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Summoner Slots: A solution to smurfing and player toxicity

Superbian·5/24/2014, 11:32:29 PM·40 votes·9,073 views

Posted on Reddit, made Front Page; (http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/26dvz7/summoner_slots_a_solution_to_smurfing_and_player/)

Smurfing is one of the largest inducers of toxic behavior in League of Legends, and its existence hurts the playing experience of new players, and inhibits the learning process. It's clear that a change needs to be made. Here is my suggestion for what Riot can do to revamp the smurfing system.

Introducing "Summoner Slots"

  1. Each Account gets 2 Summoner Slots to start, a Primary and a Secondary. Additional Summoner Slots may be purchased with either RP or IP, up to a maximum of 5. This would allow Riot to make up Revenue lost by including other changes. Players punished through the tribunal would not be allowed to start new Summoners, or access previously started Secondary Summoners for a specific length of time. This would help prevent toxic smurf accounts. (Suggested Cost: 975 RP or 13,500 IP)

  2. Secondary Summoner Accounts begin at level 1, have access to the same 10 Free Week Champions at the start, and cannot be accessed unless the Primary Summoner is level 30.

  3. All Summoners on the Account share RP and IP. Secondary Summoners earn IP at an 80% rate until they reach level 30. Secondary Summoners earn EXP at a 150% rate.

  4. Secondary Summoners do not unlock their own Champions. With each level gained, a Secondary Account may unlock one Champion already unlocked on their Primary Summoner, for use on their Secondary. An additional five Champions may be unlocked at levels 10 and 20. At level 30, the Secondary Summoner gains access to every Champion unlocked by the Primary Summoner.

  5. Each Secondary Summoner has its own MMR, and similar to a soft reset, that MMR begins at the halfway point between your Primary Summoner's MMR, and 1200. This helps prevent Diamond/Challenger Smurfs from being thrown in with Bronze/Silver players in the early levels.

  6. Players are not allowed to have multiple accounts (Possible enforcement issues not with-standing). Any tribunal punishment earned on a Summoner applies to all Summoners on the Account. The combination of these two factors forces players to behave if they want to continue to play. Right now, even banned Pro Players just openly create new accounts and keep playing, often without improved behavior. Potential removal of a player's ability to play League of Legends should prove a much better motivator of good behavior.

  7. Secondary Summoners are able to use all tier 1 Runes their Primary owns at level 1, and unlocks all tier 2 at level 10, and all tier 3 at level 20.

  8. Secondary Summoners unlock rune and mastery slots, and Summoner Spells, at the same rate as Primary Summoners.

  9. Summoners share a revamped Friends list that allows viewing of all summoners on a specific friend's account by hovering or clicking name.

Additional Benefits:

  • Seamless transition between Summoners without having to log out of the client. Smurf Accounts get matched against players of similar skill based on a more realistic MMR, rather than new players. Eliminating toxic smurf-related experiences for new players.
  • Allows players access to content they've already unlocked on their main, on their smurf.

Possible Issues

  • Potential loss of Revenue from Skin and Champion purchases on Smurfs could make system unsustainable. Possible Solution could be discounted price to unlock champs/skins already owned on Primary, for Secondary (ex. unlock already owned 975 skins for 487).

  • Possible Match-making issues with Secondary Accounts being matched with higher level, but not higher skilled players, who have access to more Runes/Masteries/Summoner Spells.

  • Client Related difficulties. Would likely have to be incorporated into new/reworked Client.

53 Comments

RiotBuboBubo5/25/2014, 8:10:43 AM8 votes

Hey Superbian, thanks for the well written and constructive post. The depth of your wrietup shows that you have spent a lot of time working on the details and preempting some concerns - great work!

To help flesh this out more, I think one critical area would be to list out the main reasons people make smurfs and make sure those needs are met, otherwise people will continue to have an incentive to make smurfs and the problem would be unsolved.

Also like you mentioned in point 6 - if the success of this hinges upon people not being able to make multiple accounts then this might be a big risk. Afaik there is no great way to limit this in most of our regions.

Edit: I am not on the relevant team to say yay or nay on this, just wanted to provide suggestions for strengthening the idea and to raise some of the potential shortcomings

Lao Fu the Tiger5/25/2014, 4:17:59 PM4 votes

I may be completely wrong about this, but I see a good idea that can't possibly be implemented. It simply isn't really possible to stop somebody from creating an entirely new account on the same computer without restricting IP addresses, and restricting IP addresses can cause severe undesired problems.

toiR Spindermaan5/25/2014, 12:03:45 AM3 votes

With the exception of points 3 and 4 I like this suggestion and I hope that Riot really looks into it. But every account should have separated champions, runes and skins. Making them available or discounted is not going to work aka you'll have to buy them again if you need. So - exclude the unlocking stuff - this is never going to happen. The MMR should be determined as a seasonal soft reset. Another hassle is going to be the already existing alt accounts but Riot could just let us merge them although I don't see it happen for different regions...

Rubitonabuilding5/25/2014, 4:04:39 PM2 votes

I like some of the suggestions here, but I don't think anything Riot implements will stop people from smurfing and ruining the experience of honest players. Being a free game, there is no cost to making a new account (all you need is a different email address), and it would be really hard to enforce a limit on accounts. So even if these ideas worked for a while, people would soon find a way around them.

A simpler solution IMO would be a temporary (or permanent) IP ban (internet protocol, not influence points) for people who are punished regularly in the tribunal. People who misbehave would be completely blocked from playing League of Legends on that computer for a period. This way, you can't just switch over to a new account by simply using a different email address, and if you're acting stupid or toxic on a smurf account, you end up locked out from your main account too. This would accomplish the same goal I think you're trying to achieve, without a hugely complex and potentially costly overhaul of the client.

I personally have never seen the appeal of creating a smurf account, even though a couple of my friends have smurfs.

P(o)ros:

  • if you play League on the same computer as a family member or friend who also plays League, you'll have to face their wrath if you get an IP ban.
  • it would probably drastically reduce the number of smurfs and toxic ragers
  • it's the same consequences you're asking for without being so complex
  • no real need for a client overhaul/rework, I'm pretty sure IP bans are fairly simple.

WuCons:

  • Proxy servers are a thing
Sir ArmaMalum5/25/2014, 3:10:05 AM2 votes

I like and respect the effort and thought put into this idea. Slot mechanics have worked very well in many games and are a great way to provide account versatility.

However, I'm still stuck on how this will address the problems smurfing creates. 3 and 5 are active efforts to thwart it yes, but this seems to me as a system that actually encourages smurfing. No matter how you spin it, it's still bringing a more experienced and knowledgeable players into the <30 pool and pitting them against other <30's that may or may not be fellow smurfs. As I said, 3 and 5 does contribute against that by decreasing their time there and making their time less of a cakewalk, but there will still be a period of time where higher level players get access to lower level players as is the purpose of smurfing, to abuse the matchmaking system.

There is also the inevitable issue that strikes any established system. Assuming people will follow it. There are still no additional barriers preventing someone from making an entirely new account anyway.

Now don't take this as an attempt to shut down of your idea, but I would like to debate it's overall effectiveness towards the given issue.

Edit: Also I apologize of this has been brought up in the Reddit thread already, I am slowly glancing through it now.

Superbian5/25/2014, 2:11:30 PM2 votes

I think these would be the main reasons people make smurfs

  • To help a friend(s) learn the game

In this situation, the player should not be unduly punished for doing what should be a good thing; teaching the game. The problem is, the very existence of this player in a new player game is toxic to that game. Unfortunately, smurfing in this situation is the current best solution. At least, if you smurf, you're not bringing your superior runes/masteries/summoners/MMR into the game, which would be even more damaging.

Solution: This is arguably the hardest to fix. There's only so much you can do to equalize the playing field. Making the Secondary Summoner's MMR closer to their true MMR does solve this problem somewhat. The problem here is a matter of choice. You are choosing to smurf. Your opponent isn't given a choice in the matter. New Players can't choose not to face smurfs. Thus, the best solution is to make the "smurf" have an MMR closer to their real MMR. This puts the choice in the correct person's hands. The New Player. The New Player can either choose to play alone, or with similarly skilled players, or play with their experience friend and accept the fact that the players he will be matched with will have a higher skill because of the "smurfs" enhanced MMR. It's not the ideal solution. Which could be some kind of Coaching Que, but there are already so many ques, would it have enough people to be viable?

  • To Pub Stomp New Players

This is what we would call overt, or intentional, toxicity. Willfully ruining the game for five other people for the sake of your own ego is, in my opinion, pretty pathetic. These people do not belong in the system. So the solution will attempt to prevent this, rather than incorporate them into the game, like in point 1.

Solution: The fix here is two-fold. First, we tie the Secondary Summoners, or "Smurfs" to the Main Account's MMR. Since you must have a level 30 Primary Summoner to have a Secondary Summoner in this system, Match-Making can be tuned to recognize a Secondary Summoner, and take that into its calculations for team MMR. This prevents experienced players from being matched with new ones. This tethering of accounts also means Tribunal Punishments more accurately remove the player from the player pool for the intended time. It's not a perfect solution, but it's a better one than the current system.

For this system to really work, some form of Account Verification would be needed to help prevent multiple accounts as a work-around. One possibility is text verification. Yahoo/Google already use this for their email accounts. A code gets texted to the player, that they then have to enter into the system to confirm their account creation. I work for AT&T and I can say with some certainty that the saturation of the cell phone market means that this system would exclude very few people. You can make any number of email addresses, but the number of cell phone numbers is limited.

A Fresh Start

Sometimes, a Player just wants a fresh start. Whether they are bored with the game, or their MMR got buried due to some bad placement luck (I went 2-8 this season, 28-17 since). I'm confident I can work my way back to where I should be, but for some people, it's really disheartening when you get dropped more than a whole tier back. Whatever the case, this system solves this situation well.

*Solution; The Soft Reset of the MMR, places the Player's Secondary Summoner closer to the Median, giving them a fresh chance to get themselves above the Median. Allowing access to previously unlocked Runes/Champions over time makes the prospect of starting over less daunting. As does the innate EXP boost Secondary Summoners would get. They've already proven they deserve to be at level 30. *

To Answer the Question of why we don't just make Secondary Accounts start at 30, I think this creates a situation where a player has too much of a good thing. A Player should not be able to repeatedly make Secondary Accounts until they have a Placement Series they accept.

Lady Luck5/26/2014, 12:45:03 AM1 votes

I kind of like this idea to an extent... I started leveling my smurf so I could practice playing roles I'm not as familiar with from an earlier level. (Getting one CS per wave was much more acceptable at level 10 than it is at 30.)

For this reason my biggest issue is what I understand of your number 4. "Secondary Summoners do not unlock their own Champions. With each level gained, a Secondary Account may unlock one Champion already unlocked on their Primary Summoner" sounds like I would have to unlock a champion on my primary in order to practice on my secondary. But since I smurf to try new roles - I often don't even own the champion on my primary account... So I'd have to basically buy a champion twice in order to practice at a lower level.

Also as others have said.... The name is another reason I like to have my smurf :) I love the name Lady Luck - and it's something that I can give out to people when I cosplay because it's easy to remember. My main account is limited to only people I know personally.

lonetrey5/26/2014, 3:28:53 AM1 votes

Definitely an intriguing idea. Hopefully, people who are more knowledgeable about this topic will chime in with their opinions and maybe this idea might get off the ground!

JackYAqua5/26/2014, 12:12:48 PM1 votes

Aren't Smurf accounts usually made to achieve the friend invitation rewards?

Rhyto5/26/2014, 5:41:01 PM1 votes

Have you guys seen how the Korean accounts are set up? I don't know if there's any smurfing over there.

Water of Eden5/26/2014, 10:47:30 PM1 votes

The reason I made a smurf was to try new champions and see if I could play them without wasting IP on my primary account. I spammed Zed on my smurf to get some practice on him before I spent a hefty 6300 IP on him (I had an IP boost on my smurf).

ShadowNinetails5/25/2014, 5:01:54 AM1 votes

I really love this idea as long as there are ways of enforcing it accurately. Would suck to be that guy that gets permabanned because he shares a computer with his brother.

Rift Janitor5/27/2014, 6:38:37 PM1 votes

People that are in high elo create smurfs because the wait time for a game can take up to 30 min of waiting so they create a smurf to play the game.

Noxe Out5/25/2014, 1:06:45 PM1 votes

Well thought out but I guarantee you that this will never be implemented. There is too much loss of revenue, no reason to stop smurfing. At any rate, there is already smurf detection so even if you make a smurf it will get detected pretty fast.

Again it's well thought out but personally I love getting on my smurf and messing around lower elo. I would just do it again, I wouldn't even use this feature.

Fatalion Panic5/25/2014, 8:36:20 PM1 votes

Look what I found: http://46.29.19.99/

A nice list of cheaters.