Smurfing/boosting destroys experience

Misery Signal·1/24/2018, 4:54:22 PM·10 votes·2,221 views

Just finished 2nd promo game with an AD carry on the other team who was admittedly playing someone else's account. He was an amazing player and hard carried.

My problem with this is that it ruins other people's experiences. I understand there is little that can be done to stop this, but is it even a reportable offense?

He just laughed and said he didn't care it wasn't his account. Really frustrating to have 5 other people's experience ruined by a very high level elo player smashing high silver/low gold elo.

37 Comments

RallerenP1/24/2018, 5:13:21 PM6 votes

It's a reportable offense and Riot does have some system implemented to try and detect this (albeit not good systems, as those don't exist). Definently report someone who is admitting to boosting.

Modnar Erom1/25/2018, 7:07:39 AM3 votes

Oh, it is pretty easy to stop. It is called account verification. However, multiple accounts = multiple accounts to buy stuff on = greater profits. So yeah, the odds of account verification ever coming League are about the same as Tencent deciding it has "enough" money.

EastWolfy2/2/2018, 1:21:59 AM2 votes

Smurf lives matter.

Chaos Open1/24/2018, 7:07:59 PM1 votes

I don't think boosting is the biggest problem, it is quite rare and in my opinion there is no malice behind it, the booster just wants to quickly get the game over with and move on. Boosting is simply selling a service for which there is a demand, I'd imagine if climbing felt more like working towards a goal as opposed to an exercise in keyboard snapping frustration boosting wouldn't be as much of a problem.

Smurfing is another story entirely however, people really only create smurfs for one reason: to beat up on less skilled players. I can't understand why Riot tolerates smurf accounts, you have players in gold or plat who decide that instead of getting better to climb higher they will just create a smurf and beat up on new players. Finally after turning dozens of new players away from league because their first foray into PvP was a grey screen simulator the smurf finally gets tired and quits league entirely.

I can't understand why Riot tolerates people beating up on rookies and driving away new players but letting a bronze player get boosted to silver is so unforgivable that Riot spends countless man hours trying to stop it.

YerroFever1/25/2018, 12:19:00 AM1 votes

Boosting and sharing accounts are both permaban worthy infractions. There are lots of threads about shared accounts and boosted accounts being banned.

Telephone Booth1/25/2018, 1:05:56 AM1 votes

Lol yeah... I had a game where I got autofilled jungle (my worst role), and every lane lost except for our mid yasuo. I was like 0-3-0 and went to mid for a counter gank... yas picked up a double before I even got there and said "don't come mid ever. I'm fine" lmao. I'm like I see that, sir, carry on. I ended like 1-4-1 and every other lane lost, but because we had a yas Smurf, it was an easy win. I probably could have just afk farmed in the jungle the whole time. I did next to nothing to affect the outcome of that game. So yeah, smurfing ruins the integrity of the matchmaking system. But it's kinda on Riot to find your place in the MMR. Unless Smurfs are purposely losing games to lower their elo, which is punishable already.

Dr Dog1/24/2018, 5:38:28 PM1 votes

send a support ticket in with his sum name, thats pretty much a 100% ban if they look at the chat logs, and if not it just kinda shows riot doesn't care

kevin heals you1/25/2018, 10:13:49 AM1 votes

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NekoniClaws1/25/2018, 12:05:23 PM1 votes

I wouldn't match smurfing with boosting.

Smurfing's detectable almost instantly. In normals new smurfs get matched with other smurfs (who you can say, asked for it). A smurf playing ranked will place high and cease to be smurfing. Even if they play less seriously and generate a 50% winrate at a lower elo than their main- and for your ranked games, that's indistinguishable from someone who tries hard and has a 50% winrate.

Boosting / Account sharing is flat out not allowed. If you boost, you're not the user who agreed to the terms of service. Taking undeserved rewards is sleezy, but that doesn't even have to come into question.

bywords701/25/2018, 11:54:19 PM1 votes

i see nothing wrong with smurfing or even boosting. i think playing against better players is a good way to learn how to play the game properly

Jo0o1/24/2018, 5:23:41 PM1 votes

Boosting and account sharing absolutely are bannable offenses, so that guy likely won't be laughing for long. Especially when he's openly admitting to it. Did you report him?

Smurfing, on the other hand, is kinda a necessary evil, by my estimation. Folks have the right to level a new account, and as long as they aren't intentionally feeding to tank their MMR and stay in low ELOs, they're not breaking any rules. There's no good way to avoid it, as far as I can tell. Fortunately, the MMR system should catapult them back to an appropriate level of play quickly, if they constantly hard-carry their games.