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Why isn't smurfing a bannable offence?

Arcane Azmadi·11/2/2016, 9:46:03 AM·3 votes·895 views

You know most smurfs are boosting, right? Either directly boosting the account they're playing on, or they're down there to carry someone else who can't win on their own. Hell, in my last game, the enemy top lane boasted proudly that he was being paid money to win games on the account he was playing and he didn't even care if it got banned because he had 10 more.

Hell, even smurfs who aren't boosting for someone else are doing something horribly unsportsmanlike and unfair to the other players in the game. I can't tell you how many games I've had where my team has been clearly the better team than our opponents, only to get beaten anyway practically single-handedly by the enemy top laner (and it's ALWAYS the top laner) who completely murders our poor, outmatched toplaner and feasts on anyone else who tries to help. They're deliberately playing down to a level that it isn't fair for them to be at, and I don't get why Riot's response is to shrug and say "can't be helped".

Smurfs ruins games, OK? They're not SUPPOSED to be in bronze or silver games, that's why you aren't even allowed to duo with someone more than 1 division lower or higher than you, so why is it accepted as long as they put on a paper-thin disguise? "Oh, they're a diamond-level player, but they're playing on a bronze-level account, so they're technically not doing anything wrong". Why is this deemed acceptable and why are these overskilled jerks allowed to continue ruining games for lower-level players who are trying their best and should be able to win if it weren't for the solitary monster who's there exclusively to ruin their shit? Why?

10 Comments

Unstoppable Monk11/2/2016, 9:50:15 AM3 votes

Smurfing should be a punishable offense in the last 2 weeks of the season, imo

gatekeeping is toxic behavior

N Pelosi11/2/2016, 10:28:01 AM2 votes

Stay bad, stay mad. Smurfing has existed since the dawn of pvp gaming to get an edge for easier matches, and will continue to exist till the end of time. There is no way to stop it. Isn't worth the resources to try.

AeroWaffle11/2/2016, 10:48:05 AM2 votes

Let's imagine for a moment that smurfing was bannable.

How would Riot detect it?

IP isn't enough information, since multiple people can have the same external IP. Name provided certainly doesn't help since people can make one up. Same with email.

So how?

dominusx11/2/2016, 11:10:27 AM2 votes

git

wait for it

GUD

Timethief4911/2/2016, 9:48:18 AM1 votes

Cause either high que Times on their Main' or in my case I want to learn a new role and know that i will fail horribly on my main

elduris11/2/2016, 4:48:49 PM1 votes

The ranking system actually does a pretty good job of detecting if you're playing at a higher level than your current rank. Smurf accounts are permitted because after placements and a few games in their division, the system will adjust their wins to boost them quicker to their actual rank.

Let's say a Diamond player makes a new account and levels it to 30. They play their placements and, due to their diamond-level knowledge, they get placed in Gold 3. After their first game in gold, they win +28 LP. At this rate, they will quickly rank up. If they're playing at a level way higher than gold, they can even skip promotions, so this player may end up getting to gold 1 after winning promos from gold 3.

I like to have a smurf account for playing with my new friends, but most of my ranking is done on my main. If I couldn't have a smurf account, I would be using my main, level 30 account to play with people not even level 10 yet. That, in my opinion, would also be "ruining games."

TL;DR - One game won't really affect your rank in the end. Usually smurf accounts quickly get boosted out of the lower ranks due to their play.

TeemoXNidalee11/2/2016, 11:41:50 AM1 votes

If smurfing should be bannable because of boosting so should be premading with higher ranking friends.

AgeOfTheMage11/2/2016, 11:57:32 AM1 votes

Yeah, I'd rather not go against a challenger when I'm supporting a bronze team :I sadly they can't detect it.

Imperial Pandaa11/2/2016, 12:15:18 PM1 votes

Then what of people who are doing it simply so their main account doesn't suffer from bad friends? Say both their accounts are Silver, but one plays with a friend in Bronze. The surf doesn't want to risk their main accounts rank but wants to play with their friend still. Both of their accounts are in Silver while the friends is in Bronze. You want to ban someone who wants to play with a friend but not suffer ranking penalties on their main? Or perhaps you are only referring to the drastic difference of being in Diamond but playing on a Bronze account, as recently I was told by a jungle I had, cough Riven cough.