“We want zero tolerance”, LoL players demand radical action from Riot Games against this scourge

AdminMarch 21, 2024

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After the rest of this announcement

In League of Legends, our gaming experience can be spoiled by other players. We first think of toxic players, those who attack from the third minute, those who like to be AFK, those who feed or even those who insult. Reprehensible behavior that Riot Games continues to fight against.

But there is another category of players that can have a strong impact on our games, especially ranked games. A controversial series against which some players demand zero tolerance.

A delicate case of the Smurfs

If you play League of Legends, you probably know what a Smurf is. “Smurfing is the act of creating another account to play League of Legends.” As defined by Riot Games. If the level concept isn’t indicated, for many people, Smurfs are often high-level players who create a second account to play at a much lower level than their actual rank. And obviously, if you’re Platinum and playing at Iron/Bronze level, there’s a good chance you’ll outperform your opponents. A situation that infuriates part of the community, especially in the case of ranked games. For them, the Smurfs spoil the experience.

Smurfs screw up the rankings

Riot must change its stance on the Smurfs to zero tolerance.

The sheer amount of smurfing creates an experience similar to engagement-based matchmaking and is probably why many people believe that losers’ queues exist.

Let’s say you have a winning streak and you manage to move up a few divisions, your MMR will increase exponentially because it’s trying to predict your actual skill level and that’s fine, supposedly, but the next day you log Sign in and find out. A smurf who might even have a winning streak because he’s playing against players whose skill level is much lower than his.

When the game tries to create two balanced teams, it places players with higher MMR on opposing teams, which is more likely for players who are going on a winning streak because they have increased MMR. In this scenario, it will be you and the Smurfs, and this will happen for several games until your MMR drops to or below your displayed rank, creating the win-lose experience we all know and hate.

Disclaimer: I don’t have data or evidence for any of this since I don’t have access to MMR systems, I’m just speculating on the possible cause of some strange and frustrating match-making experiences. If anyone is able to test this hypothesis, I would be very interested in the results.

I also admit that as of this writing my rank is Gold 1 (my highest rank this season is a flat 4), I don’t really mind if people want to deny that fact, as I’m more interested in what other people add. is This conversation. However, I’ll add that I think this issue mostly affects players between Gold and Emerald, since that’s where most Smurfs seem to be placed (or buy their accounts), pitting these players against those who Forced to play against those who rank much higher. They, instead of playing against people of almost equal skill, only to advance in one division.

Many players agree with the author of the post, As you can read in the comments. Some argue that riot measures do not apply to Smurfs:“None of the normal blockers work on them because the account itself doesn’t mean anything to them, it’s just about having good KDA and LP to go higher and higher.”

An experience that is even worse for new players. Starting a game and blowing up every game is never fun. “I don’t know if Riot can really fix this but it’s been a really bad feeling for me since I first started playing this game last week. I’m really bad, my account isn’t level 20 yet. I’m still Fluttering. I regularly play matches against or with players who have over 33 kills. It’s really frustrating, but I come from fighting games, so screwing up is “that’s it.” At least in fighting games no team is a constant reminder. That’s how bad I am.” The player declares.

Smurfs, an insurmountable problem?

Smurfs have existed in our games for seasons. But it must be admitted that there are different types of secondary accounts. Those who just want to start fresh (and don’t have a very high ELO), or those who want an account dedicated to ARAM, or even TFT. In most cases, secondary accounts do not pose any real problems. Those who are handicapping the game are of course the high ELO players who destroy the lower tiers.

Since having multiple accounts on the same IP address is not prohibited (and Riot Games does not practice IP bans anyway), when you come across a secondary account whose sole and sole reason for existence is to weed out low ELO players and their Bragging shamelessly about is of course like pointing it out. Riot Games is aware that at the competitive gaming level, this presents a real disadvantage (Measures are also taken for Clash Mode to avoid this type of problem). “We are actively looking for solutions to prevent its spread in competitive modes. If smurfing is proven, we will take direct action against this account and in some cases the main account of the player in question.” The studio said on the subject.

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