What, EXACTLY, constitutes a "smurf"?

[Steve]

The idea's simple enough on its surface. No one wants experienced players farming the bronze pool. But what, exactly, constitutes a "smurf"? How do you determine that? One player's just head-and-shoulders above everyone else on a team? Do you report them for being good once? How many games in a row do they have to be "that much better" to get a report?

It's important to ask these kinds of questions if you want to mount a defense against whatever a "smurf" is. You have to define your enemy before you can defeat them.

So, what exactly constitutes a "smurf"?

[DaddyEcho69]

Smurf is someone with some skill intentionally playing against less skilled players to feel better about themselves because they cant win against someone at their skill level.

[76561199837088150]

IMO its someone who is using their skill to abuse low elo, i dont think people making alts to play lower elo on roles theyre bad at are smurfs cause they arent necessarily playing way better than ppl in that rank

[Ore]

Originally posted by Steve:

What, EXACTLY, constitutes a "smurf"?

Very small, with blue skin and white hat and pants.

[Steve]

...yeah, guys, we all know the dictionary definition. But where's the lines? At what point do we sit there and say "okay, that one's a smurf, we should report them".

Like, are we drawing the line at 40 kills a match, or 50? Are we reporting them for 40-50 kills after only one match, or do they need a few matches in a row of having that kind of production so we KNOW it's a smurf instead of someone who just got lucky?

What metrics are we going to use to define and report smurfs?

[76561199837088150]

Originally posted by Steve:

...yeah, guys, we all know the dictionary definition. But where's the lines? At what point do we sit there and say "okay, that one's a smurf, we should report them".

Like, are we drawing the line at 40 kills a match, or 50? Are we reporting them for 40-50 kills after only one match, or do they need a few matches in a row of having that kind of production so we KNOW it's a smurf instead of someone who just got lucky?

What metrics are we going to use to define and report smurfs?

u cant report smurfs anyways its not against the rules

[DaddyEcho69]

Follow your heart. :D

[Deadman'shand]

Originally posted by Steve:

...yeah, guys, we all know the dictionary definition. But where's the lines? At what point do we sit there and say "okay, that one's a smurf, we should report them".

Like, are we drawing the line at 40 kills a match, or 50? Are we reporting them for 40-50 kills after only one match, or do they need a few matches in a row of having that kind of production so we KNOW it's a smurf instead of someone who just got lucky?

What metrics are we going to use to define and report smurfs?

I have been playing games for a long time, and there is one thing, one single thing that can and will tip you off to a smurf. People argue kills/low deaths are tip offs, and while true, people can get lucky or transfer skills over from other games in the genre, but the one thing, the one thing that will always tip you off is map knowledge. If you see someone in low lobbies and they have intricate knowledge on flank points or even lock down health packs, you know you are dealing with someone experienced. New players do not know the importance of map and resource control but experienced players do.

[Steve]

Originally posted by Deadman'shand:

Originally posted by Steve:

...yeah, guys, we all know the dictionary definition. But where's the lines? At what point do we sit there and say "okay, that one's a smurf, we should report them".

Like, are we drawing the line at 40 kills a match, or 50? Are we reporting them for 40-50 kills after only one match, or do they need a few matches in a row of having that kind of production so we KNOW it's a smurf instead of someone who just got lucky?

What metrics are we going to use to define and report smurfs?

I have been playing games for a long time, and there is one thing, one single thing that can and will tip you off to a smurf. People argue kills/low deaths are tip offs, and while true, people can get lucky or transfer skills over from other games in the genre, but the one thing, the one thing that will always tip you off is map knowledge. If you see someone in low lobbies and they have intricate knowledge on flank points or even lock down health packs, you know you are dealing with someone experienced. New players do not know the importance of map and resource control but experienced players do.

So this won't be of much use to a new player, who are more likely to report smurfs than other experienced players.

To effectively deal with this issue, we need hard and fast at-a-glance guidelines that can be used by new and experienced players alike. Otherwise, there's little (if any) point to clamoring for a reporting function for smurfs, because there's no easy way to tell at present who a smurf is and who they are not.

Using an estimation of a player's map knowledge is effective case-by-case, but this would take enforcement too much time en masse to be reliable over the long term.

[Toni 'Bō' Jones]

Originally posted by DaddyEcho69:

Follow your heart. :D

This, honestly.

Obviously there are lots of high skilled players, even those who recently joined the game and just having a blast and reporting everyone just because they're doing better than you is stupid.

Gaveaway for me is a low level. yes, there are some people who went straight into ranked after reaching requirement, mostly having hero shooter experience before, but lets be honest, you can count those people in single digits and now most of them should be in high elos anyway.

No nameplates, lvl 12-15 accounts with weird names usual suspects (there are exceptions in them too, ofc, but again, it's very low %), especially if you see 2-3 of them together and I had multiple matches like that. Ironically, some of these people won't even hide the fact of smurfing, if you ask in chat. Another point is such people being the most toxic after the game, which I guess the whole point of them even being there - to flex.

of course, it's not 100% confirmation of someone's using alts and smurf their ass out, as I said, there are some skilled low level people who just started playing and simply are better than you. But that's what I pay attention to before the game.

edit: another point I forgot to add - amount of hours spent on the played character. There's no way someone's played with Wolverine for 2 hours and already on a god-tier lvl with Logan, for example. This is straight giveaway the person in question played elsewhere, using different account.

[Captain Blue]

In some ways the community push some people to smurf. For example it would be kind of bad for my team to learn another role like tank in ranked and throw for my team. So logically you'd go to quick play..... However you go play tank and 80% of the time you will be solo tanking with 5 DPS.... Who when asked can we get some healers all will say

"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"

So quick play isn't for playing the game quickly?

"nope" "i'ts for fun"

But I can't learn tank with no healers..

"play against bots"

Can't really learn against bots.

"not my problem"

"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"
"it's just quick play dude"

If people just played quick play like there were playing the game then you'd see some decrease in smurfs. Not much because it's mostly cheaters and bullies smurfing.. But something is better than nothing.

[Steve]

So far, there doesn't seem to be a lot of consensus on what a smurf is.

If the enemy can't even be identified, then it can't be defeated.

[Shuyin178]

Knowing what a smurf is is very simple.

They are a high elo player that is getting rolled in their high elo lobbies so they make a new account to beat up low elo players to feel better about themselves. It's pretty much an ego massage while they trash talk the low elo players for being low elo.

[Steve]

Originally posted by Shuyin178:

Knowing what a smurf is is very simple.

They are a high elo player that is getting rolled in their high elo lobbies so they make a new account to beat up low elo players to feel better about themselves. It's pretty much an ego massage while they trash talk the low elo players for being low elo.

How you gonna enforce that? XD

[Sonrangeri]

Originally posted by Steve:

Originally posted by Shuyin178:

Knowing what a smurf is is very simple.

They are a high elo player that is getting rolled in their high elo lobbies so they make a new account to beat up low elo players to feel better about themselves. It's pretty much an ego massage while they trash talk the low elo players for being low elo.

How you gonna enforce that? XD

Phone number verification to play Ranked would be good idea to begin. Sharing phone number, on your let's say, beginner Bronze3 account with your GM+ account, game would your highest rank out of all accounts, to make matchmaking instead of letting you stomp. One thing I'd also suggest is small fee in store to play ranked. It doesn't have to be more than 1-2€ max. to prevent majority of smurfs.

[Steve]

Originally posted by Sonrangeri:

Originally posted by Steve:

How you gonna enforce that? XD

Phone number verification to play Ranked would be good idea to begin. Sharing phone number, on your let's say, beginner Bronze3 account with your GM+ account, game would your highest rank out of all accounts, to make matchmaking instead of letting you stomp. One thing I'd also suggest is small fee in store to play ranked. It doesn't have to be more than 1-2€ max. to prevent majority of smurfs.

What are you on about? That doesn't answer the other poster's definition at all.

Originally posted by Steve:

Originally posted by Shuyin178:

Knowing what a smurf is is very simple.

They are a high elo player that is getting rolled in their high elo lobbies so they make a new account to beat up low elo players to feel better about themselves. It's pretty much an ego massage while they trash talk the low elo players for being low elo.

How you gonna enforce that? XD

This. How do you tell who is a "high elo player that is getting rolled in their high elo lobbies so they make a new account to" blah blah etc. How do you police for that? How do other players report this? WHEN do they report this? Every time a new player loses a game, every time a low level player crosses a certain statistical threshold. after a new player crosses whatever threshold a certain number of times -- how do you enforce this?

At what point does a "good player" become a "smurf"?