Why isnt smurfing reportable?

JarodDempsey·May 22, 2018·6 votes·2,448 views

title pretty much says it all. It completely circumvents the account level system to match players of similar skill levels and ruins the game for everyone else in the match why isnt it against the rules?

17 Comments

Quiet DudeMay 22, 20186 votes

Because making a new account isn’t against the rules

JarodDempseyMay 22, 20184 votes

cant people use that to circumvent bans as well?

Quiet DudeMay 22, 20185 votes

{quoted}

cant people use that to circumvent bans as well?

When people get their accounts banned, they are allowed to make new accounts.

JarodDempseyMay 23, 20181 votes

lol seems pretty pointless to ban them in the first place then

ModPrandineMay 23, 20181 votes

{quoted}

lol seems pretty pointless to ban them in the first place then

Except that Riot has ways of telling if someone is playing on a smurf account or not. Also, Riot can't actually stop people from making new accounts without causing collateral damage in the process. Permabans do work as not everyone who is permabanned is willing to start over on a new account, and even if they do if they continue with the behavior that got their previous account permabanned then the result will eventually be the same for their newer account as well.

Gear JammerMay 22, 20183 votes

If they are actively clmbing on a new account that's fine but if they tank games to stay in low elo those accounts should be banned

ChermorgMay 22, 20183 votes

They are matched with players of their skill level, regardless of their rank or apparent MMR. The system can correct for Smurfs within 10-50 games, even if that isn't immediately reflected in their rank.

NormalizedMay 23, 20182 votes

{quoted}

They are matched with players of their skill level, regardless of their rank or apparent MMR. The system can correct for Smurfs within 10-50 games, even if that isn't immediately reflected in their rank.

That's bullshit. I played a normal last night where myself and ADC were both Silver against a D5 support/Gold ADC (who claimed to be a D1 or D3 smurf). I only have one account, I'm a legit silver player, and I feel confident based on my ADC's awful play he belongs down here too. What kind of matchmaking system does that? The enemy was even a duo queue, and my team was all randoms. Then the enemy support says "get good" in all chat.

If a matchmaking system isn't capable of preventing that from happening, when they are legitimately ranked that far apart, I'm not sure how the hell you think it's going to detect smurfs in the first place.

ChermorgMay 23, 20181 votes

Them claiming to be smurfs, and winning one game against you, doesn't mean it's true.

If they were matched against you, the system thought you had a 50% (+/- 1%) chance of winning that game. Your one game does not prove they were smurfing just because they claimed to be so.

Keep in mind that the 5th division of each tier is usually about the MMR average of the lower rank. It is not out of the question someone who was D5 would have a low gold MMR and just not have fallen the ranked ladder yet. The ranked ladder/LP system is designed to take into account long term performance, while MMR takes into account short term performance. Further, It wouldn't be out of the question for someone in Gold, especially 3-5, to have a silver MMR. Likewise, it's not out of the question for you and your ADC to have a higher MMR than your rank.

Baka RedMay 24, 20181 votes

The smurfs may also have been playing one of those 10-50 games you mentioned; ie: the system might not have identified them as smurfs yet.

Edit; Is that 10-50 games mentioned by a Rioter somewhere? I have heard of the system, but I haven't seen actual numbers like that before.

ChermorgMay 24, 20181 votes

It's not an official number, just my educated guess based on how matchmaking algorithms work in general.

Baka RedMay 25, 20181 votes

Ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

afmghostMay 24, 20181 votes

{quoted}

They are matched with players of their skill level, regardless of their rank or apparent MMR. The system can correct for Smurfs within 10-50 games, even if that isn't immediately reflected in their rank.

50 games? Think of all the damage that could cause. Also, if a diamond Smurf wants to help a bronze climb, they can play just well enough to avoid inting reports, but still throw the game. As awful as this idea is, being able to throw a game while doing well enough to not get reported while going poorly enough to not be looked as a smurf is admittedly impressive. I would think the balance would be hard to find.

Before you downvote, don't mistake my admiration for acceptance.

MordiusMay 23, 20181 votes

How are you going to punish a player for being skilled at the game

Since that is what smurfing is.

Rather than complaining about people being better than you, learn from them.

PachydermMay 23, 20181 votes

{quoted}

title pretty much says it all. It completely circumvents the account level system to match players of similar skill levels and ruins the game for everyone else in the match why isnt it against the rules?

The thing is, Rito put into place a method for quickly identifying smurfs early on and pitting them against other smurfs. When a new account starts going thirty and zero against groups of new players, the game puts them into an entirely different bracket. While it's annoying to run into one or two early on, just keep in mind that they won't be in your games for long.