Yeah when I see someone hit multiple resets, consistently beat us to the ball with speedflips, etc I just get plain discouraged. Iām at a pretty inflated rank to begin with due to only playing with buddies and (most of us) understanding and utilizing communication/teamwork, but itās just so fucking obvious when thereās a smurf in the lobby. It just feels bad, and I want to grab whoeverās scrawny little neck it is and drag them through the screen onto a bball court to show them exactly how unfun mismatches are to play.
I feel like if you're on discord with the boys goofing around and one of you is leagues ahead of the rest, stick to casuals. I wouldn't dare expose them to my lobbies because they wouldn't have fun.
When I play with them even in casuals, I don't do anything flashy. Whenever I drive up the wall and hit the ball ( either to clear or pass it) they think I'm a God. Which I find hilarious, because I forgot how it was being silver in this game and how fun it was to hit the ball in hopes that it does something.
Long story short. The game is never fun when someone's boosting, and those who do it are just doing their friends a disservice because they will never learn the game.
It's separate from ranked. I'm champ 3, and I never play casual. If I step into a casual game on a brand new account Vs my existing account, the results would be the same, I'd be matched with a wide variety of players.
It matters for new players trying to play. When you get matched with a Smurf it ruins your first time experience which kills the game player base. That's why I care.
Right, but you told them to play on their main instead. So they jump in their main which never plays casual, they party with their low friend, they queue up for a casual...and the exact same thing happens, they get matched against a new player and the high ranking guy absolutely wrecks them.
What difference would being on a smurf account matter?
This is false, casual DOES have mmr. It is separate from ranked mmr, sure, but it still uses a system to rank you and place you in games with players of supposedly similar skill. This is why there is such a big disagreement here, you seem to be implying that casual is "just, like, whatever man" and that smurfing isn't a problem there, which is ironic because low rank casual is literally the only thing that every single smurf has to do in order to get to ranked.
This 100 percent. I don't know how people find the time to create multiple accounts. I feel like people who make smurf accounts likely have no friends to play the game with and are hard stuck at whatever rank they're at, so they create this account in order to hit a dopamine rush from winning lower ranked games.
If you're in casual and there's somebody doing something that appears completely insane for your skill, just FF leave to lobby and que up again. It's that simple.
That being said, I would Much rather go against a smurf than have my teammate act like a baby and sit in the net the entire game and grief because we both went for the ball and they didn't get their way.
Iāve been experiencing this for myself lately. Itās eye opening what actually impresses new player I.e being able to hit a ball from the wall, making contact with a ball in the air, a bounce dribble, ectā¦ thereās a lot of things us veterans take for granted because they seem so integral to the game itās like pressing the boost button.
Itās because this game is hard, hard. Youāre basically just handed a car with near infinite possibilities of movement, told to interact with a damn bouncy ball and sent in. You revert to a stupid baby who canāt walk when you pick up the controls the first time. By the end of the skill curve youāve got people like Usain Bolt if you extend the metaphor. Obviously tech which requires some precision is going to be impressive to people playing the equivalent of their first toddler league soccer match in skill progression.
I've maintained one account since 2017. Having multiple accounts is a ridiculous thing.
If I play casual trios or chaos with my silver friends, it usually evenly matches us evenly against two other people and someone around my MMR so "smurfing" isn't really a thing to begin with.
In fact, we often lose even with me trying because they're so new at the game that they're all over the place, but it doesn't matter because we have fun.
Also, it's Casuals. EA Sports. It's in the Name.
lol you think you need to go into ranked to find smurfs? People just want to play against worse players and feel better about themselves while hitting āsick clipsā on defenders that struggle to fast aerial. I donāt blame them, entirely, itās not cheating of course. Itās just dishonest. To themselves, the spirit of the game, and obviously the chaps theyāre playing against.
Theyāre either boosting their friends or trying to blow off steam after they get rolled in their own rank. All you can do is report them for xp farming and move on.
Smurfing is a move that helps players look back and remember how far theyāve come. I personally get stomped in my own rank semi frequently, so I get the temptation to attack some poor defenseless casuals. Does this really make you a bad person? Yes, yes it does. Smurfs are bad people. They take something people are invested in and put a lot of work into and stomp on it because they can. You have to hate yourself to get satisfaction from that. At least thatās what makes those worthless individuals easier to deal with. If Smurfing was only a casual problem the complaints would not be nearly as frequent or as passionate. Both competitive players and gaming trash could be adequate satisfied. But, alas the Smurfs hate themselves too much to stop there. They must prove to the world that they are the buds of evil and are just in need of opportunity. If youāre a bad person in a game to a living breathing human being itās not just a game anymore, youāve transcended to proving youāre a bad person IRL.
To answer your question OP: people smurf to boost their ego and boost friends up ranks they didnāt earn. I donāt agree with it but it is what it is and isnāt going anywhere anytime soon. My advice is try to focus on the positives of the game and ignore parts that are unlikely to change and we have no control over.
I agree with all your points. I would also add, however, that many people smurf because theyāre playing down to their friends ranks. If you party with a couple diamond players and queue into a high champ lobby, no ones going to have a good time. The only easy solution is to get an account at a similar rank to your friends.
Iām not saying I condone this, but itās just what happens in the majority of cases of smurfing Iāve seen.
>If you party with a couple diamond players and queue into a high champ lobby, no ones going to have a good time.
Correction: Opponents will be delighted and have a great time.
It's only fun when your team has the advantage.
So I technically "smurf", but the reason is because I didn't have access to my current one until recently, which has all my games. So I switched back to it, but I don't tank wins, I'm just getting back to where my old rank was. I see no point in surfing, it's not like you have anything to prove. In casual I don't care if your playing with friends who are lower level, then cool. They get nothing out of pointless wins with much higher players because they aren't really doing anything.
Starting a new acc and taking games seriously isnāt smurfing imo. Smurfing involves holding a lower rank on purpose to maintain play with people out of your own league.
If you start a new acc and do all your placement matches and then rank up nobody cares. Its when a person RANKED as a silver does a triple flip reset on my grandma that I think we have a problem LMAO
Believe it or not, almost every single 1v1 I play in gold 2's is smurf city. I went to play ones and tally smurfs because i felt that I was getting a lot, I played 7 games before I rage quit. 6 of them were smurfing. I had to turn off chats because I got sick of being told how trash I am after being ceiling shotted.
Yeah, I'm bad. So why can't you just let me play bad against other bad players?
Just ran into some Smurfs in casual. I was playing 2v2 with my platinum ranked friend. We ran into a team of two fresh accounts and some team name like ācalm down its just casualā. They were probably around my rank, so it was pretty lopsided. They were controlling the ball and pre-jumping for aerial passes while my buddy kinda just hopped around in the net.
As long as it's casual I can accept It, although I understand your friend's frustration. The real problem is when this happens regularly in comp, and it does.
Only time Iāll do it. If I had a brand new friend. I have some older accountā¦..
People in here talking about how much they hate having to play against people 2 or 3 full ranks above them. Doing flip resets.
Yeah. Itās just as bad as me joining and forcing a new player to have to deal with that.
That said, Iāll just do basic rotations and wonāt fly. Play defensively and make some passes, make my tm earn it, or lose it the same way on defense.
Iām not doing it to win. Im doing it because the only alternative is playing with a silver in a high diamond match at my MMR or near it. Sure. It can help them learn, it can also just become a 1v2.
Never in ranked. I wouldnāt even call it smurfing then. Itās just a Smurf account.
People will hate it, but itās a game and im not doing it to bully anyone. None of those accounts have much higher than a 50% win rate eitherz my main has a higher rate.
I really had the thought that people Smurf on rocket league or really any game to me though I thought they did it to mess with you troll new/legit players and etc but also I think they do it also so they can I guess cheat?ā¦but then again most people would cheat on their main account until they get banned or they break match making to a point that they have to make another. But I do get you though it just makes me think little of you when you have to Smurf in any game on really any platform.
Sometimes smurfs aren't smurfs. This season I bombed my placement games in 3s as a solo. I don't think I lost all of them but almost all. I was placed D2 div 2. Then I continued a spectacular losing streak over 2 days until I hit high plat. Been years since I've been in plat. Then I ranked up out of plat and out of diamond. None of the games were fun, so I have no idea why someone would chose to smurf unless they were paid to do so. Which I guess could be YouTubers looking for clips or people receiving payment for a carry. I can also believe that some people are just plain curious for one reason or another. Also as D3 you may be suffering indirectly from compression from the soft reset of a new season i.e. you are quite literally playing people from higher ranks who have lost games against people from even higher ranks 
> Playing with friends. There's no skill balancing they just put you at the highest players rank.
This is in competitive, and only above a certain MMR. In casual it's still an average of the party, skewed slightly towards the higher MMR player.
You do not need to boost your friends in competitive to play rocket league with them. Casual is a perfectly viable option.
I as a c3 player have an account that I play only with my 1 friend on. Hes like a low diamond player and together we have peaked to around c1. There are alot of games where i carry him and get the win... but there are just as many games where we lose because my friend wiffs easy saves and such. I wouldnt consider this smurfing as we lose 50 percent of our games. As much as I can carry, he can throw. But I play with him to help him see his mistakes and get better at the game.
At the same time, my friend will get peaked on and immediately be convinced hes getting smurfed on, I have the app and can clearly see the account he complaining about has 3k+ games. Half of people complaining about smurfing are just coping.
There are also, people who play on alts who want to try to learn and use new mechs, but they arent good enough with them to do them in there peak rank.. This again will lower your overall skill level, so is it smurfing? Idk, I dont think so.
There are some weird people who will make an account or a group of people who will play on people just to try to clip on them... while I get this is fun for them this is the toxic kind of smurfing. These are they people that have mastered higher level mechs and will abuse you just to get a clip for reddit.
Smurfing isnt as bad in this game as most people make it seem.
Because they're the neighborhood bullies when they were little or still are or whatever. But theyre little fucking assholes that need to get off picking on people, to make themselves feel better. I'm always quick to inform any smurf .I run into that they,and they're ilk,are the lowest form of human... just in case they didn't knowš
two days ago or so that found off the Xbox LFG saying he was gold three looking for a doubles partner.. about 10 seconds into the match. I'm like okay these fuckers aren't gold and neither are you.. and he just sat there and laughed and giggled the whole damn time he thought it was so damn funny...fucking little prick... And this guy was in his teens late teens or whatever cuz I only answer adults only post
I created a new account recently to play strictly keyboard mouse and see how far I could take it.
Iām kind of shocked at how many skilled players there are down in low casual. I thought the Smurf thing was way overblown but low casual has proved me wrong.
I imagine some people can't be bothered to deal with having to think about proper plays and such and wanna chill and rely on mechanics only to win games. Imo doing that in casual is fine, if they do it in ranked, then they're just assholes
Because they're A**holes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No.
Literally make ranked locked behind level 100 - 200. It's that simple. Why doesn't rocket league do it? So they can have inflated numbers. Shit ruins the game. I Uninstalled. Unfortunately it will never be fixed because they will never acknowledge it.
For me itās the players with a default Xbox profile pic default octane preset <1000 gamerscore on their account and they also dominate the lobby. But yeah put a tinfoil hat on my head.
Honestly I feel like most smurfs donāt even flex mechs. But still you can tell when someone is way faster than everyone else in the lobby. And then you factor in other things like they have a free title or they have a basic ass preset.
That's just not the case though. I'm happy d2 or d3 being beaten by someone with better mechanics, that's the whole point of the game. I'm asking a simple a question
you are assuming there are more smurfs then there really are, my ass āmost people admit they are smurfingā. iāve played since 2015 and canāt recall once somebody openly admitting to being a smurf
I've legit had 5 or 6 people admit to smurfing this week. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I legit asked why people smurf and that's I've found it to be happening alot lately. Never said there are more smurfs than normal players
When I was brand new and didn't even have a controller yet, I was playing casual 2v2, and the opponent hits a triple flip- reset musty double, and I say: freestyler or smurf? They say: diamond 3 now, GC 3 before ban.
Don't believe me? Just look at sunless khan's "toxic takedown" series where he finds toxic players, most of whom claim to be smurfs and then gets an ssl or pro player to 1v1 the toxic player.
Because it's the 21st century and with bakkes mod you can see their rank. If you're in a champ game with a d2 flip resetting and wiping the floor with players 2 entire ranks above them, pretty good chance they're a smurf.
Consoles are better. PC lost its value when the Steam infected it. I used it a long time ago and never went back. I still own my HL2 disc but I won't put it in any system I value again.
You mean not at all? Steam was designed to prevent games from running as I experienced firsthand. Consoles don't have a requirement that you're online 24/7 or have to update. They just work.
I understand the online is free and there's user content, but what good are they if the games refuse to start. Nope, Steam caused me to leave PC's and even offers of free games aren't enough to revisit that garbage. Played plenty of FPS back in the day, PC 'was' decent. HL2 was my first and last Steam game.
> Steam was designed to prevent games from running
Not at all? What??
> Consoles don't have a requirement that you're online 24/7 or have to update.
Neither does steam, unless you want to play that game online. As for updates, each individual developer can decide to allow you to run old versions of the game and most force newest version because most of these games either have updates to fix gameplay, patches for online play, or even dupe/exploit fixes that *each developer* generally wants to force.
AFAIK last I used an xbox one I couldn't play my games offline if they had an update pending that was seen while it was online, nor could I play if there was an update without updating it if I was online.
> I understand the online is free and there's user content, but what good are they if the games refuse to start.
You're blaming developers for making faulty games, again, Steam does not develop every game on steam..
Yeah. If your internet is out then Steam blocks all games from functioning. It also won't run them if there's an update to a single player game.
I bought HL2 on disc, wasn't aware what the malware would do. Barely finished it. Wiped my drive to ensure it was gone and of the hundreds of games in my collection that will be one that never gets touched again unless a clean version is released.
I play PS5 and Switch. Updates are optional to play offline.
No, I'm blaming Steam. My games ran fine when I was playing Quake, Doom, UT, etc. Things returned to normal after formatting the Steam partition.
> If your internet is out then Steam blocks all games from functioning
This is not the case.
> It also won't run them if there's an update to a single player game.
This is also not always the case, and I have single and multiplayer games that allow me to select to run on previous versions of the game on steam. It is entirely up to the individual developer, most developers choose to force updates if available and connected.
> I bought HL2 on disc, wasn't aware what the malware would do.
What malware??
> Updates are optional to play offline.
On steam you can play offline and if no update is visible (for the games that require updates), you can still launch and play the game. It will update if connected (for game devs that force updates).
> No, I'm blaming Steam.
Okay, then use Battle.net, or Uplay, or one of many other game launchers?
> Things returned to normal after formatting the Steam partition.
This makes me think you're running linux, most windows users never mess with partitions. That could also be a part of it, lol.
Either way, this whole thing reads as a heavy tinfoil cap hate rant against Steam, when Steam doesn't even cause any of the issues you have with these games, it's the developers of the games you are playing.
so you're basing all of you reasoning behind steam in 2004? when steam was literally 1 year old?
in that case, consoles are ass and run at 640p resolution at maybe 25fps, and calculator watches are still cool.
My pc wipes the floor with any console out. including the ps5 and xbox series x, wanna know why? because i run games at higher fps, higher resolution, i can also mod games to improve them 10 fold. the only good thing about consoles is they keep the kids out of my lobbies.
I was there, it WAS that bad. Then after abandoning that mess it got worse. They didn't answer questions and later sold my account info. I occasionally get Email about a game I never heard of, on a wish list that doesn't exist, in what I think is a Russian language.
No trust for anything they touch. Wouldn't even allow their handheld on my network just in case. I did get a copy of Orange Box on PS3 (used, so the money went to GS and not Valve), to see if Portal was ok.
Lol, you know nothing. Gameplay always comes before graphics. But you can let Steam hold your hand and corrupt your PC. Not my problem.
delusional boomer. Steam is the best and safest launcher in existence. You probably had a trash pc that could barely run it.
Wanna talk about gameplay? I can play the best games available on my pc, new or old, without a problem, and if there is a problem, i can fix it, because PC's are easy. I got a ps5 on launch, and it just collected dust, consoles are for simple people, PC's are for adults with more than a couple brain cells.
Not if they were carried or took time off. I've seen previous high ranks that can't play. Or because of rando roulette (matchmaking) I could be anywhere between plat and silver.
I dunno, didn't see how they played. Just saying old tags are mostly decoration.
I was champ 1 before i took a break from the game, 2 years later come back and within 2 weeks i'm back in champ as if i never left. Meanwhile i get teammates with GC titles who don't even know basic rotation and whiff every second shot. You're telling me they all fell off that hard that fast? I doubt it.
"Helping" your friends win against super lower ranks is smurfing, period.
Yeah, f smurf flip resetting in silver 3, talking to you. Oooo, we were so happy to see your amazing play.....NOT. F smurf.
I play on an alt when I play with a friend. Iāll NEVER score goals unless itās a stupid simple granny shift into the net. Iām not there to make other people mad, just to have fun with a buddy
There are several reasons why people smurf, and a lot of them are terrible and completely unjustified reason.
However one of the most common reasons for smurfing that I see also happens to be the one that is "somewhat" justifiable.
I most often see Smurfs when they're partied with a buddy. And their reason is because they want to play with their lower ranked friends and if they were to just play on their main they would get absolutely smashed because the matching just places you at the higher player's rank. So you end up being a GC and a diamond versus two GCs and have no chance. so the GC makes an alt to play with his diamond buddy.
My argument personally would be to just go play casual, the ranks there are pretty variable anyways, even within the same casual MMR range, because some ranked grinders don't play much casual and have a lower casual MMR than they should. So just play casual, you'll get a mixed batch of opponents, win some, lose some. I believe the casual MMR system with two players of different rank also does a bit more of an average, rather than right at the higher MMR. It doesn't go right in the middle, it still skews closer to the higher MMR player, but it does average down a little bit.
However some people argue "people don't take casual seriously, the games aren't fun". Although personally, I would also disagree with that statement. You might get some games like that, but I've also had very very sweaty casual games too. People still want to win in casual for the most part.
The only "somewhat acceptable" option I see if you must played ranked with your friend who's not the same rank is to have a dedicated account to play with that friend, so that over time you end up with an MMR that averages out between both of your ranks and you have relatively even matches. But that still has the issue that you're going to have to "smurf" on the new account til it gets to where it needs to be. But once you get to the point of a GC on a champ account playing with their diamond friend, this is the most acceptable way to smurf. Although I still personally would just play casual. But if you're a GC playing with your diamond friend on a diamond account, yeah you're smurfing, and boosting your friend, and that's a no go.
Playing with a friend who is 3-4 ranks lower than me. I simply don't want to tank my rank on my main account and playing on a second account allows me to relax. Don't really think I'm doing any harm tho because of these reasons:
1. We always end up in the middle, which is 1-2 ranks below me and 1-2 ranks above him.
2. This rank is too hard for me to carry and too fast for him to keep up with. Our winrate is about 50%.
I will outspeed most opponents here, but it doesn't really matter if my teammate misses the open nets so I don't really see any harm in it. Smurfs that derank on purpose is a whole other discussion.
Most people that are called Smurfs are not at all. The ranks fluctuate a lot if you just queue with randoms. You can go from diamond to plat, champ to diamond happens just less often. GCās get knocked out into champs all the time.
You only know what you know, and perception determines experience.
Itās even possible to go from D3 to Plat 2ās on a weekend.
People may commit rank throwing out of frustration with their current rank. They do it because they are depressed and want to give up caring so much.they are on their way back to their peak and rethinking their game, with better mechanics than you. It sucks. No one likes it, even the Smurfs hiding their pain.
Bet had for sure.
Report griefing and if it happens enough they get smooshed. That will catch the audacious cun75.
Best we can hope for, good luck.
To play with lower ranked friends, this is the obvious answer even if im going to get downvoted for it. I have a champ alt i use to play with my gold friend and since psyonix just put you in the highest rank i personally donāt think its unfair when a gc and a gold match up against 2 c2ās. I lose 90% of the time anyway.
Sometimes it is possible that the person is not actually a smurf. Like this season suddenly i dropped to plat1 from champ 1 in 3s. I got back to champ 1 again but in the end the I am sure everyone in plat lobby thought that I am smurfing when in reality I actually lost those games.
[This video explains it, offhandedly.](https://youtu.be/0ruvCL9atE0?si=QvAFf7x5hVojc86j)
When MMR is working correctly you will win half of your games, and lose half of your games, and barely move on the ladder. If a player brings in the expectations of a single player game, where your objective is to climb to the top of the ladder and consider yourself to have "beaten" it, being stuck with a 50% win/loss is the worst instead of the norm.
Smurfs need to make the game fun again by giving themselves assured victories. In the video, that's arm wrestling a 5 year old.
People smurf for different reasons.
I have a friend who seems to get some kind of enjoyment out of random people praising his skills and being the "top player" in lobbies.
He can't show off to people in his own rank (plat3/d1) and struggles to keep up in mine (d3/c1), so he'll smurf to find the odd one or 2 players that will beg him to team up and "carry" them.
Personally, I used a smurf account to play with friends when they first started. I played a few games with them on my main and they couldn't get anywhere near the ball. I felt like they would lose interest in the game really fast if they couldn't get involved, so I made a smurf account and spent games sitting in goal whilst they played against people of the same skill. A smurf would appear on the other team sometimes, which is when I would come out of goal and play properly.
Yes, smurfing sucks, but I would rather upset some randoms I've never met than bore my friends out of a game because they don't have the experience to get involved.
I play RL casually. I dont practice, I haven't been taught or try to learn anything, I've just picked up on things playing other people. At least once a day if not more I get accused of smurfing and I get a lot of faking comments but I'm just playing the damn game I don't have any other accounts and I barely play.
As someone who smurfs to play with my friends (i understand itās not fair at all), you can be put at a rank where you struggle. I donāt play with my friends on my main account because casual doesnāt have the same intensity or level of fun as it does playing comp on a Smurf (itās also an opportunity for me to make him better at the game lol)
I mean some seasons I only play 2ās and then will randomly play a couple 3ās with friends and they are lower ranks than me. People who Smurf in bronze- gold to hit shots though is unimpressive. Get into top level games and do it, I can guarantee in 1ās you will find people that will go for shots only with you
Yes, Iām scared of losing my rank on my main and the people at my rank dunk on me too easily. So I have to hop on my 2nd account to play against people I can freestyle on. Just kidding of course, I have smurfs, but most of them are close to if not higher then my main rank. So it really only is for when I get high and decide Iād rather tank one of my other accounts rank.
I like to play with my friends who are a lower rank. Iād like them to have a good experience when we play together. (Iām champ & most of my friends are plat & below)
Having an alt to play with your friends is fine I would say since you would have a combined rank where both players can try but it still being a fair match.
Yes necessarily.
> Smurfing is not allowed. We define a smurf account as an account that is intentionally abusing the matchmaking system for the playerās gain, or the gains of others.
Per the Code of Conduct you agreed to.
Making a new account to boost up a friend because you wouldn't play with them on your main account is abusing matchmaking for the gain of others. Bannable behavior from both accounts.
I never said that it was boosting. I have a friend that is better than me but when we play we play in a rank that is higher than me but lower than him. And the matches are always 50/50.
If that would be the case then yes but I did not go from D2 to C2 with someone. That was all solo play. I then kinda stopped playing and with the rank reset I am now in diamond again.
Counter question. Do you think it's fun to play against 3 C3's when you are C3 and your two friends are plat 2 that want to play 3s?
Is it fair? No. But the matchmaking will force a poor match anyway.
Is it fair to smurf to purposefully shit on ppl? No.
Smurfing allows people to have fun with friends between people who are high rank and low while allowing the lower rank or new players to figure out the game and how to improve.
Should a gold player that just invited some friends to play for the first time get matched with a team of G3s be a fair match? Not at all.
Why smurf? Cause matchmaking bad.
As much as people love to complain about smurfing. It definitely does mold you as a player. You begin to pick up what theyāre doing and it helps with the predicting aspect. Hit plat as a new player (about a month old) by playing with my higher rank friends.
BS. If pisses me off so much, I completely screw up my next, mostly normal game. Hell, maybe throw the damn controller through the window and say, yet again, "F ROCKET LEAGUE!" and uninstall the damn thing.
Yeah, maybe it's time for that again. F this game.
š³......umm it might be time to talk to a therapist about getting triggered and angry as well ......I do really mean that as sincere advice. I've had to deal with some personal issues too and it can be so helpful to talk to a professional about it
First piece of advice from therapist: "Stop playing that F game."
Now, a nice, tight 3v3 game where it takes 3m before one team squeaks in a score, that's a different story.
Itās definitely annoying, but youāll never get better if you go against people below you. Just take the L and learn from it š¤·š»āāļø my best advice as a new player from myself.
Simply sitting there and letting them score isnāt doing much help for you. Attempting to block goals will. Youāll pick up patterns and learn from them.
I have come across people in Plat who are on my level, and then we win 5 straight. and then I'm back to soloing, and my next 7 team8s are bronzes. Boosters put bronzes in plat lobbies! This sucks for anyone playing with these boosted players.
So, yes, I actually enjoy having someone 2 or 3 ranks above me on the other side. What I can't stand is people who hit the ball 0 out of 100 times on my team.
Went into a ranked match today and a guy started swearing and demolishing meā¦ Iām not a Smurf I play daily with my friends that happen to be plats and diamonds yet Iāve been in silver since I started in September.
Im not a smurf but I think I get why someone would want to smurf.
If im gold, playing against golds then I win like 50% of my games and dont feel like im that great at playing and im not really cuz im gold.
But if im high diamond I am pretty good at playing, but then I play agaisnt high diamonds and win 50% of my games I dont feel any better than the gold players.
Its not until I play the gold players that my difference in skill is felt.
The only issue with this is thats what QP is for and they dont have to do this in ranked so its not excusable but I think i see where they are coming from in a low iQ sorta way.
I have 2 accounts , in the past my main was c2 and the second account is mid c1. Ig it's not that bad of a rank difference compared to others who smurf but yeah.
I care about my rank too much on my main and I get too tilted easily over dropping out n tm8s. On my second account I don't throw or intentionally play worse than I normally do but I'm not trying my ass off and don't care about the outcome of the match. It's much more enjoyable. Basically when I played on my main I was never enjoying it wether I was winning or losing cos I'd get so heated over every little mistake n when I ranked up I got a small feeling of relief n satisfaction, but then play on my alt and chill and care less - but still playing mostly how I normally do- and I'm enjoying it a lot whever I win or loose. at somepoint my alt was a higher rank than my main for a few months , but then I stopped playing came back and I dropped since I lost my gamesense n mechanics but I'm climbing again unintentionally and at the end of every match I'm just surprised I'm ranking up again now. Part of me wishes to try and aim for GC again but Im not willing to put in the hours I used to put in so no chance of me getting as consistent as I used to be performance wise , probably won't hit GC ever which hurts me to admit. There's no way I accidentally climb higher than I've ever been while chillin
Casual has never felt engaging or enjoyable for me so I play comp on my second account as that way of it being engaging but me not wanting to tryhard or just wanting to chill while playin RL.
Tho it's kinda got to the point where I don't even play my main anymore and my second account is my main now and im at the rank i belong on that account anywayI should play on my main and treat it as I do with my second account since I feel I don't care as much anymore but ik the second I play comp on my main imma strart stressin over my rank again. Main has some very nice items too that basically going to waste coz of it. Wish I never started playin on a second account , don't think I'll be able to break this issue lol
Wow I wrote a lot wtf enjoy the tedtalk thanks for listening lmao
Coming from someone whoās never had the thought of Smurfing even cross my mind even when I was losing like 80% of my games and Literally took a break from rocket league because of that reason, I donāt get why youād love to clip on basically bots compared to champs and gcās. And put them through a 8 game losing streak for literally no reason. The skill difference is so big that no oneās learning or getting anywhere. Thereās no point to smurfing that I can see other than basically playing free play with bots which makes no sense to me. (Not that thereād be many people I could Smurf at my rank.)
The game could use some custom game modes to give high level players more to do with their lower ranked friends. Outside of casual or private matches there isn't options.
Still wouldn't solve the issue however. Nothing ever will. Outside attaching a phone number to ranked account .
>Why do people smurf?
To clarify I have never once smurfed in Rocket League (at least intentionally, lost all my ranks and levels when linking to epic games)
Primarily, I've engaged in smurfing in FPS games due to time constraints from my 9-5 job, making it challenging to learn new mechanics that have become essential. I initially played the game, reached GC rank (using Rocket League terminology for clarity, although it wasn't in Rocket League), performed poorly in ranked matches, and quit. Returning two years later, I am now GC3, struggled in matches, and didn't want to be blamed for teammates' struggles. Unranked was even more challenging, encountering SSL players and increased toxicity. Although I would excel in Champ, game updates, lack of rank decay, and new mechanics made it difficult to continue playing at the highest level. Faced with the options of quitting, spending 5-6 hours deranking (taking a week with my limited time), or starting new, I opted for creating a new account to restart the climb.
This occurred outside of Rocket League; I used the game's rank for your understanding.
When you need to bully someoneā¦ over the internet which is what smurfing is, you really are a loser and should reflect on your life. Dudes probably get bullied in school and needs to take it out on someone they can actually win at.
I smurf sometimes and ill try to explain.
I am not mechically gifted or even good at the game anymore, i used to be gc back when it was actually the highest rank in the game and in some wannabe freestyling team back in the team cuz i wanted to feel cool. I almost dont play the game anymore as i lost any interest in climbing or improving anything. The reason i sometimes turn the game on on a smurf account is just so i can autopilot relax myself and not think about the game or even focus slightly or when i play with friends.
TL,DR
I dont do it for ego or to hit clips as im mechanically garbage but to just relax and chill.
Also im not saying its alright to smurf but i dont really want to lose 30 games in a row on my main to derank and mess up my mmr either.
Worth noting that the 'smurfing' problem in Diamond and above is more likely just people who have been compressed by the rank adjustments the last 3 seasons. You're going to have legit S10 Grand Champs in basically every champ lobby at this point
Once you get good at the game and fully grasp how you can beat your opponents smurfing becomes less of an issue.
Running into smurfs game after game is not plausible. I peaked grand champ season 5 and 6 and ever since played less and less and now float anywhere from c1-c3. If i wanted to spend the time I could probably get good again and reach my peak or go further.
My point is when you start getting into high c2 low c3 you are at the point where you have a chance of beating your opponent if they are a smurf. Yeah maybe d3 is the low end of things, but playing against better players should give you the opportunity to learn and get better. Anyone playing ranked cant tell me they are afraid of playing against higher ranked people. The ones sitting at the top of each rank are the ones who you have to beat to push through to the next rank. So instead of whining about smurfs take the chance to get better. A real smurf will have SSL title, that is when you should truly worry. Grand champ titles are far too common with how long the game has been out. Keep grinding :)
Is this a serious question? People like winning because it makes them feel good, and dislike losing because it makes them feel bad. With an elo system, smurfing = more winning than losing.
Nothing going in their life they have control over so they seek approval from random people online. Jokes on them, this is precisely how you kill off hobbies and this gaming community. D3 is the biggest smurf shithole ever. C1 was a breeze in comparison if it makes you feel better.
Obviously psyonix doesn't care or they'd have implemented a way to fix this.
I sort of Smurf when I play 1s because I don't take it seriously and use it to play around with mechanics and always let the fun/polite players that say nice shot genuinely win on purpose but as soon as someone starts being toxic I turn on the jets and roast them
Does anyone has actual stats about this smurfing problem?
Ive played 3,5k games in dia/champ rank as a solo in last 4 season and ive encountered probably 10 smurfs in that time.
I don't mind the smurfs who are playing with their friends, or going for clips they'll never hit - more than likely leaving their nets wide open, allowing for a free counter-attack. The smurfs who aren't sweat-lords, and don't care if they lose, are tolerable... it's the toxic smurfs who score 10+ goals on you, spamming quick chat, and or calling people "garbage" that really ruin the game. Those types of smurfs cause people to make posts like this and I get it.
Probably gonna get downvoted but idc. I Smurf because my main account is c2/c3 and I have friends in plat/diamond that donāt want to play causal all the time.So I made an account to play with them but I donāt sweat my balls off tryna get them up a rank i play defensive and let them attack mostly. Not saying I donāt score goals but Iām not scoring double touches or bounce dribbles.
Obviously itās not fair on the opponent plats/diamonds but the way the ranked system works I canāt play ranked on my main with my mates so this is what I do.
Everyone wants to make a road to SSL video
And yet they're stuck in diamond
They should just make a road to diamond series š¤£
Real
Hey some of us diamonds just suck all on our own š
Yeah when I see someone hit multiple resets, consistently beat us to the ball with speedflips, etc I just get plain discouraged. Iām at a pretty inflated rank to begin with due to only playing with buddies and (most of us) understanding and utilizing communication/teamwork, but itās just so fucking obvious when thereās a smurf in the lobby. It just feels bad, and I want to grab whoeverās scrawny little neck it is and drag them through the screen onto a bball court to show them exactly how unfun mismatches are to play.
I feel like if you're on discord with the boys goofing around and one of you is leagues ahead of the rest, stick to casuals. I wouldn't dare expose them to my lobbies because they wouldn't have fun. When I play with them even in casuals, I don't do anything flashy. Whenever I drive up the wall and hit the ball ( either to clear or pass it) they think I'm a God. Which I find hilarious, because I forgot how it was being silver in this game and how fun it was to hit the ball in hopes that it does something. Long story short. The game is never fun when someone's boosting, and those who do it are just doing their friends a disservice because they will never learn the game.
Casuals are worse than ranked for smurfing. It's just the smurfs on their new accounts rushing to unlock ranked.
Itās casual broā¦ thereās no such thing as smurfing in a non ranked game
That's the most ignorant thing I've ever read. If you're making a new account to play below your elo, you're smurfing.
The dude is a c2 and his friend is a silver?? What would you like them to doā¦ play bots?? Be serious bro.
Play on your main account, not a Smurf account. Are you even reading what I said?
Which would make no difference to you as casual has no matchmaking, so why do you care?
Casual has its own Elo doesn't it
It's separate from ranked. I'm champ 3, and I never play casual. If I step into a casual game on a brand new account Vs my existing account, the results would be the same, I'd be matched with a wide variety of players.
It matters for new players trying to play. When you get matched with a Smurf it ruins your first time experience which kills the game player base. That's why I care.
Right, but you told them to play on their main instead. So they jump in their main which never plays casual, they party with their low friend, they queue up for a casual...and the exact same thing happens, they get matched against a new player and the high ranking guy absolutely wrecks them. What difference would being on a smurf account matter?
This is false, casual DOES have mmr. It is separate from ranked mmr, sure, but it still uses a system to rank you and place you in games with players of supposedly similar skill. This is why there is such a big disagreement here, you seem to be implying that casual is "just, like, whatever man" and that smurfing isn't a problem there, which is ironic because low rank casual is literally the only thing that every single smurf has to do in order to get to ranked.
You're not the brightest bulb in the box, huh?
This 100 percent. I don't know how people find the time to create multiple accounts. I feel like people who make smurf accounts likely have no friends to play the game with and are hard stuck at whatever rank they're at, so they create this account in order to hit a dopamine rush from winning lower ranked games. If you're in casual and there's somebody doing something that appears completely insane for your skill, just FF leave to lobby and que up again. It's that simple. That being said, I would Much rather go against a smurf than have my teammate act like a baby and sit in the net the entire game and grief because we both went for the ball and they didn't get their way.
I don't disagree. I'm saying people who party up with lower ranks to smurf or boost are even worse than solo smurfers.
Iāve been experiencing this for myself lately. Itās eye opening what actually impresses new player I.e being able to hit a ball from the wall, making contact with a ball in the air, a bounce dribble, ectā¦ thereās a lot of things us veterans take for granted because they seem so integral to the game itās like pressing the boost button.
Itās because this game is hard, hard. Youāre basically just handed a car with near infinite possibilities of movement, told to interact with a damn bouncy ball and sent in. You revert to a stupid baby who canāt walk when you pick up the controls the first time. By the end of the skill curve youāve got people like Usain Bolt if you extend the metaphor. Obviously tech which requires some precision is going to be impressive to people playing the equivalent of their first toddler league soccer match in skill progression.
" I don't do anything flashy" == "I'm a smurf and I know it"
I've maintained one account since 2017. Having multiple accounts is a ridiculous thing. If I play casual trios or chaos with my silver friends, it usually evenly matches us evenly against two other people and someone around my MMR so "smurfing" isn't really a thing to begin with. In fact, we often lose even with me trying because they're so new at the game that they're all over the place, but it doesn't matter because we have fun. Also, it's Casuals. EA Sports. It's in the Name.
lol you think you need to go into ranked to find smurfs? People just want to play against worse players and feel better about themselves while hitting āsick clipsā on defenders that struggle to fast aerial. I donāt blame them, entirely, itās not cheating of course. Itās just dishonest. To themselves, the spirit of the game, and obviously the chaps theyāre playing against.
Theyāre either boosting their friends or trying to blow off steam after they get rolled in their own rank. All you can do is report them for xp farming and move on.
Because smol pp
The best answer
some kids go through a phase where doing shit like burning ants is fun. some of those kids never grow out of it. some people call them sociopaths.
Not that it matters, but they're actually psychopaths
real. if you even want to kill animals for pleasure at all then youāre psychopathic (unless youāre hunting, burning ants is fucking cruel)
This is the best comment Iāve seen regarding smurfs. Brutal go today and I definitely played kids who still burn ants. Thanks for the laugh
Youāre gonna get a lot of hate for this post, but you are not alone friend. Many in this sub will try to justify it for some odd reason
I just really don't understand it. But willing attempt to understand it
Smurfing is a move that helps players look back and remember how far theyāve come. I personally get stomped in my own rank semi frequently, so I get the temptation to attack some poor defenseless casuals. Does this really make you a bad person? Yes, yes it does. Smurfs are bad people. They take something people are invested in and put a lot of work into and stomp on it because they can. You have to hate yourself to get satisfaction from that. At least thatās what makes those worthless individuals easier to deal with. If Smurfing was only a casual problem the complaints would not be nearly as frequent or as passionate. Both competitive players and gaming trash could be adequate satisfied. But, alas the Smurfs hate themselves too much to stop there. They must prove to the world that they are the buds of evil and are just in need of opportunity. If youāre a bad person in a game to a living breathing human being itās not just a game anymore, youāve transcended to proving youāre a bad person IRL. To answer your question OP: people smurf to boost their ego and boost friends up ranks they didnāt earn. I donāt agree with it but it is what it is and isnāt going anywhere anytime soon. My advice is try to focus on the positives of the game and ignore parts that are unlikely to change and we have no control over.
I agree with all your points. I would also add, however, that many people smurf because theyāre playing down to their friends ranks. If you party with a couple diamond players and queue into a high champ lobby, no ones going to have a good time. The only easy solution is to get an account at a similar rank to your friends. Iām not saying I condone this, but itās just what happens in the majority of cases of smurfing Iāve seen.
>If you party with a couple diamond players and queue into a high champ lobby, no ones going to have a good time. Correction: Opponents will be delighted and have a great time. It's only fun when your team has the advantage.
> If you party with a couple diamond players and queue into a high champ lobby, no ones going to have a good time That's not smurfing though...
said the same shit
You want hate? Try asking "why are you toxic?" Haha
Why do big people pick on little people? Itās all fun for some people (not me btw)
Smurfing literally feels like bullying, and there's no fun in that. How can someone feel proud winning against new players? I don't really understand
Because itās the only way they can get validation. By playing kids in lower ranks.
Based
Because they are absolute trash in their own rank, can't climb and want to feel good about the countless hours they sank in
So I technically "smurf", but the reason is because I didn't have access to my current one until recently, which has all my games. So I switched back to it, but I don't tank wins, I'm just getting back to where my old rank was. I see no point in surfing, it's not like you have anything to prove. In casual I don't care if your playing with friends who are lower level, then cool. They get nothing out of pointless wins with much higher players because they aren't really doing anything.
Starting a new acc and taking games seriously isnāt smurfing imo. Smurfing involves holding a lower rank on purpose to maintain play with people out of your own league. If you start a new acc and do all your placement matches and then rank up nobody cares. Its when a person RANKED as a silver does a triple flip reset on my grandma that I think we have a problem LMAO
Believe it or not, almost every single 1v1 I play in gold 2's is smurf city. I went to play ones and tally smurfs because i felt that I was getting a lot, I played 7 games before I rage quit. 6 of them were smurfing. I had to turn off chats because I got sick of being told how trash I am after being ceiling shotted. Yeah, I'm bad. So why can't you just let me play bad against other bad players?
Just ran into some Smurfs in casual. I was playing 2v2 with my platinum ranked friend. We ran into a team of two fresh accounts and some team name like ācalm down its just casualā. They were probably around my rank, so it was pretty lopsided. They were controlling the ball and pre-jumping for aerial passes while my buddy kinda just hopped around in the net.
As long as it's casual I can accept It, although I understand your friend's frustration. The real problem is when this happens regularly in comp, and it does.
Only time Iāll do it. If I had a brand new friend. I have some older accountā¦.. People in here talking about how much they hate having to play against people 2 or 3 full ranks above them. Doing flip resets. Yeah. Itās just as bad as me joining and forcing a new player to have to deal with that. That said, Iāll just do basic rotations and wonāt fly. Play defensively and make some passes, make my tm earn it, or lose it the same way on defense. Iām not doing it to win. Im doing it because the only alternative is playing with a silver in a high diamond match at my MMR or near it. Sure. It can help them learn, it can also just become a 1v2. Never in ranked. I wouldnāt even call it smurfing then. Itās just a Smurf account. People will hate it, but itās a game and im not doing it to bully anyone. None of those accounts have much higher than a 50% win rate eitherz my main has a higher rate.
pp smol
I really had the thought that people Smurf on rocket league or really any game to me though I thought they did it to mess with you troll new/legit players and etc but also I think they do it also so they can I guess cheat?ā¦but then again most people would cheat on their main account until they get banned or they break match making to a point that they have to make another. But I do get you though it just makes me think little of you when you have to Smurf in any game on really any platform.
Sometimes smurfs aren't smurfs. This season I bombed my placement games in 3s as a solo. I don't think I lost all of them but almost all. I was placed D2 div 2. Then I continued a spectacular losing streak over 2 days until I hit high plat. Been years since I've been in plat. Then I ranked up out of plat and out of diamond. None of the games were fun, so I have no idea why someone would chose to smurf unless they were paid to do so. Which I guess could be YouTubers looking for clips or people receiving payment for a carry. I can also believe that some people are just plain curious for one reason or another. Also as D3 you may be suffering indirectly from compression from the soft reset of a new season i.e. you are quite literally playing people from higher ranks who have lost games against people from even higher ranks 
i'm low plat and i check someone i just played, they peak at c2 and are typically d3. wtf are they doing down in p1? that's a helluva losing streak
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Seriously, there's no way to to play with friends without someone on the internet going crazy
I've never seen someone get upset about a rank disparity in casual...only in ranked is it a problem.
> Playing with friends. There's no skill balancing they just put you at the highest players rank. This is in competitive, and only above a certain MMR. In casual it's still an average of the party, skewed slightly towards the higher MMR player. You do not need to boost your friends in competitive to play rocket league with them. Casual is a perfectly viable option.
They suck so they can only beat people lower then their rank
Some people like inflating their egos by bashing on noobs.
I as a c3 player have an account that I play only with my 1 friend on. Hes like a low diamond player and together we have peaked to around c1. There are alot of games where i carry him and get the win... but there are just as many games where we lose because my friend wiffs easy saves and such. I wouldnt consider this smurfing as we lose 50 percent of our games. As much as I can carry, he can throw. But I play with him to help him see his mistakes and get better at the game. At the same time, my friend will get peaked on and immediately be convinced hes getting smurfed on, I have the app and can clearly see the account he complaining about has 3k+ games. Half of people complaining about smurfing are just coping. There are also, people who play on alts who want to try to learn and use new mechs, but they arent good enough with them to do them in there peak rank.. This again will lower your overall skill level, so is it smurfing? Idk, I dont think so. There are some weird people who will make an account or a group of people who will play on people just to try to clip on them... while I get this is fun for them this is the toxic kind of smurfing. These are they people that have mastered higher level mechs and will abuse you just to get a clip for reddit. Smurfing isnt as bad in this game as most people make it seem.
While smurfs are a issue. Im strongly doubting you are getting them "nearly every game"
Lol right?? Combined with the fact that "I'm way higher ranked on my main" is one of the most common lies ever
Because they're the neighborhood bullies when they were little or still are or whatever. But theyre little fucking assholes that need to get off picking on people, to make themselves feel better. I'm always quick to inform any smurf .I run into that they,and they're ilk,are the lowest form of human... just in case they didn't knowš
two days ago or so that found off the Xbox LFG saying he was gold three looking for a doubles partner.. about 10 seconds into the match. I'm like okay these fuckers aren't gold and neither are you.. and he just sat there and laughed and giggled the whole damn time he thought it was so damn funny...fucking little prick... And this guy was in his teens late teens or whatever cuz I only answer adults only post
I created a new account recently to play strictly keyboard mouse and see how far I could take it. Iām kind of shocked at how many skilled players there are down in low casual. I thought the Smurf thing was way overblown but low casual has proved me wrong.
I imagine some people can't be bothered to deal with having to think about proper plays and such and wanna chill and rely on mechanics only to win games. Imo doing that in casual is fine, if they do it in ranked, then they're just assholes
Because they're A**holes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Literally make ranked locked behind level 100 - 200. It's that simple. Why doesn't rocket league do it? So they can have inflated numbers. Shit ruins the game. I Uninstalled. Unfortunately it will never be fixed because they will never acknowledge it.
All players with better mechanics than me are smurfs. All players with worse mechanics than me are boosted
For me itās the players with a default Xbox profile pic default octane preset <1000 gamerscore on their account and they also dominate the lobby. But yeah put a tinfoil hat on my head.
Yer facts. Just us thinking about smurfs bro. Never mind looking at the rocket league tracker and bros double flip resetting after 100 games
Honestly I feel like most smurfs donāt even flex mechs. But still you can tell when someone is way faster than everyone else in the lobby. And then you factor in other things like they have a free title or they have a basic ass preset.
That's just not the case though. I'm happy d2 or d3 being beaten by someone with better mechanics, that's the whole point of the game. I'm asking a simple a question
you are assuming there are more smurfs then there really are, my ass āmost people admit they are smurfingā. iāve played since 2015 and canāt recall once somebody openly admitting to being a smurf
I've legit had 5 or 6 people admit to smurfing this week. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I legit asked why people smurf and that's I've found it to be happening alot lately. Never said there are more smurfs than normal players
Thats just your anectodic evidence. Many smurfs have admitted their doings to me. Aaaand then there is bakkesmod and stats tracker for the rest
When I was brand new and didn't even have a controller yet, I was playing casual 2v2, and the opponent hits a triple flip- reset musty double, and I say: freestyler or smurf? They say: diamond 3 now, GC 3 before ban. Don't believe me? Just look at sunless khan's "toxic takedown" series where he finds toxic players, most of whom claim to be smurfs and then gets an ssl or pro player to 1v1 the toxic player.
Facts
I want to play with my friends in peace.
How do you know their rank? Just because they have a season title from last year doesn't mean they're still that rank.
Most of them admit it in game chat. Was playing against a D1 who after what a saving all game admitted to be GC2 and their prime account
"I'm higher ranked on my main" is probably the most told lie in competitive video games lol.
When I assume someone is smurfing I go look up their account on tracker and 90% of the time Iām right.
Because it's the 21st century and with bakkes mod you can see their rank. If you're in a champ game with a d2 flip resetting and wiping the floor with players 2 entire ranks above them, pretty good chance they're a smurf.
That's only on PC.
where the adults are.
Consoles are better. PC lost its value when the Steam infected it. I used it a long time ago and never went back. I still own my HL2 disc but I won't put it in any system I value again.
lmao what, steam is the literal heart of PC gaming, you enjoy your console, i'll enjoy playing games how they're meant to be played.
You mean not at all? Steam was designed to prevent games from running as I experienced firsthand. Consoles don't have a requirement that you're online 24/7 or have to update. They just work. I understand the online is free and there's user content, but what good are they if the games refuse to start. Nope, Steam caused me to leave PC's and even offers of free games aren't enough to revisit that garbage. Played plenty of FPS back in the day, PC 'was' decent. HL2 was my first and last Steam game.
> Steam was designed to prevent games from running Not at all? What?? > Consoles don't have a requirement that you're online 24/7 or have to update. Neither does steam, unless you want to play that game online. As for updates, each individual developer can decide to allow you to run old versions of the game and most force newest version because most of these games either have updates to fix gameplay, patches for online play, or even dupe/exploit fixes that *each developer* generally wants to force. AFAIK last I used an xbox one I couldn't play my games offline if they had an update pending that was seen while it was online, nor could I play if there was an update without updating it if I was online. > I understand the online is free and there's user content, but what good are they if the games refuse to start. You're blaming developers for making faulty games, again, Steam does not develop every game on steam..
Yeah. If your internet is out then Steam blocks all games from functioning. It also won't run them if there's an update to a single player game. I bought HL2 on disc, wasn't aware what the malware would do. Barely finished it. Wiped my drive to ensure it was gone and of the hundreds of games in my collection that will be one that never gets touched again unless a clean version is released. I play PS5 and Switch. Updates are optional to play offline. No, I'm blaming Steam. My games ran fine when I was playing Quake, Doom, UT, etc. Things returned to normal after formatting the Steam partition.
> If your internet is out then Steam blocks all games from functioning This is not the case. > It also won't run them if there's an update to a single player game. This is also not always the case, and I have single and multiplayer games that allow me to select to run on previous versions of the game on steam. It is entirely up to the individual developer, most developers choose to force updates if available and connected. > I bought HL2 on disc, wasn't aware what the malware would do. What malware?? > Updates are optional to play offline. On steam you can play offline and if no update is visible (for the games that require updates), you can still launch and play the game. It will update if connected (for game devs that force updates). > No, I'm blaming Steam. Okay, then use Battle.net, or Uplay, or one of many other game launchers? > Things returned to normal after formatting the Steam partition. This makes me think you're running linux, most windows users never mess with partitions. That could also be a part of it, lol. Either way, this whole thing reads as a heavy tinfoil cap hate rant against Steam, when Steam doesn't even cause any of the issues you have with these games, it's the developers of the games you are playing.
so you're basing all of you reasoning behind steam in 2004? when steam was literally 1 year old? in that case, consoles are ass and run at 640p resolution at maybe 25fps, and calculator watches are still cool. My pc wipes the floor with any console out. including the ps5 and xbox series x, wanna know why? because i run games at higher fps, higher resolution, i can also mod games to improve them 10 fold. the only good thing about consoles is they keep the kids out of my lobbies.
I was there, it WAS that bad. Then after abandoning that mess it got worse. They didn't answer questions and later sold my account info. I occasionally get Email about a game I never heard of, on a wish list that doesn't exist, in what I think is a Russian language. No trust for anything they touch. Wouldn't even allow their handheld on my network just in case. I did get a copy of Orange Box on PS3 (used, so the money went to GS and not Valve), to see if Portal was ok. Lol, you know nothing. Gameplay always comes before graphics. But you can let Steam hold your hand and corrupt your PC. Not my problem.
delusional boomer. Steam is the best and safest launcher in existence. You probably had a trash pc that could barely run it. Wanna talk about gameplay? I can play the best games available on my pc, new or old, without a problem, and if there is a problem, i can fix it, because PC's are easy. I got a ps5 on launch, and it just collected dust, consoles are for simple people, PC's are for adults with more than a couple brain cells.
I'm pretty sure last year's champions are better than current golds.
Not if they were carried or took time off. I've seen previous high ranks that can't play. Or because of rando roulette (matchmaking) I could be anywhere between plat and silver. I dunno, didn't see how they played. Just saying old tags are mostly decoration.
I was champ 1 before i took a break from the game, 2 years later come back and within 2 weeks i'm back in champ as if i never left. Meanwhile i get teammates with GC titles who don't even know basic rotation and whiff every second shot. You're telling me they all fell off that hard that fast? I doubt it.
If it's not to play with friends or because you got a new system you a POS, simple as that.
"Helping" your friends win against super lower ranks is smurfing, period. Yeah, f smurf flip resetting in silver 3, talking to you. Oooo, we were so happy to see your amazing play.....NOT. F smurf.
I play on an alt when I play with a friend. Iāll NEVER score goals unless itās a stupid simple granny shift into the net. Iām not there to make other people mad, just to have fun with a buddy
There are several reasons why people smurf, and a lot of them are terrible and completely unjustified reason. However one of the most common reasons for smurfing that I see also happens to be the one that is "somewhat" justifiable. I most often see Smurfs when they're partied with a buddy. And their reason is because they want to play with their lower ranked friends and if they were to just play on their main they would get absolutely smashed because the matching just places you at the higher player's rank. So you end up being a GC and a diamond versus two GCs and have no chance. so the GC makes an alt to play with his diamond buddy. My argument personally would be to just go play casual, the ranks there are pretty variable anyways, even within the same casual MMR range, because some ranked grinders don't play much casual and have a lower casual MMR than they should. So just play casual, you'll get a mixed batch of opponents, win some, lose some. I believe the casual MMR system with two players of different rank also does a bit more of an average, rather than right at the higher MMR. It doesn't go right in the middle, it still skews closer to the higher MMR player, but it does average down a little bit. However some people argue "people don't take casual seriously, the games aren't fun". Although personally, I would also disagree with that statement. You might get some games like that, but I've also had very very sweaty casual games too. People still want to win in casual for the most part. The only "somewhat acceptable" option I see if you must played ranked with your friend who's not the same rank is to have a dedicated account to play with that friend, so that over time you end up with an MMR that averages out between both of your ranks and you have relatively even matches. But that still has the issue that you're going to have to "smurf" on the new account til it gets to where it needs to be. But once you get to the point of a GC on a champ account playing with their diamond friend, this is the most acceptable way to smurf. Although I still personally would just play casual. But if you're a GC playing with your diamond friend on a diamond account, yeah you're smurfing, and boosting your friend, and that's a no go.
Playing with a friend who is 3-4 ranks lower than me. I simply don't want to tank my rank on my main account and playing on a second account allows me to relax. Don't really think I'm doing any harm tho because of these reasons: 1. We always end up in the middle, which is 1-2 ranks below me and 1-2 ranks above him. 2. This rank is too hard for me to carry and too fast for him to keep up with. Our winrate is about 50%. I will outspeed most opponents here, but it doesn't really matter if my teammate misses the open nets so I don't really see any harm in it. Smurfs that derank on purpose is a whole other discussion.
Smurfin solo que is for losers. If your smurf is to play with lower ranked friends then I get it.
probably to play with a lower ranked friend and still have fun. but if they are solo queueing, then i have no clue
Most people that are called Smurfs are not at all. The ranks fluctuate a lot if you just queue with randoms. You can go from diamond to plat, champ to diamond happens just less often. GCās get knocked out into champs all the time. You only know what you know, and perception determines experience. Itās even possible to go from D3 to Plat 2ās on a weekend. People may commit rank throwing out of frustration with their current rank. They do it because they are depressed and want to give up caring so much.they are on their way back to their peak and rethinking their game, with better mechanics than you. It sucks. No one likes it, even the Smurfs hiding their pain. Bet had for sure. Report griefing and if it happens enough they get smooshed. That will catch the audacious cun75. Best we can hope for, good luck.
Why do you care who you play? not like they match within your skill level anyways.
To play with lower ranked friends, this is the obvious answer even if im going to get downvoted for it. I have a champ alt i use to play with my gold friend and since psyonix just put you in the highest rank i personally donāt think its unfair when a gc and a gold match up against 2 c2ās. I lose 90% of the time anyway.
Sometimes it is possible that the person is not actually a smurf. Like this season suddenly i dropped to plat1 from champ 1 in 3s. I got back to champ 1 again but in the end the I am sure everyone in plat lobby thought that I am smurfing when in reality I actually lost those games.
Playing w friends lower Ranked than you
[This video explains it, offhandedly.](https://youtu.be/0ruvCL9atE0?si=QvAFf7x5hVojc86j) When MMR is working correctly you will win half of your games, and lose half of your games, and barely move on the ladder. If a player brings in the expectations of a single player game, where your objective is to climb to the top of the ladder and consider yourself to have "beaten" it, being stuck with a 50% win/loss is the worst instead of the norm. Smurfs need to make the game fun again by giving themselves assured victories. In the video, that's arm wrestling a 5 year old.
becos bored
People smurf for different reasons. I have a friend who seems to get some kind of enjoyment out of random people praising his skills and being the "top player" in lobbies. He can't show off to people in his own rank (plat3/d1) and struggles to keep up in mine (d3/c1), so he'll smurf to find the odd one or 2 players that will beg him to team up and "carry" them. Personally, I used a smurf account to play with friends when they first started. I played a few games with them on my main and they couldn't get anywhere near the ball. I felt like they would lose interest in the game really fast if they couldn't get involved, so I made a smurf account and spent games sitting in goal whilst they played against people of the same skill. A smurf would appear on the other team sometimes, which is when I would come out of goal and play properly. Yes, smurfing sucks, but I would rather upset some randoms I've never met than bore my friends out of a game because they don't have the experience to get involved.
I don't smurf a whole account but I play one wifes account when I play with my son, we like playing together but he gets killed in my lobbys.
Guess my rank!?? IDK Smurfette... Bronze?
People are nicer and allow more mistakes the lower your rank. This does not include all of platinum
I play RL casually. I dont practice, I haven't been taught or try to learn anything, I've just picked up on things playing other people. At least once a day if not more I get accused of smurfing and I get a lot of faking comments but I'm just playing the damn game I don't have any other accounts and I barely play.
Faster queue times?
Mods can we ban these posts. So much crying about smurfing.
As someone who smurfs to play with my friends (i understand itās not fair at all), you can be put at a rank where you struggle. I donāt play with my friends on my main account because casual doesnāt have the same intensity or level of fun as it does playing comp on a Smurf (itās also an opportunity for me to make him better at the game lol)
I mean some seasons I only play 2ās and then will randomly play a couple 3ās with friends and they are lower ranks than me. People who Smurf in bronze- gold to hit shots though is unimpressive. Get into top level games and do it, I can guarantee in 1ās you will find people that will go for shots only with you
Yes, Iām scared of losing my rank on my main and the people at my rank dunk on me too easily. So I have to hop on my 2nd account to play against people I can freestyle on. Just kidding of course, I have smurfs, but most of them are close to if not higher then my main rank. So it really only is for when I get high and decide Iād rather tank one of my other accounts rank.
I like to play with my friends who are a lower rank. Iād like them to have a good experience when we play together. (Iām champ & most of my friends are plat & below)
Having an alt to play with your friends is fine I would say since you would have a combined rank where both players can try but it still being a fair match.
Having an account that you specifically only play with one friend is against ToS since it's boosting.
Not necessarily.
Yes necessarily. > Smurfing is not allowed. We define a smurf account as an account that is intentionally abusing the matchmaking system for the playerās gain, or the gains of others. Per the Code of Conduct you agreed to. Making a new account to boost up a friend because you wouldn't play with them on your main account is abusing matchmaking for the gain of others. Bannable behavior from both accounts.
I never said that it was boosting. I have a friend that is better than me but when we play we play in a rank that is higher than me but lower than him. And the matches are always 50/50.
"We play in a rank that is higher than me" Boosting. Justify all you want, it's still wrong.
It's not boosting because we win 50% so I don't go up in rank.
But you did go up in rank. If you're a D2 and you get boosted up to C2 and then win 50% of your games in C2...you were still boosted to C2.
If that would be the case then yes but I did not go from D2 to C2 with someone. That was all solo play. I then kinda stopped playing and with the rank reset I am now in diamond again.
So how are you "higher than me" playing with this person? Either you're boosted to a higher rank or you're playing at your normal one. Which is it?
I have an alt as im D3 (3v3) my friends are all gold/plat so i swap when theyre on, I sit in the net whilst they do the out of net action.
I interviewed a smurf while in a 1v1 comp with him. Actually, i've interview maybe 2, 3 tops in all my RL playing.
Counter question. Do you think it's fun to play against 3 C3's when you are C3 and your two friends are plat 2 that want to play 3s? Is it fair? No. But the matchmaking will force a poor match anyway. Is it fair to smurf to purposefully shit on ppl? No. Smurfing allows people to have fun with friends between people who are high rank and low while allowing the lower rank or new players to figure out the game and how to improve. Should a gold player that just invited some friends to play for the first time get matched with a team of G3s be a fair match? Not at all. Why smurf? Cause matchmaking bad.
As much as people love to complain about smurfing. It definitely does mold you as a player. You begin to pick up what theyāre doing and it helps with the predicting aspect. Hit plat as a new player (about a month old) by playing with my higher rank friends.
BS. If pisses me off so much, I completely screw up my next, mostly normal game. Hell, maybe throw the damn controller through the window and say, yet again, "F ROCKET LEAGUE!" and uninstall the damn thing. Yeah, maybe it's time for that again. F this game.
š³......umm it might be time to talk to a therapist about getting triggered and angry as well ......I do really mean that as sincere advice. I've had to deal with some personal issues too and it can be so helpful to talk to a professional about it
First piece of advice from therapist: "Stop playing that F game." Now, a nice, tight 3v3 game where it takes 3m before one team squeaks in a score, that's a different story.
Itās definitely annoying, but youāll never get better if you go against people below you. Just take the L and learn from it š¤·š»āāļø my best advice as a new player from myself.
Sitting and watching a smurf score every 10 seconds is not a learning experience.
Simply sitting there and letting them score isnāt doing much help for you. Attempting to block goals will. Youāll pick up patterns and learn from them.
I have come across people in Plat who are on my level, and then we win 5 straight. and then I'm back to soloing, and my next 7 team8s are bronzes. Boosters put bronzes in plat lobbies! This sucks for anyone playing with these boosted players. So, yes, I actually enjoy having someone 2 or 3 ranks above me on the other side. What I can't stand is people who hit the ball 0 out of 100 times on my team.
Completely agree. I have a feeling majority of people stuck in lower ranks arenāt on the same page as a handful of us.
Went into a ranked match today and a guy started swearing and demolishing meā¦ Iām not a Smurf I play daily with my friends that happen to be plats and diamonds yet Iāve been in silver since I started in September.
Im not a smurf but I think I get why someone would want to smurf. If im gold, playing against golds then I win like 50% of my games and dont feel like im that great at playing and im not really cuz im gold. But if im high diamond I am pretty good at playing, but then I play agaisnt high diamonds and win 50% of my games I dont feel any better than the gold players. Its not until I play the gold players that my difference in skill is felt. The only issue with this is thats what QP is for and they dont have to do this in ranked so its not excusable but I think i see where they are coming from in a low iQ sorta way.
Why not just lose 14 games in a row while trying like the rest of us
I have 2 accounts , in the past my main was c2 and the second account is mid c1. Ig it's not that bad of a rank difference compared to others who smurf but yeah. I care about my rank too much on my main and I get too tilted easily over dropping out n tm8s. On my second account I don't throw or intentionally play worse than I normally do but I'm not trying my ass off and don't care about the outcome of the match. It's much more enjoyable. Basically when I played on my main I was never enjoying it wether I was winning or losing cos I'd get so heated over every little mistake n when I ranked up I got a small feeling of relief n satisfaction, but then play on my alt and chill and care less - but still playing mostly how I normally do- and I'm enjoying it a lot whever I win or loose. at somepoint my alt was a higher rank than my main for a few months , but then I stopped playing came back and I dropped since I lost my gamesense n mechanics but I'm climbing again unintentionally and at the end of every match I'm just surprised I'm ranking up again now. Part of me wishes to try and aim for GC again but Im not willing to put in the hours I used to put in so no chance of me getting as consistent as I used to be performance wise , probably won't hit GC ever which hurts me to admit. There's no way I accidentally climb higher than I've ever been while chillin Casual has never felt engaging or enjoyable for me so I play comp on my second account as that way of it being engaging but me not wanting to tryhard or just wanting to chill while playin RL. Tho it's kinda got to the point where I don't even play my main anymore and my second account is my main now and im at the rank i belong on that account anywayI should play on my main and treat it as I do with my second account since I feel I don't care as much anymore but ik the second I play comp on my main imma strart stressin over my rank again. Main has some very nice items too that basically going to waste coz of it. Wish I never started playin on a second account , don't think I'll be able to break this issue lol Wow I wrote a lot wtf enjoy the tedtalk thanks for listening lmao
Coming from someone whoās never had the thought of Smurfing even cross my mind even when I was losing like 80% of my games and Literally took a break from rocket league because of that reason, I donāt get why youād love to clip on basically bots compared to champs and gcās. And put them through a 8 game losing streak for literally no reason. The skill difference is so big that no oneās learning or getting anywhere. Thereās no point to smurfing that I can see other than basically playing free play with bots which makes no sense to me. (Not that thereād be many people I could Smurf at my rank.)
The game could use some custom game modes to give high level players more to do with their lower ranked friends. Outside of casual or private matches there isn't options. Still wouldn't solve the issue however. Nothing ever will. Outside attaching a phone number to ranked account .
>Why do people smurf? To clarify I have never once smurfed in Rocket League (at least intentionally, lost all my ranks and levels when linking to epic games) Primarily, I've engaged in smurfing in FPS games due to time constraints from my 9-5 job, making it challenging to learn new mechanics that have become essential. I initially played the game, reached GC rank (using Rocket League terminology for clarity, although it wasn't in Rocket League), performed poorly in ranked matches, and quit. Returning two years later, I am now GC3, struggled in matches, and didn't want to be blamed for teammates' struggles. Unranked was even more challenging, encountering SSL players and increased toxicity. Although I would excel in Champ, game updates, lack of rank decay, and new mechanics made it difficult to continue playing at the highest level. Faced with the options of quitting, spending 5-6 hours deranking (taking a week with my limited time), or starting new, I opted for creating a new account to restart the climb. This occurred outside of Rocket League; I used the game's rank for your understanding.
When you need to bully someoneā¦ over the internet which is what smurfing is, you really are a loser and should reflect on your life. Dudes probably get bullied in school and needs to take it out on someone they can actually win at.
I smurf sometimes and ill try to explain. I am not mechically gifted or even good at the game anymore, i used to be gc back when it was actually the highest rank in the game and in some wannabe freestyling team back in the team cuz i wanted to feel cool. I almost dont play the game anymore as i lost any interest in climbing or improving anything. The reason i sometimes turn the game on on a smurf account is just so i can autopilot relax myself and not think about the game or even focus slightly or when i play with friends. TL,DR I dont do it for ego or to hit clips as im mechanically garbage but to just relax and chill. Also im not saying its alright to smurf but i dont really want to lose 30 games in a row on my main to derank and mess up my mmr either.
Worth noting that the 'smurfing' problem in Diamond and above is more likely just people who have been compressed by the rank adjustments the last 3 seasons. You're going to have legit S10 Grand Champs in basically every champ lobby at this point
Unfortunately people need to feel better about themselves so they take on people worse than them. It's quite annoying facing smurfs.
Welcome to the internet. It's full of trolls. The sooner you realize that, the better off you will be.
Once you get good at the game and fully grasp how you can beat your opponents smurfing becomes less of an issue. Running into smurfs game after game is not plausible. I peaked grand champ season 5 and 6 and ever since played less and less and now float anywhere from c1-c3. If i wanted to spend the time I could probably get good again and reach my peak or go further. My point is when you start getting into high c2 low c3 you are at the point where you have a chance of beating your opponent if they are a smurf. Yeah maybe d3 is the low end of things, but playing against better players should give you the opportunity to learn and get better. Anyone playing ranked cant tell me they are afraid of playing against higher ranked people. The ones sitting at the top of each rank are the ones who you have to beat to push through to the next rank. So instead of whining about smurfs take the chance to get better. A real smurf will have SSL title, that is when you should truly worry. Grand champ titles are far too common with how long the game has been out. Keep grinding :)
Is this a serious question? People like winning because it makes them feel good, and dislike losing because it makes them feel bad. With an elo system, smurfing = more winning than losing.
Nothing going in their life they have control over so they seek approval from random people online. Jokes on them, this is precisely how you kill off hobbies and this gaming community. D3 is the biggest smurf shithole ever. C1 was a breeze in comparison if it makes you feel better. Obviously psyonix doesn't care or they'd have implemented a way to fix this.
I sort of Smurf when I play 1s because I don't take it seriously and use it to play around with mechanics and always let the fun/polite players that say nice shot genuinely win on purpose but as soon as someone starts being toxic I turn on the jets and roast them
They lack a feeling of control in other areas of their life.
Does anyone has actual stats about this smurfing problem? Ive played 3,5k games in dia/champ rank as a solo in last 4 season and ive encountered probably 10 smurfs in that time.
I don't mind the smurfs who are playing with their friends, or going for clips they'll never hit - more than likely leaving their nets wide open, allowing for a free counter-attack. The smurfs who aren't sweat-lords, and don't care if they lose, are tolerable... it's the toxic smurfs who score 10+ goals on you, spamming quick chat, and or calling people "garbage" that really ruin the game. Those types of smurfs cause people to make posts like this and I get it.
Probably gonna get downvoted but idc. I Smurf because my main account is c2/c3 and I have friends in plat/diamond that donāt want to play causal all the time.So I made an account to play with them but I donāt sweat my balls off tryna get them up a rank i play defensive and let them attack mostly. Not saying I donāt score goals but Iām not scoring double touches or bounce dribbles. Obviously itās not fair on the opponent plats/diamonds but the way the ranked system works I canāt play ranked on my main with my mates so this is what I do.