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Way, way, way to many smurfs, I havent played one game without smurfs...

arcusaeterna·4/8/2016, 3:52:55 PM·1 votes·1,796 views

So i recently moved to europe, and so i created a new league account here. From the first game, and every game after there were smurfs, usually about 3-4 per team. I figured it was just because i'm not a beginner myself, and was actually happy to see that i got matched against smurfs, means rito's systems for sorting out smurfs are working.

However I got some friends of mine to try the game out, and in the games we played together there were smurfs, the same amount as previously too. Eventually they decided to quit the game, because "it's no fun, almost every game is a loss, and we just get stomped by far better players". And this happened at about level 7 mind you.

I just dont understand why so many people are smurfing, there are more smurfs than new players at low ranks, and that in itself isnt bad, except that those new players rarely go easy on the new players, give advice, or be generally nice people. Instead of "Next time watch out for the enemy turret, they deal quite a bit of damage" its always something like "WTF, is this Riven retarded? Stop feeding Idiot!!" followed by an "you just lost us the game, piece of shit"

The whole idea of pubstomping low levels doesnt apply anymore either, simply because there are 2-4x as many smurfs as new players to stomp.

I really hope Riot can find a way to address this issue, and hope players who smurf can finally stop smurfing, or actually help lower levels. Rant over :) have a nice day

EDIT: sorry, what i forgot to mention: 1. My account is currently lvl 14. 2. They have played games alone or together, those were more the reason they quit. When we played together i told them to expect this.

6 Comments

My Sea Cow4/8/2016, 3:56:32 PM1 votes

People smurf to level up new accounts. I have 2 accounts I'm slllloooooowly leveling so of course I stomp my laner if they aren't a smurf too.

As much as it seems "not fun" or "unfair", playing against more experienced players does help with improving game play...I always recommend doing that. I 1v1 my boyfriend who could get to Plat if not Diamond if he really tried. Yes I get destroyed but it does help with how I play in games.

Glaedr4/8/2016, 4:03:55 PM1 votes

The game has ways to determine whether or not you're a smurf and it's pretty obvious. Legitimately new players will more than likely get stomped in a game or two, then get paired up with other new players. Meanwhile, guys like yourself probably do their first couple normal games, play at a level that's clearly not that of a dude who just started the game a couple hours ago, then get paired with other people like himself.

TrulyBland4/8/2016, 4:10:33 PM1 votes

However I got some friends of mine to try the game out, and in the games we played together there were smurfs, the same amount as previously too.

That's the problem. It's the same reason why a level 30 and a level 10 playing together will usually have more 30s than 10s in the game. Statistically speaking, the "carry effect" is larger than the "feeder effect". Basically, if you have somebody with an elo of 2000, and somebody with an elo of 1000, and you let them face a bunch of 1500s, the 2000 and 1000 are more likely to win. This is especially true if they are premade. That's why they will instead for the sake of fairness be matched with people of a higher Elo. The same logic applies to smurfs. If you have somebody that was sorted out as a smurf, one non-smurf does not really change who you want to have in the rest of the game.

But more importantly: The idea of sorting out smurfs is to protect actual newbies from unvoluntarily facing smurfs. If you were matched with other newbies, they would no longer be properly protected vs smurfs. Your friend on the other hand could have always opted not to play with you.

I know, that's not a perfect solution, since you actually wanted to show them the game... but I'd say Riot's approach is understandable, and in my honest opinion, probably the best way to handle this.

Edit: That said, I don't know if he would face the same problems if he played alone. I honestly have no idea how good Riot's smurf detection is. I'm just saying that as long as you two were playing together, the system was kinda working as intended.