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Is curbstomping acceptable behavior and, if so, why?

LegendaryLemur·4/24/2015, 11:09:56 PM·15 votes·2,319 views

This got deleted from Team Recruitment, which is where i think it belongs, so i guess i'll post it here?

[Deleted] Is curbstomping acceptable behavior and, if so, why? LegendaryLemur (NA) submitted 16 minutes ago in Team Recruitment

I've been noticing multiple threads recently made by high elo players looking to gather high elo smurfs to play normals. This is the same mode where novices are first getting their feet wet, so it results in curbstomps.

As far as I know this behavior isn't against Riot's rules, but it certainly seems to me that it violates the Golden Rule ("Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.")

I'm at a loss for how people justify these curbstomps to themselves morally. I'm not willing to accept that there are this many sociopaths in the community, even if its easier to ignore empathy through the veil of anonymity provided by the internet.

I can see how someone might want to smurf if they are struggling and not very good at the game so want to retry at a lower level, or if they want to team up with novice friends. I'm only referring to groups of high-elo smurfs who play together, presumably with the intention of curbstomping.

Is it that it's so widespread that the mentality has become "well if everyone else does it, why can't I"? I just can't seem to wrap my head around any justifiable ethical resoution. Would anyone who's participated in curbstomps (on the stomping side) care to comment?

DeepInYouAGAIN (NA)

  • 11 minutes ago

puts hair on your chest

Shinichu (NA)

  • 10 minutes ago

They will be matched w the newcomers at first but then their high normal mmr will match them with other smurfs. this has been said before.

Edit : The mmr is hidden but it's there

redniwediS (NA)

  • 11 minutes ago

My understanding is that it is a byproduct of the current policy. In order to maintain the current amount of account creating freedom we have we have to put up with certain things, like skilled players smurfing. Riot either does not or currently cannot find a way to limit this behavior without infringing on players who are following sportsmanlike behavior to an unacceptable degree.

This is, of course, just my opinion on the matter. Hopefully either a Rioter ends up replying here or someone with an older source links it.

David Wu (NA)

  • 10 minutes ago

the golden rule ayy ylmaoooo

LegendaryLemur (NA)

  • 7 minutes ago

    [QUOTE}redniwediS (NA) - 11 minutes ago

    My understanding is that it is a byproduct of the current policy. In order to maintain the current amount of account creating freedom we have we have to put up with certain things, like skilled players smurfing. Riot either does not or currently cannot find a way to limit this behavior without infringing on players who are following sportsmanlike behavior to an unacceptable degree.

    This is, of course, just my opinion on the matter. Hopefully either a Rioter ends up replying here or someone with an older source links it.[/QUOTE]

To clarify my intent, i'm not asking why Riot doesn't attempt to forbid it, i'm asking how the people who participate in it justify it to themsleves on an ethical level.

Guardian4585 (NA)

  • 8 minutes ago

I cant remember what Youtuber said it but he said "playing in low elo,even if yer high elo,can really mess you up." Basicly what he said was If your Diamond for example then go play vs Bronze for say 2 weeks youll get used to players making bigger mistakes rather than in Diamond where they wont make mistakes as bad. then youll go back to your diamond elo name where people are good and great at the game. youll get wrecked pretty easily against them because your used to the terrible mistakes people make.

LegendaryLemur (NA)

  • 7 minutes ago

    [QUOTE] Shinichu (NA) - 12 minutes ago

    They will be matched w the newcomers at first but then their high normal mmr will match them with other smurfs. this has been said before.

    Edit : The mmr is hidden but it's there[/QUOTE]

Yes i'm aware of that, but i've seen people recruiting for high-elo smurf parties pre-level 10, and i can't imagine the novices get filtered out until level 20 or so (1 in 1000 novices will win their first 10 games if they are matched against other novices, which already is giving at least this subset a high mmr).

redniwediS (NA)

  • 6 minutes ago

    [QUOTE] LegendaryLemur (NA) - 12 minutes ago

    To clarify my intent, i'm not asking why Riot doesn't attempt to forbid it, i'm asking how the people who participate in it justify it to themsleves on an ethical level.[/QUOTE]

Well, my understanding of that is these people don't view it as an ethical problem. They are simply playing a game and having fun. The issue of that fun coming at the expense of others does not come to mind for them, or if it does they simply do not care about it.

86 Comments

LegendaryLemur4/24/2015, 11:20:10 PM3 votes

{quoted}

Well, my understanding of that is these people don't view it as an ethical problem. They are simply playing a game and having fun. The issue of that fun coming at the expense of others does not come to mind for them, or if it does they simply do not care about it.

Well that leaves me back wondering how so many people can be sociopaths.

JedenVojak4/25/2015, 12:51:41 AM3 votes

I would say, "Because they can."

Aside from that, so people who are high elo are not allowed to get a bunch of friends together to form a new character team and start up from the bottom?

"Sorry dude, you're just to skilled to play at this level, you're not allowed to make a new account and play with your friends."

Normally I get pretty annoyed when people say something stupid along the lines of "Psh, you're below gold/plat/diamond/whatever so your opinion doesn't matter", but you're even worse than those jerk-heads - at least they're not contending that people shouldn't even be allowed to play the game.

Your contention is that, once people reach a certain level of skill in the game, they should never be allowed to create a new accounts with friends at all, at least, vs normal people? They must play bots?

Who do you think you are?

KGBcommunist4/25/2015, 5:54:18 PM2 votes

Smurfs can seriously fuck right off. They ruin the game and experience for newer players and theres a special place in hell for them. If any of you smurf and do it too dominate lesser opponents, please uninstall. -rage mode over

disregardable4/24/2015, 11:13:08 PM1 votes

Team Recruitment isn't really for discussing the recruitment of teams/team dynamics/the purpose of game modes. It's just literally for "Looking for Diamond Smurf to Boost Me", etc.

ValyrianBlade4/24/2015, 11:26:06 PM1 votes

I'd say they're primarily doing it to win every game they play and thus gain more IP (and XP?) per game to get the smurf to 30 as fast as possible and with as many champions/runes as possible.

These smurf teams will win their first 30 games most likely and at this point they'll be level 8-10 and will be getting matched up with level 20+ players. If they're still stomping they'll get level 12-13 and be matched against level 30s. Heck, when I first started I had watched friends play and had general game knowledge and thus had a good win-rate early on and I was matched against level 30s as early as level 11 (these were likely duo queues though) and was regularly matched with almost only level 30s after level 18 (I remember explicitly thinking it was really unfair that all of my opponents had access to all runes/masteries and I couldn't use the top tier mastery and didn't have any runes since I was saving for tier 3s).

The point being, I think their justification is:

  1. For a while, even if they're the only smurf in the game they'll stomp just as hard
  2. Any bad luck with teammates resulting in them not being able to carry a game will set back their elo-soaring-abilities and result in more games being played against significantly worse players
  3. They're looking to win every game easily so as to get the most IP possible
  4. It's more fun to play with friends - leveling to 30 the first time was a grind at times (especially levels 27-30 when you're almost there) and I can't imagine doing it again, so if anyone is they probably want to chat and goof off along the way.