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Smurfs, Negative Behaviour and Report System Issue

MrMishu·11/9/2015, 9:42:26 AM·3 votes·496 views

Hey all , This is just all my opinion and thoughts that I had to let out, and hopefully for Riot to hear.

Firstly I want to talk about smurfs dominating low level normals. I have a friend who recently started playing LoL and some of their matches I watch and spectate. On numerous occasions I see smurfs completely dominate the genuine beginners. In my opinion I see this as an unfair advantage to all the beginners of LoL (not just referring to my friend), players who are experienced, who know the game by heart, have no problem in destroying the beginner team. I want to know is there a way to reduce this unfair matchup, I know at the beginning of creating your account it does ask if you're experienced with MOBAs or not, but this seems to have no effect on the enemy matchup or ally matchup. My greatest concern is that some of these smurfs can be toxic and abuse their opposition or even their own allies when they make a mistake (and be honest, even really good players make mistakes), they want to report them for things like "feeding" and other ridiculous things. In my opinion smurfs have no respect for newcomers, they love to beat them in game and flame and insult them when they trip up once. Therefore not only do they have an unfair advantage, they downgrade the beginners with insulting words and get people to report them. Some even have said to my friend that they aren't trying and they're faking being "bad" when they're in fact new and doing as best as they can, and learning at their own pace. Many smurfs think that this is how beginners should learn, that playing normals against smurfs is fair and it teaches them to not make mistakes. Whilst this is true, this is not my gist, beginners should be able to learn from victory, to be welcomed with care and equality, not treated like trash or be reported.

With the new report system employed I believe it has taken some categories away that were relevant. My gist is that I have played many games with players who are toxic, swear, don't help out the team, tell me to commit suicide, and many similar things. Whenever I report them it seems they're let off and not punished, or at least that's what I think. They get away with this behavior, they can say "I was joking" why is this an excuse? They can easily act all nice and sweet and act like that victim is the wrong one (from personal experience as I was in this situation) These players get away with what they have done. Maybe letting people know that someone has been punished as a result of reporting them should help notify reporters that the player has been taken care of. Or if it was unsuccessful of that player being punished it should notify those who report them with a notification that says like "the player you recently reported was not punished" and give reasons why. Then give the option to report them again if the player does need more looking in to as they're generally terrible to the community. I want the report system updated so that people can have happy games. To me getting people swearing and being negative is enough to make me stop playing for the day. It affects players strongly, no one likes to be insulted or bullied, everyone wants to have a fun game playing with no negative behavior.

Smurfs and toxic behavior in my opinion should not be tolerated. The report system and beginner system is flawed and needs to be modified. It ruins the enjoyment of the game and it makes other players negative, unhappy and play worse than usual

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this, I hope Riot reads this as changes need to be made [slayer-pantheon-rainbows]

6 Comments

Deep Terror Nami11/9/2015, 10:11:26 AM1 votes

The reason smurfs are tolerated is because Riot doesn't have any alternatives as of yet. If you want to get rid of smurfs, you need to ask yourself why people smurf, then brainstorm some ideas for systems that players can use instead of a smurf.

Now as for the toxic behavior some of them exhibit, just mute and report them. They have no special immunity to reports and are subject to punishment for harassment just like the rest. It usually takes many reports before a player is punished though. There has to be a degree of leniency so people aren't punished for getting upset every once in a while (Riot isn't Nazis). More extreme abuse is taken seriously and can result in more immediate and escalated punishment though.

Once in a great while you may actually get a notification that a player you reported was punished, but that only happens when your report triggered the punishment, and it doesn't happen every time. Riot is not in the business of name & shaming its players, so they don't want you to know exactly what actions they've taken. Also, even if a person you reported isn't punished immediately that doesn't mean they won't; your report, if valid, will contribute to it. Some people reform without punishment, or are toxic only rarely (or not enough for many to bother reporting).

Just make use of your Mute feature more often. Don't ever engage them in an argument because you'll only make it worse and may get reported yourself if you are being offensive/rude or are bother the other players.

worm11/9/2015, 10:11:59 AM1 votes

I hope you understand that smurfs only face beginners for maybe the first three games. After that, they're paired up with other smurfs around their MMR.

{quoted} Maybe letting people know that someone has been punished as a result of reporting them should help notify reporters that the player has been taken care of.

And this is already a thing....

alasarcher11/9/2015, 10:47:24 AM1 votes

"Smurfs dominating low level normals"

They are just leveling second account. Thats not really smurfing. Real smurfing is someone lets say Diamond,getting himself into Silver division and owning there.