boosting. They even stuck in dynamic q to help.

TheorcheroOct 18, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Should read everything I've said before you jump to conclusions. I would play at a lower skill level because my smurf consists of champs I'm bad at. I cannot practice those champs properly in normals.

You can call it boosting, sure. I have no qualm with speeding up the process to gold if they've already been there in the past. What I'm doing doesn't fit Riot's definition of boosting. They even stuck in dynamic q to help.

So long as you don't go on another account leagues below you and talk shit while playing your OTP down there lol

GULAG 4 UOct 18, 20163 votes

Rip nb3

ManwalrusOct 18, 20163 votes

I think the reason that smurfs get demonized so much is because they're the next excuse after "I'm stuck in elo hell" and "Dynamic queue ruins all my games even though I'm in bronze 2 and it doesn't affect my matchmaking in any way" the amount of people who actually smurf is way lower than people think it is, it's just super convenient for someone to say "I lost, I must be matched against smurfs every game" rather than "Damn, that guy is better than me and I should try to improve"

General Esdeath Oct 18, 20163 votes

That's why I stopped watching NB3, he's cringe incarnate but all he does is smurf. He doesn't teach anymore.

NarsicusOct 18, 20162 votes

Going to have to agree that smurfing sucks, but at the same time I have friends who have relatively recently started league and have just begun to play against human opponents. We want to play together but throwing them against people with 2k+ games played just does not make for a decent learning experience.

So while I generally dislike the practice I am also doing it myself. I've been trying to stick to playing support for them or doing things I am just plain terrible at (like Shaco jungle) so that it evens out slightly, but it is still by far from a perfect solution.

At least it isn't ranked though (level 10 normals are serious business and all that), but the sheer number of smurfs at low levels and the general attitude of hostility has to be the single worst experience I have had with League since I started playing during season 1. And if it is insufferable for me I can only imagine how bad it is for people who are new to the game.

BlåbæretOct 18, 20162 votes

If would be in Riot's best interest to do something about smurfing. As it stands it makes up for a miserable gaming experience.

Meanie40Oct 18, 20161 votes

Given that there's no controls outside of Korea to prevent someone from creating another account, what do you propose they do about it?

Spicy RiceOct 19, 20161 votes

I mean, you could use korea's strategy and basically bind it to your ssn, but there would definitely be too much backlash :/

Meanie40Oct 20, 20161 votes

Yeah, there's no way in hell that gets allowed by Americans.

devdev463Oct 18, 20162 votes

I mean it is kind of a dick thing to do to beat up lower level players but it's not as bad an issue as many people make it out to be. Smurfs seriously climb do fast that they really aren't ruining low level games for very long at all until they are out of there.

And smurfing isn't just a problem in low elo either. There are also smurfs in plat and diamond shitting on kids too. Honestly I think the enemy being a smurf is just a lame excuse for bad players to excuse their mistakes. Smurfs don't have any inherent advantage other than probably more experience. Point is, they aren't just magically given leads, they take them. I think anyone getting destroyed by someone better should look at what they did wrong instead of wallowing in their own pity party because someone better than them destroyed them.

If you get your series wrecked by a smurf I would be pissed about that, but stop carrying about elo so much and people won't be nearly as bothered by losing to better players.

I do feel bad for those players though who are still new and can't properly dissect what is it the enemy is doing, because then you just lose and can't even learn from it. But like I said, the severity of this issue really isn't that bad.

XinZhao2WinNhaoOct 20, 20161 votes

I think if someone smurfs to make a 2nd account and just play normally that's okay. They'll rise to their level fast enough for us to not have to deal with them often.

If someone intentionally smurfs by throwing games to get into bronze I report them everytime.