New players have no chance in pvp.

The Ruin Sage·2/23/2015, 8:43:46 AM·74 votes·6,549 views

my cousin who is new to league tried to play a few games on his account after he did bot matches to level 5 and as soon as he decides to try pvp it is literally infested with silver gold and plat smurfs that are just getting off on killing new players. his team has the nerve to call him a noob for dying...well yeah hes a noob, hes level 5. but now he decided to quit league because he cant get any meaningful practice against players of his skill level. is there anything being done about the extremely high amount of smurfs or is this something riot is turning a blind eye to?

143 Comments

Balderdash10002/23/2015, 12:01:48 PM24 votes

tell him to play a bit more. The smurfs go up in elo, while the new people go down. He shouldn't have to deal with them for that long.

Facy2/23/2015, 11:52:02 AM19 votes

Play more, drop in MMR, play against bad ppl.

AquariusGine2/23/2015, 1:20:16 PM16 votes

I think you should practice in bots until lvl 15 before you pvp

BallisticMouse2/23/2015, 10:41:47 PM11 votes

First of all, Silver is the skill level of average players. Saying someone is a Silver smurf is basically just calling them any other player.

More on topic, This is horribly true. Many people have suggested a report option for "Too Skilled" so that those smurfs would get bumped up against higher players.

Meep Man2/23/2015, 12:45:58 PM5 votes

Theres no use in playing in normal matches these days till Level 15-20 or so.

iainB852/23/2015, 4:57:09 PM5 votes

It's not really the player's fault... Riot makes you start from scratch if you want more than one account -- what are players supposed to do?

While some players would still play at low level just to ruin people's days the problem would be WAY less if people that already have level 30 accounts could make alternate accounts at least at level 15 or 20.

ApplyForAGrant2/23/2015, 10:16:33 PM5 votes

A simple change Riot can do to help new players is make their recommended builds not bullshit

B00B002/23/2015, 7:32:52 PM4 votes

i've levelled a smurf recently, just to play ranks in during half term and i have to say its really not as bad as people make out most i run into where happy to help and inform new players got the odd noob etc comment but most of those go away really fast.

just saying my experience.

proud and bronze2/23/2015, 5:31:29 PM3 votes

its true. level 5 is harder than silver 5

Mcprowlington2/23/2015, 3:12:46 PM3 votes

Interesting, I picked this game up around 2 months ago for the first time. I played intermediate bots till I was well over level 10 I think. Terrified, thinking "real players are probably incredible". Then I got bored of playing bots and thought screw it, lets just try playing real people. I was absolutely amazed at how easy it was to fight real players that made constant mistakes after fighting bots that made what felt like none at the time. I was so mad I waited so long. I'm sorry your friend is frustrated, but

he decided to quit league because he cant get any meaningful practice

isn't fighting against better players that don't have the advantages of full runes and masteries the most meaningful practice you can get?

But yeah, when I first started playing I hardly remembered any tough smurfs, though I do remember some people calling themselves smurfs and then laughing to myself as they gave first blood. Even if there was, smurfing can be a pretty difficult thing to combat beyond what riot has already done. How exactly would you plan on solving it?

Wolf3832/23/2015, 7:35:21 PM2 votes

This isn't a problem, I have a friend who has never played a MOBA before, and she hasn't complained about people stomping a lot at all.

I've made a smurf, and haven't noticed many other smurfs.....I have no clue how people have these problems.

FunkmasterFunk2/23/2015, 7:48:19 PM2 votes

I played about 2 bot games to figure out the purpose of the game, then played pvp all the way up to 30. I knew about smurfs but I was totally ok with them because I was learning how to play efficiently at a much quicker pace. Playing with other awful players is like getting piano lessons from someone that's been playing a week longer than you. Sure, a piano teacher might consider you a noob, but they have much more valuable information to share with you so that you don't get into a habit of making mistakes.

Xengre2/23/2015, 5:37:49 PM2 votes

Only smurfs? Lucky, I have a few friends who got into League from work and they, not even level 20 for some, are getting matched regularly with at least one or more actual golds/plats/and sometimes diamonds (with all their runes, etc.) and often in premades while they aren't in any premades on their own team full of unranked sub 30s. The system absolutely needs fixed. It causes a few of them to only play bots.

Celeste Benal2/23/2015, 4:49:54 PM2 votes

There are plenty of folks with decent or even really goo dgame skills that are just trying out a new champ in bots or normals. This is normal. Tell your cousin to keep playing. But level 5? Should really play more bots. Level 5 is like 10-15 games? That isn't smurfs, that's just she has no concept of the game yet. She needs more practice.

Rinky Dinky2/24/2015, 12:51:44 AM1 votes

He's probably going to have to do what i did when i first started playing.

Which is simply play with friends and have them explain what is going on.

Watching youtube video's is also helpful.

The learning curve for this game, no, moba's in general is very very steep.

Your hand feels awkward on the qwer keys. You forget you have summoner spells. Not only that, but actives, and then the extra commands, this game really just needs a better tutorial. So many little things that make a big difference can take months to figure out yourself. I didn't know that the green lights above portraits were ult's for the longest time, let alone knowing that you can cast spells on allies by using said portraits!

Itemization, last hitting, matchup's, skill order, ROLES, the jungle, epic monsters.

When people called adc, top, etc etc, I had no idea wtf they were talking about. Thank the meme lords I had friends to help me out.