New report option: SKILLED player!

Phil Fly·Dec 1, 2014·143 votes·7,332 views

So there is an existing report option in the game called "unskilled player", that given enough reports, lowers the MMR of that player, causing them to be placed in queue with lesser-skilled people.*****

So why not give the option to report someone for being "highly skilled"?

Provided that we get lower-skill players to report those people doing a bit too well;

(I'm talking the people with a score of 37 - 0 - 2)

#SUDDENLY:

Are you also a new player that simply is gifted at the game? No need to play with these noobs, let's get you to a higher skill level, so you can be challenged to learn new tactics and such!

Are you a dirty smurf who is trying to #rekt noobs for the lulz? Screw you, because you got reported so many times, you're eventually gonna be bumped back up to Gold, Plat, Diamond, wherever the hell you came from! (and we hope you stay there)

I'm not saying smurfing will be entirely preventable, but it'll clean up the game for a lot of new players, so they can peacefully enjoy learning the game with a nice learning environment.

And the poor level 15 smurf will be so confused when he's constantly matched up against people in Plat. Poor guy.

*****I appear to be mistaken, please excuse that.

84 Comments

AquariusGineDec 1, 201412 votes

I think this is an amazing idea. Helping to get rid of smurfs and rewarding good players from the trolls.

AbyssionKnightDec 1, 201410 votes

I'm reasonably certain unskilled player doesn't work the way you think it does.

I've found posts by Rioters stating it is used to find issues with their match making system, and that you wont get banned from such reports, but nothing stating your MMR gets lowered.

- Zileas on Unskilled player being for finding matchmaking issues. - Lyte stating it is not used for banning but matchmaking correction - At its release, Tamat stating what the report option is for. - Player Support page describes it as a report for when you feel there are matchmaking issues

The only place i've seen it explicitly mentioned that unskilled player lowers mmr is on the lol wiki, which does not provide a source (so i'm naturally skeptical). As a result, your skilled played report doesn't make sense.

A Slime AppearsDec 1, 20145 votes

They aren't going to say "unskilled player reports tank your elo" because the community would go apeshit.

Let me ask you this though, what do you think "matchmaking correction" means?

AbyssionKnightDec 1, 20143 votes

As the other posts I linked state, it relates directly to how they determine matches. The system itself more so than the individual player.

While gathering those posts, I also found posts by Lyte stating the unskilled player option was rather useless and he wants to remove it. If it had the function of directly effecting players, Lyte probably wouldn't be interested in removing it from the list. It's also one of the least used report options (which partially contributed to the above statement) so it isn't as though it's making a large impact on the community at large, even if it hypothetically did reduce someone's mmr after a significant amount of unskilled reports.

MrSexyHoboDec 1, 20142 votes

As the other posts I linked state, it relates directly to how they determine matches. The system itself more so than the individual player.

they use mmr to determine matchmaking. are you for real right now or just trying to argue a moot point?

CozarkianDec 1, 20144 votes

I think he is pointing out the difference between using a report to analyze an individual and the system itself. For individual analysis, the system could search for players with lots of unskilled reports and reduce their MMR. For system analysis, it could be a data collecting tool which is then used by Riot to edit their matchmaking system. If it is the latter (merely data collection) and the people that edit matchmaking haven't found it useful, then it isn't affecting matchmaking at all.

That said, I think unskilled is an important category as it will give butt-hurt elitist that lose a chance to report players who have a bad game (or to be fair, bad players) in a manner that can't contribute to false bans.

NosefDec 1, 20141 votes

I think he is pointing out the difference between using a report to analyze an individual and the system itself. For individual analysis, the system could search for players with lots of unskilled reports and reduce their MMR. For system analysis, it could be a data collecting tool which is then used by Riot to edit their matchmaking system. If it is the latter (merely data collection) and the people that edit matchmaking haven't found it useful, then it isn't affecting matchmaking at all.

That said, I think unskilled is an important category as it will give butt-hurt elitist that lose a chance to report players who have a bad game (or to be fair, bad players) in a manner that can't contribute to false bans.

Precisely, saved me the trouble of typing it myself, +1

But to the point at hand, I could only ever see this being implemented in the same way as "unskilled," wherein Riot uses it for data purposes only.

MM already works pretty well though. Whenever I log onto my smurf to play with my low level friends, there will be another smurf on the enemy to even things out. In the end, smurf vs smurf is infinitely better than having lvl 11 accts face 30s.

Phil FlyDec 1, 20143 votes

MM already works pretty well though. Whenever I log onto my smurf to play with my low level friends, there will be another smurf on the enemy to even things out. In the end, smurf vs smurf is infinitely better than having lvl 11 accts face 30s.

I think the world would be better if there were NO smurfs on any team. I get that people play with their low level friends, but I also see people who do so stomp the other team (I mean if you could stomp the other team, how could you resist?). However, this hurts your teammates just as much as it hurts the other team. If they play with too many smurfs on their own team, they may come to rely on these smurfs. I'm not saying all people who play with low level friends intentionally wreck the enemy team, but I know a good lot of them that do, and I've seen even more people whom I don't know do the same.

I personally think that no smurfs would be the best for the community.

Yandere CarryDec 6, 20141 votes

i think you are butthurt over losing. Smurfing is not an issue. Take a look at League accounts from another perspective.

So, instead of looking at it as "Todd" owns the accounts ToddX, ToddMeister, and Toddles. Look at it as 3 different people, all named Todd, whom each own one of those accounts. Assuming that all the Todds have equal skill, it changes absolutely nothing in the LoL system. No matter how you personally feel, the account ToddX, ToddMeister, and Toddles are all more skilled than you (in this instance).

I say this because when someone creates a second account, for all intents and purposes that is a completely new account. None of their Main's wins or losses help this new account. None of its runepages can cross over. What if it's just a high level Dota player? They will likely crush new players super f%$&ing hard. It doesn't matter. This is because with how the system is set up, each account is an entity separate from any other.

Phil FlyDec 6, 20142 votes

...Except runes/masteries aren't even what are what makes smurfs smurfs. It's their SKILL.

I mean, yeah, runes/masteries do help a bit. But they are the game changer here.

Yandere CarryDec 7, 20141 votes

exactly. imagine that each account is seperate from the others... For all intents and purposes they are just multiple people who are ALL better than you.

Der GrauDec 6, 20142 votes

You really missed the point here. It's about skill level. A for effort, though.

Tsukuy0m1Dec 1, 20146 votes

no for a couple reasons

1.) no one would ever do it. no one in league is nice enough to call someone skilled.

2.) if someone gets lucky and gets fed 15 kills by 10 minutes. its not that he is skilled. maybe his enemies are bad. so ud report him for skilled and accuse him of smurfing when in fact maybe he had a lucky game.

3.) seems really pointless

Phil FlyDec 1, 201444 votes

1.) no one would ever do it. no one in league is nice enough to call someone skilled.

Well it wouldn't have to be called "skilled". It could be called something else, like smurfing.

2.) if someone gets lucky and gets fed 15 kills by 10 minutes. its not that he is skilled. maybe his enemies are bad. so ud report him for skilled and accuse him of smurfing when in fact maybe he had a lucky game.

Yeah, but just like with reporting someone for "unskilled", it takes a good amount of reports to actually affect the MMR of a person. In other words, I doubt someone who is unskilled will get lucky and be fed like 10 games in a row.

3.) seems really pointless

This is what the smurfs say.

CaeziumDec 1, 20147 votes

I think it'd help cleanse away smurfs from low elo even faster. Although if you get a good streak of like... 10-20 games you can hit gold/plat anyways fairly quickly. (Really hard to do though)

SaevumDec 1, 20148 votes

1.) no one would ever do it. no one in league is nice enough to call someone skilled.

Well it wouldn't have to be called "skilled". It could be called something else, like smurfing.

2.) if someone gets lucky and gets fed 15 kills by 10 minutes. its not that he is skilled. maybe his enemies are bad. so ud report him for skilled and accuse him of smurfing when in fact maybe he had a lucky game.

Yeah, but just like with reporting someone for "unskilled", it takes a good amount of reports to actually affect the MMR of a person. In other words, I doubt someone who is unskilled will get lucky and be fed like 10 games in a row.

3.) seems really pointless

This is what the smurfs say.

The last line of the above Quote killed me. +1

junglerboy16Dec 1, 20145 votes

Give this man a cookie, genius idea. It really could help get rid of smurfs and also help differentiate players more quickly.

Phil FlyDec 1, 20145 votes

Wow, I've never seen a response like this from so many people! Too bad no red replies... #COUGH

BudupopsDec 1, 20145 votes

+1 Tired of smurfs

DeepSeaPandaDec 1, 20144 votes

Logged in to upvote this... If I could report a potential smurf and then that smurf had to play with other smurfs that would be perfect. Even if that player wasn't a smurf and was just really good at league they would still get to start playing with more advanced players from the start. I would totally use this function.

HrudDec 1, 20144 votes

I've actually wished for an option like that the last few weeks.

Riot please. I don't want plat+ in my games.

AtheosisXDec 1, 20144 votes

Reporting for smurfing is actually a good idea if it is actually taken into account so that people get moved up in matchmaking faster. Smurfing is a blight on this game as it basically amounts to griefing noobs.

FarRockBFDec 1, 20144 votes

Great idea. And if someone by "chance" gets super fed one game that won't change anything; he'll only get a few reports. If he does it 10 games in a row though...

ArknaDec 1, 20144 votes

I'm against it for a couple of reasons.

Players who are deliberately attempting to play at a rating beneath their skill level won't be affected by this. Using third party sites like lolking and op.gg, they watch to see what skill level the game currently places them at, and if it's too high, they throw games. Check their stats some times, and they nearly universally have insanely good stats on a couple of champions, and insanely bad stats on a couple of others. All your change does is accelerate the cycle of stomp/throw.
Your change negatively impacts new players. If I'm playing with my low level friends and get a bunch of "skilled player" reports, suddenly they're stuck against mid gold players instead of mid silver players, and are getting completely stomped every game.

Phil FlyDec 1, 20149 votes

Players who are deliberately attempting to play at a rating beneath their skill level won't be affected by this. Using third party sites like lolking and op.gg, they watch to see what skill level the game currently places them at, and if it's too high, they throw games. Check their stats some times, and they nearly universally have insanely good stats on a couple of champions, and insanely bad stats on a couple of others. All your change does is accelerate the cycle of stomp/throw.

Well if someone isn't playing like a smurf, then they aren't particularly disrupting a game a new players. Now throwing games is a whole new story, and not one for this thread.

Your change negatively impacts new players. If I'm playing with my low level friends and get a bunch of "skilled player" reports, suddenly they're stuck against mid gold players instead of mid silver players, and are getting completely stomped every game.

Well then you shouldn't play like a smurf, if you're playing with your new friends. Actually wait a second, did you just say you smurf?

#you are the problem.

ArknaDec 1, 20143 votes

Players who are deliberately attempting to play at a rating beneath their skill level won't be affected by this. Using third party sites like lolking and op.gg, they watch to see what skill level the game currently places them at, and if it's too high, they throw games. Check their stats some times, and they nearly universally have insanely good stats on a couple of champions, and insanely bad stats on a couple of others. All your change does is accelerate the cycle of stomp/throw.

Well if someone isn't playing like a smurf, then they aren't particularly disrupting a game a new players. Now throwing games is a whole new story, and not one for this thread.

Your change negatively impacts new players. If I'm playing with my low level friends and get a bunch of "skilled player" reports, suddenly they're stuck against mid gold players instead of mid silver players, and are getting completely stomped every game.

Well then you shouldn't play like a smurf, if you're playing with your new friends. Actually wait a second, did you just say you smurf?

#you are the problem.

I play with my friends on my main, and at high silver normal mmr, we're placed against sub 30s and high bronze players. If I get reported 5 games in a row for "skilled player", it bumps our average mmr up and instead of being placed against challenging but beatable opponents, they're placed against players that completely outclass them in all regards.

As for my first point, that's how smurfing works. If someone isn't INTENTIONALLY attempting to play below their skill level, they won't be playing against legitimate new players for very long. Your MMR is extremely volatile, especially with a low amount of games played. If you've only played 10 games and won all of them, you're not playing against new players anymore. You're playing against other smurfs.

As for the accusation of me smurfing, I don't. I just took the effort to understand how the system works so I'm not spewing nonsense in every other sentence.

DeynaTaggerungDec 2, 20144 votes

I think he was just joking about that. In either case to help your friend out you shouldn't be giving them a huge advantage in the game by playing good enough to get yourself "reported" for being too good. I mean, play support, or try a lane you don't have a lot of experience in. Not only will it improve your roundedness but it will allow them to learn with you but still have their own challenges.

ArknaDec 2, 20142 votes

I think he was just joking about that. In either case to help your friend out you shouldn't be giving them a huge advantage in the game by playing good enough to get yourself "reported" for being too good. I mean, play support, or try a lane you don't have a lot of experience in. Not only will it improve your roundedness but it will allow them to learn with you but still have their own challenges.

Dying is the games way of telling you that you did something wrong. For example, if you force a trade into a massive creepwave and I don't kill you, I'm reinforcing that bad habit. I'll explain your mistakes to you, but failure is a crucial part of the learning process.

DeynaTaggerungDec 2, 20144 votes

Except they don't know that fighting in the creep wave is why they died. Once they have most of the mechanics down then they can start seeing stuff like that but before that all you're doing is discouraging them and giving them no room to do the things they can do.

ArknaDec 4, 20141 votes

Except they don't know that fighting in the creep wave is why they died.

That's why I said,

I'll explain your mistakes to you

If I'm not playing well, what evidence is there that my advice is actually worth taking? Your in-game performance is the biggest indicator of your skill level to them, which in turn is the best metric for judging whether or not your advice is any good.

VolugeDec 2, 20142 votes

Your reasons are rather personal, you're mostly worried that you will get reported for being skilled when you're playing with friends whose normal elo is lower than yours, which would more often than not result in your friends being matched up against near impossible opponents for them while you would still have to fight quite a bit. There is a problem with this fear of yours, who would report you for being skilled in such a scenario? Your friends or possibly anyone in your team IF you manage to beat your opponent and do fairly well, whether you're with your friends or not doesn't change a thing, however, with the current report system, you can't honor someone AND report them, meaning that your teammates are more likely to honor you rather than report you. Your sole fear would require you to get reported by opponents who acknowledges your skills, yet again, you're more than likely to still be against opponents who you will have semi-problems with unless you intentionally kept your MMR low by various means.

Conclusion, your personal problems aren't big enough to oppose a system which could make your friends games much more balanced or fairer for that matter. Third party sites only have information about their recent games and their ranked stats, they aren't omnipotent when it comes to information. New and current players should both rejoice over the potential of being matched with players of their own "level" seeing as having to do "all the work" could potentially be seen as a bother by them, however if people recognize that they are doing "that", then they wouldn't have to stand out with such a bother as much.

ArknaDec 2, 20141 votes

you're more than likely to still be against opponents who you will have semi-problems with unless you intentionally kept your MMR low by various means.

For the purposes of matchmaking, the system uses an average of my teams MMR. If all we ever did was play as a group, you'd be correct. But when my friends go and play, they're using an inflated MMR that accounts for me being on their team, even if I'm not. They play a dozen games, lose the majority of them, and their MMR has normalized. Now when they're playing with me, our average is lower and I outclass my opponents quite handily.

Secondly, MMR doesn't exactly track your skill, it tracks your winrate. There's a lot of correlation, but a quirk of the ELO system when used for groups is that it's entirely possible for a single player to be noticeably better than his opponents. I may, as an individual, be a completely unfair match against any member of the enemy team, but as a team it's a much fairer game. My lane opponent may have went 0/12, but that doesn't necessarily mean my team will win the game. So while I may be significantly more skilled than my opponent, the system already accounted for that.

VolugeDec 2, 20141 votes

You're right, MMR doesn't keep track of your skill, it's intended to be like the sort, you win more often when you're better than your opponent, you lose more often when your opponent is even better than you, ofc, it's a team game, so your individual skill doesn't always affect whether you win or lose. If I'm not mistaken, when you queue together with someone, your mmr is somewhat heightened compared to when you solo, even if all of you have exactly the same mmr (the ones who decided to queue together that is). If their mmr has "normalized" after having lost plenty of games, that would imply that their solo mmr matches them against people who are supposedly "lower" than themselves, while their team mmr (even with you not there) matches them against people on their "level". It could be that I have misinterpreted something, but nonetheless, it could be that your friends aren't much different from newbies thus being matched with other people who could potentially be queueing together brings them great difficulties.

Aren't we hell-away-off-topic here? This isn't supposed to be about you, it's supposed to be about people who could potentially be "victims" of smurfs or good players and bringing a possible solution, well partly.

VolugeDec 2, 20141 votes

BloodwidowDec 1, 20143 votes

well i think its a good idea hope it gets approved:)

CupkekDec 2, 20143 votes

This needs to happen.

I'm sick of gold/plat people smurfing down to bronze or silver to make sure I stay stuck there.

VolugeDec 2, 20142 votes

I believe this would only affect normals seeing that normal elo is separated from ranked elo. Still, it could help balance newbies experiences.

Demented LemurDec 2, 20143 votes

This is a decent way to partially solve the problem but obviously it would never actually fully solve it

Now I understand that riot is justified in saying that there's no accurate way to deal with smurfs but

The least they could do is look on their own freaking forum and deal with the people advertising how there a platinum smurf streaming on twitch.

Im sorry but if RIot doesn't even address someone who is openly advertising the fact that there smurfing on their own website then how can they even say that there trying to fix the problem

Riot lets people get away with it right in front of their faces making other people thinking it's okay to do the same because riot doesn't address it

Wise SquirrelDec 2, 20142 votes

I like this idea. The only abuse I can imagine is someone using this to report players who they do not want to be matched against, but then again that itself is doing what the option is intended for, placing players that other players deem way better than them to get away from their ranking.

The fact that it is a "report option" makes it currently impossible for friends to boost you (Unless you make tons of friends, or friends ingame).

But they should also add a "Keeps nagging for "skilled player" " report option to gate players that annoy you with this ingame.

DeynaTaggerungDec 2, 20142 votes

I like the idea because it rewards players a bit for the intangibles as well. If you did really well in a game and carried your team but you still lost, then people could still report you as skilled and it would be some consolation (maybe less lp loss if you get 3 or more reports, dunno), or if you were and amazing support who... item 3070 oh, nobody cares about supports. But anyways it'd be useful there as well as for dealing with smurfs.

NhifuDec 1, 20141 votes

I agree smurphs are pretty annoying for low levels "leveling up"

but my best advice is to. . skill up quickly

You're in a Competitive environment - no one is waiting for you to improve other than yourself. Best bet is to play a shit ton, learn from mistakes and complain less. Maybe you'll make friends and get a ranked 5's past gold.

MrSlowDieDec 1, 201420 votes

I agree smurphs are pretty annoying for low levels "leveling up"

but my best advice is to. . skill up quickly

You're in a Competitive environment - no one is waiting for you to improve other than yourself. Best bet is to play a shit ton, learn from mistakes and complain less. Maybe you'll make friends and get a ranked 5's past gold.

This is a game, most of the players want to have fun, because of that ranked less popular than normal. Ofc they want to skill up, but not rushing their skills,

Rock RockburghDec 1, 20148 votes

Agreed. I'd love to see this implemented primarily because People Suck, and some take League way too seriously. If you're going to be messing with the system to match you against less-skilled players (smurfing) because you want to win at all costs, then you're the problem. I actually have a lower-level account myself, so I'm not really the best to speak about this, but it's definitely a problem. (In my defense, my first nineteen summoner levels on this account were primarily ARAM. I didn't stand much chance once I moved to the Rift.)

As you said, it's a game. A lot of people play just for fun. (Though they often don't post here, which is unfortunate.) They shouldn't have to put up with people who are much better than them, and this would simultaneously help the new players who don't really know what's going on (by limiting smurfs) and the new players who are just shockingly good (by matching them with others of their skill more quickly.)

AtheosisXDec 1, 20145 votes

This is a very unhealthy attitude and I hope Riot doesn't agree with you. People who have a miserable experience with a game for their first dozen or so hours are generally going to stop playing. And few things are more miserable in gaming than being on the wrong side of noob match with a Diamond smurf.

Nin10do0014Dec 2, 20143 votes

The problem here, though, is that this will drive new players away. As djPWall posted 2 months ago, this game will drive new players away because of the unfair match-up against smurfs. It is ethically unfair to provide new players an unhealthy environment where they cannot learn a game while having fun. It simply violates a classic philosophy of gaming where the focus of gaming is to have fun. Being new to the game does not warrant a punishment of a horrible learning experience.

Additionally, smurfing often violates the Summoner's Code in two ways. First off, smurfs receive the glory of demolishing new players at the expense of the new player's gaming experience, violating Code IV: Enjoy Yourself, but not at Anyone Else's Expense. A new player should not suffer a frustrating experience just so some Platinum Smurf can receive the glory of an easy win.

Also, Code VIII: Leave No Newbie Behind dictates that new players should receive assistance with learning, and it is ethically reasonable to help new players adjust to the game. Besides, it would be hypocritical to punish players for being new since every single one of us, as players, started where those new players were. Sure, there are a few players who made it without assistance, but that does not take away from the fact that we all started out as newbies. Just do the right thing and help a new player out.

And I do not see how the OP has a "very unhealthy attitude" as he/she wishes to improve the experience of League to many people. Quite personally, I am not fond of seeing smurfs anywhere, even on my team. I see smurfing as an unethical act, and I believe it is ethically unfair to punish new players by smurfing.

DaCushDec 1, 20141 votes

Ya sure. Every time I stomped my lane I would just tell the opponents in post game report to report me as smurf so that they wouldnt have to deal with me anymore and I could move up elo even though none of it was true

Hullabaloo907Dec 1, 20146 votes

except then you get paired with people who are better than you and lose more.

Yandere CarryDec 6, 20141 votes

except many players can play lane at a much higher level than they can anything else in the game.