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I would like to have a serious discussion about smurfing

nosafterburn·12/16/2015, 4:47:09 PM·1 votes·487 views

Look. Before you look up to see how bad I am at this game know that I'm not the best. I understand that I'm Bronze. I understand that it might sound like I'm complaining about smurfs, but I'm not. I am just curious as to why people smurf. I mean some instances I understand (i.e. new different region, hacked account, banned), but other than that what are the reasons? To play with my friends in their elo? Well if I'm in a higher elo i can understand wanting to help them become better players, but then how can it be fun for you? Your skill level is FAR superior to everyone else in the game. Doesn't this kind of mindset bring upon the troll mindset (Hmm, let me see what i can do to screw around. Its not like we won't win with me on the team)? Or do you smurf to beat players by a exceptionally large margin to feel superior? Is it because you wish to help your fellow regions playerbase? If so, good on you. Don't stop. Positivity brings nothing but growth imo. I don't know. I'm just kinda curious as to what makes people think they need to smurf and their reasoning behind it (especially in solo que). Makes interesting data. (I'm weird like that.)

10 Comments

KirynDawn12/16/2015, 4:52:50 PM2 votes

I smurf to duo q with my friends. Is it fun? No it's actually pretty frustrating trying to do my best to carry just like any elo. But they get better with each passing game especially when they (my friend(s)) are the ones feeding.

Krigjer12/16/2015, 4:58:54 PM2 votes

I originally created my smurfs (alternate accounts) because I didn't want my friends spectating me when I was new to the game and still learning. So if everyone was online, I'd just log into one of my many accounts. I keep them now for the same reason; if I don't want to be bothered I just play a smurf. Also because they have neat usernames so I don't have to pay for a change on my main every time. They are currently level 10 (with one smurf at 20) and if I could have started them at level 30 to avoid brand new players I would have.

But I'm also silver, so my skill threshold isn't exactly high once you level past 5 (or 10 and at the latest 15). Merely explaining my reasoning.

I've heard of high ELO players making smurfs to avoid queue times on their main (challenger queue is hell) OR to have a challenge (if I start bronze how long will it take me to climb to diamond by playing nothing but Janna support). I've met the latter in my games, for example.

Some people DO make smurfs just to stomp new players, but I feel like that number is absurdly small.

Serevas12/16/2015, 4:59:38 PM2 votes

I feel like a lot of people have smurfs simply for the mental reset and the ability to dodge games, but keep playing.

You typically get a 5 minute timer for dodging games, and that's fine, but people often want to keep playing so they switch to a different account to do so.

As to the mental reset, when you're having a particularly tough day of solo queue, sometimes you start to tilt, and when you tilt, sometimes you just need wins to give you that reset to your mental state, a lower ranked smurf can be an easy way of accomplishing that.

Also high elo players, Challenger/master tier, will often make smurfs to get into a game in less than 15-30 minutes.

Sarutobi12/16/2015, 7:33:34 PM2 votes

I have a secondary account. I don't want to call it a smurf because I really only use the account to play bot games when I just want to relax and not care. I don't think anyone should have a smurf account with the intent of using it to abuse te system. I can't stand it when I play with someone who is far superior than me. It's unfair and not fun.