Is smurfing a punishable offence?

Donstheman·11/6/2015, 12:53:58 PM·3 votes·1,630 views

So as the end of the season draws near I've noticed ranked games I'm in starting to feature more and more smurfers. They don't even try to hide it, proudly announcing they are smurfing in game or even using it for the title of their Twitch. I've faced of against them and had them in my team, even some admit after game they were going to throw because it was their promos and they didn't want their smurf to climb too high.

Is this punishable? Where do I report this? Even if they are not throwing it seems to be in the same region of ELO boosting in terms of fairness. Can you even ban with Twitch links?

9 Comments

Antsy Armadillo11/8/2015, 8:04:06 AM4 votes

I don't like smurfs. Under no circumstance should you be allowed to ruin people's game. It also isn't fair they end up carrying people who don't deserve the win through to be placed with you next(later). As they end up feeding and losing the game which does drop them back down (eventually, maybe) but it also ends up dropping four unsuspecting people. So this one smurf ends up affecting at the very least 13 other players in some way each game.

OhBoyItsaMegaman11/6/2015, 2:48:04 PM4 votes

Smurfing—defined as "playing on an account you own that is lower level/rank than your main"—is not punishable.

Throwing games on purpose to keep the account low is punishable. Buying or taking over someone else's low rank account is punishable. But smurfing isn't punishable by itself.

MacDeath11/6/2015, 1:10:27 PM3 votes

If they throw it on purpose you can report them with "assissting the enemy team" and maybe write a conclusion in the comment box

Skadeglädje11/6/2015, 1:02:23 PM3 votes

If you have chat logs stating they are deliberately throwing you could report them and hope for the best. Just like it says on: https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201752884-Reporting-a-Player

Gnart Even Close11/6/2015, 12:59:01 PM2 votes

Riot says that smurfing is fine, but ELO boosting is not. They are not fun to play with, but they're just part of the ranked experience unfortunately.

nerak2311/6/2015, 3:21:14 PM2 votes

I have no problems with multiple accounts as I have one I never use to post on here with, that account is intended for more serious game play ( I don't mean to say that I goof around on this one, I simply don't play ranked on it ).

But, I do have a problem if someone uses other accounts to mess up games on purpose. I have heard people on the boards say they have smurfs just for the purpose to annoy people.

Worse, I've seen thread dedicated to explaining how to do such things and how to beat LB system, I do wish that Riot would look into such claims. At the very least delete threads that explain how to beat the system so others don't learn how to be a 'good troll' !

Pacattack2511/7/2015, 5:13:36 AM2 votes

I feel like there needs to be SPECIFICALLY a smurf report that boosts the ELO of anyone affected by it by +500 or something - it may not actually be 'punishing' the smurf - but it does get it out of the hair of people who are way under ELO for them quicker: See also gets players who don't deserve to be in ELO hell out of ELO hell...

EndlessSorcerer11/6/2015, 1:03:52 PM1 votes

It's not against the rules to have multiple accounts or to be better than your current rank.

So no.