Smurfing is a term used by gamers online and it describes a situation where a higher-tier player is using another (secondary) account to play against lower-tier players. Whether on purpose or not, it's a big problem in League of Legends. For some. Spoiler alert: it probably won't stop. Not unless things change in a big way.
These “smurf” accounts tend to have joke names that allude to who the player actually is, which is something most players usually want to keep secret while smurfing. In the modern era of Twitch and live-streaming, most players no longer have secretive pocket smurfs, because they are shown on their stream.
The Smurf Problem
Rather than looking at part of the problem, the idea of a smurf problem in 2019 is two-fold.
The first part of that problem is that it sucks for lower-tier players. This is obvious. If you’re stuck in Silver III and you get games matched-up against (or even with) a Platinum player, it can grossly ruin your fun. Games like League of Legends are a large mountain to climb for newcomers. Many things, like the complication of in-game items or smurfing, make it even harder to get in to. It's also a very large reason for folks leaving.
The second part of the problem is that it’s unavoidable in our current state of gaming. Prepare for a dive.
Games like League of Legends use pretty simple matchmaking mixed with an Elo system that dates back to the founding of the United States Chess Federation in 1939 (not quite literally, but it is ancient). Elo is a ranking system that takes players and applies a skill number to them. Players with matching Elo will win an equal amount of games if matched. Or so it is designed to act. If a player goes up against another with a lower Elo than them, it is expected they would win more often than not.
Elo is gained and lost depending on the odds of said player winning, and the outcome of those matches. A player beating another of equal Elo will gain minimal Elo as a result. While a player beating a player above their Elo will gain more than normal. The same can be said for losing. If a player loses to someone higher in Elo they will lose less Elo themselves as a result versus what they would if they lost to someone with a lower Elo. It’s a ranking system (designed by physics professor Arpad Elo) that isn't super easy to grasp but aims to achieve fairness.
New accounts that start with the same player rankings and Elo rankings, will be more likely matched against each other. Unfortunately, in order to earn that higher Elo, and a higher-tier base player rank, you must start from the same place. It’s the only currently perceived way of making things fair for top-tier matchmaking.
This does, however, mean that the high-tier players have to make their way through the lower-tier players in order to get to their proper rank. This is especially prevalent in games like League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege where players cannot play ranked games until they have reached a certain account level. In LoL, you cannot queue for ranked, regardless of skill, until your account hits level 30.
With varying amounts of XP earned per match, it’s hard to say exactly how many matches it will take to get to level 30. In a graph (above) shown by Riot Games after their most recent leveling XP changes, the average player reaches level 30 after anywhere between 150 and 180 games. This means that for those 150+ games, you will be queued with plenty of folks trying to play League of Legends in a non-competitive or ranked scenario on purpose. Pitting potentially high-tier players against “casual” players. Which is where the problem lies.
One thing to note in addition to all of this is that “smurfing” is also a meme. Players all across competitive gaming use the term to describe the actions of a player that far outplays their opponent.
When your AD says "You're Smurfing" pic.twitter.com/3MDfWvhFKZ
— FlyQuest (@FlyQuestSports) January 26, 2019
“We were smurfing” is a common form of smack talk. This, in the context it is used, is obviously not the same kind of smurfing that sees a struggle for normal players in normal ranked queues. Rather, it’s a diss to the opposing players as it implies they are lower-tier.
Can Smurfing Be Fixed?
In most cases, yes. Though, the problem isn’t something that is always unintentional. Much like global PVP in World of Warcraft, sometimes high-tier players just want to ruin people’s day. Sometimes it makes people feel good to play against lower-tier skill sets. It can make one feel powerful. Even LCS Shoutcaster Zirene made mention of the effect on his confidence playing on a smurf account can bring.
For the cases of smurfing by necessity (ie: the climb to ranked unlocks), the solution is easy; let players buy levels. Alternatively, games can just let them buy ranked eligible accounts. In most cases of smurfing, those top-tier players are only playing unranked because they have to. New players will wind up playing far more new players because anyone who wants to avoid that queue can by jumping up to level 30.
Whether this costs a person $40, or 10,000-50,000 in in-game credits, it’s a potential immediate solution to the problems that arise from the grind to 30. No party involved in the smurfing game benefits.
What’s the Point Though?
In a Reddit post by user One_Information, the author touches on things that would greatly benefit from developers like Riot Games allowing for the boost. One of which is to avoid a mindless grind.
League of Legends isn’t a game that should even include a “grind”. It’s a MOBA in which the whole point is to play a pvp experience for the sake of exciting gameplay in each trip to the rift. If you’re forced to “grind” then every experience from the beginning until the arrival at your destination is pointless - or at least it shouldn't be the point. But as Tyler1 showed with his recent grind to level 30, grinding until ranked is available isn’t even something you need other players to do.
The OP also makes a point to mention that in League of Legends there are some very valid reasons to have more than one account. Some players keep different accounts for different friends or regions, while others use accounts as lane-specific keepers of Elo and Rank. It’s easy to lose rank on a top-lane account if you choose to play a different lane from time to time. Because ranks and Elo are so crucial to the ranked League of Legends experience, people will take this other option as a means to fully avoid the possibility of dropping at all. Making some accounts specifically to mess around or try new things.
The post also goes into detail about how Riot themselves would benefit financially if they offered more instant unlocks or level boosts via money or in-game currency. That’s an obvious advantage.
One commenter suggests that in order to get an “instant 30” they could implement an account linking system. By proving that you have a high-level and responsible account, you could start another one and have it automatically set to ranked level.
Smurfing isn’t the plague on online gaming like toxicity is, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Some of the smurf accounts one will cross paths with are high-tier players that have had their other accounts banned for various reasons. This throws talented, but toxic players in with the relatively unseasone are a small portion of the problem, but it’s some of the sourest tasting of it all.
We will have to wait and see if other games adopt the WoW level boosts. This isn’t the first time that games like League of Legends or Overwatch have heard this suggestion, and we’re sure it’s not going to be the last.
Do you find it frustrating to find yourself matching up with smurf accounts? Is there a real solution out there? Sound off in the comments!
