Smurfs in low ELO is a massive problem stemming from ranked being badly designed

fountainAFK·Aug 6, 2019·4 votes·1,254 views

I'm not silver (as can be seen on my op.gg, but this acc was placed in silver 4 after my promotion games. And this is a problem.

Did the system really think I was silver? Probably not.

I'm just one person but this happens to a lot of people smurfing, they get placed very far from where they belong. This results in your average silver game getting stacked with people that are everything from low gold to masters+ (and then a few players that probably should have been placed in bronze/iron). This makes climbing in silver a nightmare and a roll of dice. "Did matchmaking favour you with more and better smurfs" becomes the question as you struggle to climb.

This is just an anecdote but winning in silver was much harder for me than winning games in plat/gold games has been so far on this account. I don't recall the exact number but I think I were stacking a low 53-54% win rate in silver because I was going up against so many smurfs that seemed to be diamond 1 or something, and they just snowballed like crazy in mid/top. Then when I got to plat game became much easier. And win rates went up to like 59-60%.

I think the "smurf problem" where smurfs can single-handedly decide a lot of games sucks for low ELO's trying to make an honest climb. I think the problem comes from how the ranked system insists on placing high ELO smurfs in ranks they CLEARLY don't belong to. If say an adc is packing 10 cs/min while dishing out most damage, don't place that person silver, if a player in normal's always get's matched with diamonds, don't place that player silver, because they are not silver - and you know it.

I also don't like how the system is making it so hard for smurfs to climb. Some days ago I saw a silver 2 player with like 90% winrate get matched against me on this acc. I stomped this player during a promotion, but was this really fair to them? To "prove" they deserved to go from silver 2 to silver 1 they had to beat a team of all plat. This person was clearly not silver and the ranked system knew it too, yet the system does all in its power to keep them silver for longer and make their climb super challenging by having their promos in silver be against plat.

The ranked system should IMO be nicer to smurf accounts and just let them climb faster/easier so they can stop making silver/gold/plat games such a dice roll

9 Comments

DuskDaUmbreonAug 6, 20192 votes

How tf are they supposed to change it for when you're freshly placed? They can't just throw you right into diamond because you stomped.

EybdoogAug 6, 20192 votes

You are 100% correct. This has been a serious problem for me and everyone just told me to shut up and “git good”. I eventually just stopped playing because as I got better I started realizing games were actual coin flips and my skill was irrelevant most of the time

EY3 Tyr4nTAug 7, 20192 votes

yea the shit gets old with smurfs in a lot of the games but its not going to ever stop so no point getting too upset about it,it just makes me not take ranked all that serious.as its a coinflip every game which team got the plat smurf.after the games we win cause of them they always have this shit attitude like we should be grateful they were there to carry the game but i always tell em go lose in their own elo and stop messing ours up so badly.

22 Caliber RifleAug 6, 20191 votes

When I tell people I have a smurf account, they all laugh and suggest that i was boosted.... but its quite the opposite. Its kinda embarrassing that my smurf is a higher rank then my main and the reason behind that is bc of low MMR issues and other problems that happen in game (mostly out of my control).

BTW:

Main acc - Gold IV 46% w/r
Smurf acc - Plat II 60% w/r

CrazyMonkeyCZAug 6, 20192 votes

BTW: Main acc - Gold IV 46% w/r Smurf acc - Plat II 60% w/r

This is why I'm always telling hardstuck ppl to try new acc. Not only that they will start with fresh acc, but they won't be so stressed from possible loses, since it's simply smurf acc and they will imo perform even better than on their main.

5050BSAug 6, 20192 votes

Its because Riot shit MMR system hard locks accounts. The system does not allow for you to improve over time. It was designed by a first year collage student that had no clue what they were doing and is honorably flawed but Riot wont spend any time correcting it because that would not forward their only interest ($$)

22 Caliber RifleAug 7, 20191 votes

Exactly, the problem here is the "low MMR" bs that is put in place to punish players who under perform and lose games, this is also a double edged sword where you can perform well but lose MMR because someone on your team decides to run it down or feed their ass off. From previous experience of Gold ELO and below, if someone feeds their ass off its literally game over, no coming back unless the enemy team manages to make a really large misplay. Im not saying that I need every single kill in the game to win the game but sometimes that can be factor in wins and loses.

Remove low MMR problems and maybe promos and the community maybe much happier with the system.... I do maybe