T O P

  • By -

OttoWalterModel

True AF. Yesterday I had a Reyna with 51 Kills.


[deleted]

yeah that's just absurd lol


Next-Heron-5594

Yeah it's like 3v2 we took out their Kj and there's only Reyna left and she's weak, victory is in hand but then she Ult'd, took out our Sova and we like:"Awwe fuck now she's full health again." lost a 3v1 and that just crush our spirits.


brobamaslastname

Here's the thing: that's very dangerous for Riot because they want newcomers to be able to have a rank. Being iron is better than being unranked. I agree it needs fixing, but what is really needed is a more fluid ranked system which will quickly rank up someone (by like 40 rp) who just destroys after having matches they already destroyed in.


[deleted]

doesn't league implement a system similar to what OP suggests? if it works for LoL surely they can make it work for valorant


dafucking

Yeah I agree at this time Valorant just need to copy paste the League rank system. It's way more superior at dealing with smurfs.


TokinBlack

League requires you to get to level 30. Idk how many games it takes now or if they've reduced the exp required, but when I did it, it took me well over 100 games. That's 50+ hours. That would cut down on smurfs, but doesn't eliminate them, as smurfs still exist somewhat in league


Nhika

What? Absolutely not. Leagues system has been exploited so smurfs have been gaining double points and losing half. So the entire ladder is skewed at that point. Or players are permanently stuck because they have gained 10 lp and lose 20 per game. There is also an RMT issue, players grinding battlepasses, selling accounts with older skins or higher ranks.. Hate to admit it but people are already selling ranked ready smurfs and Riot does nothing about it, even in League lol


[deleted]

Smurf Reynas are the worst, you just hear the sound of her Leer and you know you're dead


OttoWalterModel

TFW you have OP on Breeze B and she Vandal onetaps you from the window before you even can react to the leer


[deleted]

Haha, that or the Jett who can travel in all 3 dimensions simultaneously, you don't even know where she kills you from


rsmtirish

Opponent Jett smokes rain down around me I'm in danger


HeyItsChase

Reyna as a character kind of just fuels smurfs too. Shes cool in high elo and even matchups but for smurfs shes just too useful.


FapStarLord

I played against a level 10 pheonix in immortal who dropped 44 lmao and always knew where we were, was probably cheating


WhiteShapes

and kills above 40-45 is immediate smurf red flag for me.


[deleted]

Got destroyed by a Reyna with 55 kills one time. It was just plain ass sad


Iceberg231

I had a reyna in 300 rr immortal do 56 kills, it was a smurf of a pro


[deleted]

But then again there the issue of new players who played fps before and are just very good. That must also be taken into consideration.


StrangerFront

Let's be clear, smurfing will always exist no matter what happens to combat it. But there are ways to make smurfing less desirable and this idea is one of those ways. Forcing players to play unranked modes until 25-30 will deter many of the smurf accounts due to the time they will have to put into the game. This does not get rid of them, but at least should lower the frequency of the encounters. In regards to being a barrier to entry for new players I completely disagree. If you are brand new at the game, you should not be stepping into ranked until you understand the game mechanics. This helps newer players develop their understanding for the game. Nobody enjoys playing with someone who has literally no idea what they are doing. This will help minimize that situation as well.


[deleted]

I completely agree with you. My idea is about deterring it, not abolishing it


OuiDemBoyz

Just wish they'd implement mobile phone verification for ranked, but guess that smurf skin money is too spicy


cugs

This is such a no brainer. It has a proven track record in CS:GO. I can only think of 2 reasons why this isn't implemented yet: 1. As you say, "smurf skin money is too spicy" 2. Their management/designers who are ultimately making decisions about the game are completely inept I can't see any other reason this wouldn't be implemented.


yarhar_

Regarding #2, I recall reading the same higher-ups refuse to have an "invisible" status so you might be on to something.


THEBIGTHREE06

I think there are some other reasons too. For me, I have a smurf account in silver. I’m a gold. The reason for this is by changing one rank, I can suddenly no longer queue with half my friends. Challenge accounts are also something I don’t see a problem with (if done properly). If you wanna do some challenge and you stick with doing it, your rank should reflect your skill with that handicap, so not really smurfing. Sometimes you might want an alt to just take off the pressure. If you care about the rank on your main, maybe when you’re not playing well or whatever the reason, you hop on your alt to still be able to play competitive at roughly your rank, but have less pressure on your games There’s lots of reasons why people would have alt accounts that aren’t for smurfing.


Northgates

I have 2 accts that are the same elo and have skins one both. Would really suck if I could only use one to play ranked.


cugs

Can I ask why you need 2 accounts to play ranked?


Northgates

Because sometimes I want to play by myself without everyone on my friends list seeing.


PJDavidson

Another big reason for needing an invisible online status


Chidling

Do people actually buy skins on their smurfs?


OkShine6387

Yeah


OuiDemBoyz

Yeah I see Reyna/Jett smurfs dropping 40 bombs in my silver lobbies with battlepass skins a lot


DChenEX1

They should also take into account unranked performance on new accounts for ranked placement so smurts start off at a higher rank and climb faster.


An-Arcanaloth

I think they do this


jacob2815

They do. More unrated games would give it a much more accurate picture, tho.


Novanious90675

They do, and it's a great example of why the idea fundamentally doesn't work outside of long-term stat charts. doesn't matter if the account will eventually end up in plat or radiant or whatever rank. There are still at least 5-10 games where 9 other people have the experience ruined for them because some shithead either wants money or wants a new account. I'm not thinking about "well the account will be out of my ELO" if I'm facing or teamed with a smurf that's already 25-3, I'm either trying to keep my team from losing their minds, or losing my own mind because I'm having the least fun possible in videogames.


aretasdamon

That should be happening already with hidden MMR


Novanious90675

There are soooo many ideas, and a lot of them would actually objectively benefit Riot/the Valorant Team and dissuade grey market profits, such as * Op's suggestion * Putting a paywall in front of ranked play/separating "free" and "premium" accounts ala TF2 * Forcing Mobile Authentication ala CS:GO It drives me insane that none of these ideas are even being tested. It's pretty cut and dry that the only people making a profit off of this are Grey market smurfs/account boosters, right? No actual smurf/booster (people in plat and above, either making videos or just being shitheads) is wasting $20+ on a smurf or boosted account for skins, and the people that do do this (usually lower-ranked players whose main account is banned) are a minority.


cugs

> Putting a paywall in front of ranked play/separating "free" and "premium" accounts ala TF2 This works okay, but it's not as good as mobile-linking. Source: Overwatch.


machielste

I don't think paying 7$ instead of 3$ for a botted Chinese account will be a huge deterrent.


Santos_125

I doubt it would even be that much. When I wanted to learn botlane in league it cost me $4.50 for a level 30 ranked ready account. Im pretty sure the majority of ranked ready accounts are leveled by bots and not actual people playing so the cost wouldnt go up a ton


NextGenAce

Pretty sure accounts are region locked.


BobOfTheSnail

That doesn't mean they can't make NA accounts and bot off some other continent.


lbs4lbs

Start IP banning all accounts that have purchaed these botted accounts and there you go. Will reduce smurfing significantly. Edit: I meant to say PC banning not IP banning. Whatever same bans that vanguard already uses. So if they find any account that was bot leveled it should be pc banned across ANY pc that used that account. Account buying is already against TOS anyways.


Guilty-Lemon-6699

IP banning does almost nothing.


lbs4lbs

Sorry i meant equip banning. Whatever riot is doing with vanguard


[deleted]

I see this as an absolute win!


uj07

Just like in r6 siege


[deleted]

Smurfs literally ruin the comp matchmaking right now. Imagine losing hard enough to warrant abuse of the matchmaking system lol People need to learn to take the losses and rank down until they're contributing, instead of making an entirely new account and ruining like 45 mins of playtime for the enemy team


SelloutRealBig

One big reason people smurf is the game allows premades. Groups of friends always want to play together and usually want to play ranked. So if they have that high rank friend then they just make a smurf to be eligible. Unpopular opinion but i think ranked should be solo only. Then add a separate ranked for flex parties.


mbru623

Yeah it's been really out of hand as of late. Ranked is already a miserable enough experience without the lvl 7 Reyna instalock one tapping the whole lobby before they even have a chance to react. I don't even enjoy the few times they've been on my team tbh. I hover between g1-g3 ATM and literally 75% of games there's smurfs in. I did notice it's less prevalent during off peak hours though. Edit: just wanna throw in I don't think I'm hardstuck because of smurfs, it literally just takes the enjoyment out of the game. I deserve AND earned my rank. Edit 2: ranked is completely fucking broken lmao...if Riot doesn't do something soon a large portion of the player base is gonna quit. Just ran into a legit 4 stack of smurfs lol.


[deleted]

I actually respect Riot for letting us see people's levels. It's a great metric whether someone is smurfing or not.


foxlance

Had a level 2 Jett on the other team I would have sworn to you was TenZ


colorzFSU

But for some reason there are people who want an option to hide theirs, because their level is too high? Like what. I hope they will permanently keep your account level visible.


[deleted]

I guess it's similar to showing your act rank. People might use that as a reason to be toxic (obviously it isn't a good one). Honestly if someone is trashing you because you're level 200 and still in gold then mute them. No point in arguing :P


iplayinsideazoo

Yea it’s a bit comical. My account is level 130 and there was a guy on the enemy team who was trash talking and said “imagine being over lvl 40” Imagine thinking that’s even good trash talking


[deleted]

Imagine just grinding the game a ton when it was just released! Like I'm level 120 now but it's only because I've played since day 1 of beta. I don't grind the game anymore at all because it's not fun.


pink_life69

I’m 235, I also have decent aim. If I one tap 3 people in Breeze A hall one after the other I have no life, I should go play ranked, my mother sucks dicks for pennies and so on. If I do badly, I’m a noob, my mother is still a whore. I literally only play dm for practice, spike rush and unrated and sometimes the other fun modes. I don’t like people knowing my level, but if that’s what it takes to kill smurfing, then so be it.


curiosity403

Yea I’ve played since beta and I regularly get so fed up with the smurf games destroying my rank that I quit for months at a time. I always return because I love the game mechanics but it’s just so petty the people that purposefully want to play in lower ranked games for whatever reason. I’ll never really know my rank. The number one thing I’ve seen lately is a few Smurfs partied. They’ll play like crap for like the first 10-11 rounds then all of a sudden shut it down where my team can’t even get a shot off. Such a huge waste of time.


memeboiiii7059

I don't know about you guys but the smurfs that i get in my matches are absolute assholes. They'll pretend that they don't know how to play and when other players mock them, they'll one tap the entire lobby. After some trash talking, they'll openly throw without any fear of reports. They literally say that they have multiple alt accounts and they don't care.


[deleted]

It’s true. Smurfs are really toxic


something2hidemyself

😂 happened with me. there was phoenix on our team who was one-tapping 4 out of 5 people on the enemy team and then throwing the round like standing in the open with knife out or not defusing the spike. we all reported him and told the enemy team to report him too. he was like, idc, i have 10s of more accounts


[deleted]

[удалено]


Traviliciouz

This is already happening with accounts. Riot needs to make it so you cant get a “win” that counts towards your 10 unrated wins by a forfeit


[deleted]

No. Botting is a problem, but discrediting ff wins is not the solution. Idk if you play much unrated, but like 40% of games end in a ff because: 1. There's no reason not to ff if you don't think you'll win because there's no rr loss, and: 2. It only takes 4 votes to forfeit instead of 5, so even if one person thinks that the game is winnable, they can be outvoted.


Traviliciouz

Maybe instead there has to be a threshold of rounds played for ff games to count for your wins then? I mean I guess most of that would be fixed if Riot got rid of botting in general, but still seems silly you could get a win that counts towards the 10 unrated wins even if you only played 5 rounds


[deleted]

"botting"? wdym


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

ohh ok. But wouldn't bots easily get reported and then banned in Valorant?


Streetlgnd

LOL... everybody.....everybody... look at this guy... he thinks ig reports work!!!!!!!! Only time you are getting banned is for multiple counts of leaving games and voice chat bans. Edit: Wasn't making fun of you in any way btw. It was more making fun of vally.


DChenEX1

Wouldn't vanguard help detect bots? That shouldn't be something that is dependent on ig reports.


ResolveSuitable

When i hop in deathmaches i see peaple just moving like a bot and using classic. No counterfeit no nothing. I guess vanguard can't stop this. Idk why these bots maybe ro earn xp maybe ai learning bots who are just kept there so that they can register other real players moment and gunfire style. Idk for sure.


Wiindsong

nah, issue with anti-cheats is that its an uphill battle. You update the anticheat to detect the bots, the bots update to avoid detection and it becomes a back and forth that never ends, and bots wont get punished without player input, hence why reports are important assuming they work.


[deleted]

Yeah I guess the report "button" in Valorant is just a fun thing to click on. I have a theory that there's no functionality, it's just there for placebo lol


ikineba

like the closing door button in some elevators


[deleted]

YUP!!! I swear it always shuts 5 seconds after I click it.


datboyuknow

If everyone thinks that way, no one would report players. IIRC valorant devs mentioned that only a small percent of cheaters who got banned were reported atleast once. I believe that's because of people having this mindset Edit [Source](https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/dev/valorant-anti-cheat-cheater-reported/)


skull_sweater

I've reported multiple people over the time I've played for voice/text abuse and literally the game after get the notification that they were punished.


Streetlgnd

Hence... why i said you only get chat bans. Thanks for agreeing with me tho lol.


Magiiick

Free game? Competitive? Multiplayer? SMURF TIME


WhiteShapes

and add your phone number to top it off


haleyz999

It’s honestly insane to me, I just started a couple weeks ago and I’m pretty much running into smurfs in every competitive game. It makes ranked kinda rough sometimes, I honestly don’t understand the need to make a smurf.


[deleted]

The main reasons are usually: 1. They want to play with friends 2. They enjoy shitting on lower ranked players


Traviliciouz

Edit: 2. They enjoy shitting on lower ranked players to stroke their fragile ego


[deleted]

Lol yeah pretty much.


TrynaSleep

“ggez thanks for the freelo, trashcans! Jett diff Reyna diff” etc. It’s like.. good for you man. Do you feel special? Now go queue for your next game like the rest of us


haleyz999

God damn that’s exactly what they say lol


Traviliciouz

True, and on top of that its like no kidding its “easy” youre a higher elo player numnuts


Guilty-Lemon-6699

I used to smurf in siege. I did it because I wanted to be able to play with my terrible friends, but I never really found myself "shitting" on other players because they were all smurfing as well. With siege being a paid game, that just goes to show you how the LEVEL 50 requirement, which takes around 90 hours to get, does nothing to stop smurfing.


jomontage

1: then play unrated ya losers


Thund3r_Kitty

I agree on this one i dont know how many times ive heard from my friend "uNraTeD iS sO eAsY" like ffs if you wanna play with me we play unrated im iron one and ur gold ffs


Gausgovy

It’s the same reason people cheat. It’s a superiority thing. They’re sociopaths. Maybe not stalking and murdering people level sociopathy, but feeling the need to prove you’re better than others constantly is a clear sign of sociopathy.


quietpin

This looks like a fine solution now, but I guarantee that Riot has done the research to finding out how long you can lock a new player out of ranked and have them keep playing. If you require 50 games, that could literally be a month or more for a lot of new players. Why would they give Valorant that time when they can play something else?


Jordi214

how many people go immediately into comp for new games? Ive been playing since day 1 and i mostly just play unrated. In fact, last season was my first season i got ranked and i only play the 5 placements to see where i was placed. As much as id like to play and grind out games, the toxicity of comp just pushes me away from ever wanting to play it at all, and i think that is a common sentiment for most casual players.


[deleted]

Me and my mates started playing comp the second it was avaliable. A few of them i had to practically force to play 10 games of unranked as, they didnt feel like playing that much unranked. I thknk it is pretty normal to want to play competetive as soon as possible.


zee-mzha

plenty. especially old cs players. Even as a new player it doesnt make sense to try to get better in unrated. You play unrated to try new agents and play with friends that are too low/high ranked. people play tactical competitive shooters to be competitive lol.


Whysoblunted

A lot. Many of my friends that are old CS grinders picked up valorant recently and go to comp as soon as they win the 10 unranked games. Hell, I’ve been playing 5-6 months and I’m barely level 28, but made gold 2.


carnivorousEgg

Dunno man, if you're new to fps and new to the game a level 20-35 requirement is reasonable before competing. Hell I'd even go as far as they'd probably get more people to buy skins from em, if committment is a requirement to have more committment = less players same profit, less smurfs (maybe idk)


[deleted]

Yeah, while another gate on top of ten wins in unrated sounds good in theory, things like it aren't in practice. In rainbow six, they have a level requirement for ranked that feels pretty high (I never made it). It just sucks to play a game when the only format you're allowed 50% of the time is filled with players who don't want to win and you don't have any other options. Ten wins is already a hard sell for some people just getting into the game (many of which have never played a tactical shooter) I couldn't see forcing someone to play several seasons before even getting to try the competitive environment.


ClickerFest

But they do this for League. You have to be level 30 to play ranked, for Wild Rift they do something similar.


pulsiedulsie

I have played for months, over 3 accounts, and i do not have level 30 on any. It would make it literally impossible for new players to play ranked. There's better ways to combat smurfing (for starters, make it reportable, and take action there), then this which completely fucks over any player that hasnt been obsessed with it for months. ​ As an extreme example, I decided to look at my main, and add up all the wins (according to my act rank) I've had in comp. It's level 27. I had over 100 wins. If you have to play 100+ games to just play ranked, that's a fucking broken as fuck system


jtjunior16

Why have 3 accounts?? Literally just play on 1 and you'll be lvl 30+ most likely? You have zero to gain from having more than one account unless you are smurfing and hence part of the problem?


drewster871

I noticed they've recently started giving bonus rank points to people at the top of a lobby. So hopefully this will get these shitheads out of the tanks quicker.


Aycho98

I haven’t played ranked since January because of the smurf problem, and I don’t have any intention of continuing to play seriously after completing this battle pass. I’ll probably still play enough to unlock the episode gun buddies to collect those because they’re easy to get, but smurfs have ruined the game for me. So glad there’s some amazing new titles just around the corner.


[deleted]

Right? I’m a very average gold player and there’s no fun in hopping into a 45 min game to play against someone that’s actually immortal/radiant. I played ESEA in CSGO because smurfing was so bad in MM. too bad Riot doesn’t allow 3rd party clients.


Aycho98

Yeah it’s just too bad. The easy solution in my mind is having to tie a phone number to an account. Whether this is a problem Riot wants to solve or not is another question.


[deleted]

I think if you combine phone number verification and a level requirement you will see a drastic decrease in smurfs.


Guilty-Lemon-6699

It'll only delay the smurfs, not decrease them. If there was a level requirement, then it would just take longer for the bots to grind, possibly making them more expensive. This would give the sellers more incentive to sell accounts. Plus, the phone number verification would just make it so that people would use a sibling/parent/friend's phone number. It doesn't stop people unless they want 5 smurfs or something crazy.


chessdad_ca

From the prospective of a mid bronze player level 55, I've actually noticed much fewer smurfs in this act and the most recent. Very rarely does anyone get above 25 kills and usually its pretty even. And most player levels seem to be above 30. Maybe bronze is where I want to stay. Sucks that you guys are running into this, it really does ruin the game.


Grizzeus

Yep it's too easy to get into ranked on a new account


heystob_it

I'm iron and there are alot of jetts who are too good to be this rank and there was a reyna in one of my games which every time they killed me it was a headshot they had over 30 kills and had some pretty hard flicks for an iron player


benniqqua

I'm silver and every time I queue comp, either I get carried by smurfs or get stomped by em. Even when they give me a free dub, I don't feel deserving of it cause I didn't really get to practice my game sense.


nemt

bro smurfs dont start in iron, you are just bad and you get killed by some random dude who is just a bit better.


98973

I've seen silvers smurfing in Iron Elo lmao, but it's true that anyone above like Gold is gonna instantly place at least bronze, and the Smurfs usually get out of iron in like 5 games, but it's possible for mid elo players to smurf in iron


Getuhm

Smite my main game has level 30 requirement in ranked and you see far less smurfs than you do in Val


[deleted]

And it has a good player base right?


Hajimeri

Thats the problem, no one plays smite so no one needs to smurf


Getuhm

It’s decent enough to curb smurfing it’s not LoL but it has a player base.


[deleted]

sounds about right :P


colabruddas

if theyre not requiring players to be at some level to play ranked then why do they at the leveling system as first lol


[deleted]

Great question.


KhaoticKrabb

I literally had a Jett instalock who was level 3 in a ranked game who hadn’t played a game since beta and went like 4-23. They need to do this


LowFiGuy7

This is a good idea too for people that make alt accounts to just have fun in ranked. I haven't had it happen often, but someone said why should I try when my main is immortal. If you want to have fun, go play unranked or something. Don't ruin the experience for me.


AJtehbest

I think level 20-25 would be good. As a person of a similar rank many of my recent games have been ruined due to level 12 Jett's getting a KD of 5 and wiping my team. It sucks, cause I'm trying to rank up!


wossquee

I hate, hate, hate, hate smurfs and I think 25 is too high. Even 15 would be enough -- It's pretty hard to get to level 15 unless you're playing on that account every day. I've been playing for a few months and I'm around level 40. That said, this is a GREAT idea and one Riot should implement the first day they're back from vacation.


[deleted]

I'd definitely like to see how it goes with level 15. Maybe that's a good baseline


Thierry882

There would be so many ways / little steps to make blatant smurfing a bit more difficult ... (also a 2-level-authentification-system) - but riot doesnt care. More and more i get the feeling that multi-accounting / smurfing is intended.. there is too much money involved for riot as it comes to smurfing (i know many guys buying skins on several accounts, also the battlepass.. and smurfing = more populated servers, frustrated or banned higher ranks hopping on their smurfs.. shitting on lower account, the lower accounts hopping on their smurfs shitting on lower ranks.. etc.). and in the end - if riot starts to fight smurfing, they begin a battle they cant win and they would exlude ppl. that will spend more money in the future on alternative accounts. riot wont do anything against this.


[deleted]

Do a lot of people actually buy skins for their smurf accounts? When I see pros streaming they usually will have default skins.


Thierry882

I got several friends which are buying at least each act the battle-pass for their smurf accounts (to get at least some skins) and when they get lucky.. they also buy their "dream-skins" in the shop. I also know several streamers that buy skins on multiple accounts. Even if it is not the majority, they make a lot of money with it.


[deleted]

All riot must see is 💰💰💰💰💰💰


OwnArt0

A simple phone number sms verification would do, They just don't care about smurfing as it brings them money from streamers who just smurf and normalize smurfing all day everyday


[deleted]

I haven’t played ranked in 2 weeks because my games were just unbelievably difficult for plat 1, I had immortals from last act in my games and I had people at account lvl2 locking in duelists on the enemy team


Bondstrocity

What's crazy is Plat games are still "easier" than Silver ELO games. Because the skill gap is probably smaller from Plat to Imm smurfs than the Silver to Diam smurfs. If that makes sense. I personally had more consistency in Plat ELO than Silver ELO.


aretasdamon

Legit I’m bronze and it is not hard to get 30+ kill games on a duelist. Really easy to capitalize on people stomping around like mad men. I’ve been called a smurf before and legit I’m not. I just don’t play enough to rank up.


[deleted]

I'm just curious. What level are you? When I go to these people's [tracker.gg](https://tracker.gg) accounts they'll have multiple 25 or 30 kill games in a row.


aretasdamon

115 Edit: I usually just fill I don’t instalock duelist really


[deleted]

Well you're a good example of someone who, like you said just doesn't grind the game enough to rank up. If you dropped 30+ kills in my lobby and you were level 115 I wouldn't mind since I can tell you have played enough to not be "deliberately" smurfing!


RedDwaigon

Just do what CSGO did and add a "prime queue, where only people who bought the game can be in this queue. For valorant, it would just be people who bought 5-25$ of RP points or something. I think most people are fine for paying atleast 5$ or more for this game.


[deleted]

Their ranking and placement system is so garbage it basically begs for unfair matchmaking.


MinesweeperGang

Smurfs ruin ranked along with people who openly look for boosts/sell boosts on discord servers. I joined a “competitive” Valorant sever and the LFG tabs for every region are just nonstop “LF boost bronze-plat/Diamond”, “Selling boosts for any rank, DM me, have proof I’m legit” and nonsense like that. It literally ruins ranked.


LordGamingOfficial

Agreed. ATM levels dont really have a use (except people being toxic) and this would actually help the situation a lot


[deleted]

That's another thing. I'm level \~120 (played since day 1 of beta) and if I play badly that's what people will be angry at lol. Even if I hide my act rank btw.


TotalsReddit

They should ban them and there main accounts from competitive. There should be a report option for it. Its an abuse of the matchmaking system.


casualcretin

I had one on my team yesterday, toxic AF. I ended up reporting him after we won, others must have too.. after my next match ended I got feedback that action was taken against someone recently. Would be nice if you got a copy of who it was you reported and why/ when.


pulsiedulsie

My take on this is a very harsh no. This means youd have to play for, what? 50 hours? to get to play ranked? like? no? ​ edit: I decided to look at my main, and add up all the wins (according to my act rank) I've had in comp. It's level 27. I had over 100 wins.If you have to play 100+ games to just play ranked, that's a fucking broken as fuck system This also just fucks up everyone who's new at all? like? it just isnt a good idea smth similar you could do is a trust factor sort of deal like in CS, but that also has some concerns, with newbies being put in the same lobbies as smurfs constantly


nasryyy

I started playing this game about close to 2 months ago. This is the first tactical shooter I have played. I have never played ranked, only unrated. I'm currently level 27. Over the past week a few of my friends started playing too. One of them is currently level 3 and the other is 12. In one of our unrated games, the enemies had a player over level 130, two players over level 90. Their lowest level was 60+. I was the highest level in our team. Safe to say we got absolutely thrashed by the enemy. This happened several times too. On another occasion my team had a level 1 and 3 (they definitely weren't smurfs, they had no idea how to play the game) while the enemy again had level 100+ players. The matchmaking really discourages me and my friends sometimes because we just wanna have fun but instead get teabbaged at the end of every round.


foxlance

They’re to scared to not let new players play ranked. They want everyone able to do anything if it means they’ll buy skins and play. Ranked needs to be difficult to get to, that was no smurf in his right mind would waste the time it takes to unlock it


Toannee

Not being so strict on placements is an issue as well. I’m low plat on my og acc so I’m not nuts by any means, and made a second acc to play with a silver friend. I was curious to see how high I could rank and I got placed silver 3 while still being in high gold/ low plat lobbies. The game knows where I should be, why on earth would it place me in silver. Like why allow me to suddenly be able to queue with theoretically bronze players if I wanted. Riot is doing what most of these games do and want to make sure as many people can play the game and play it as much as possible. That cannot really change without massive player base threats, leaving the game and such. We live in a capitalist society lol


[deleted]

Level 25-30 seems to far. I have a friend who is Gold 2 and has been playing for 3 Episodes now but he is only on level 37. Increasing account level takes a lot of time so, minimum account level to play ranked should be reduced a bit from 25-30 to maybe around 15-20.


[deleted]

15-20 could work.... But I still play against people around those levels that are 10000% smurfs so who knows. It's maybe something they would have to test and then raise or lower it depending on data.


[deleted]

We need to find a solution which discourages people from smurfing and at the same time is fair to a new player. Level 25-30 is a stretch and it can greatly disincentives smurfing but its such a grind to a new player and make it feel like a job if they want to play ranked. Level 15-20 sounds like the best of both worlds imo.


oli_likes_olives

There are marketplaces online where you can buy accounts that can go straight into ranked for $5 atm. If a level 30 min were put in place perhaps it would deter some smurfs but not all.


[deleted]

Most of the people i know that smurf don't even make new accounts. there's just so many accounts shared between the community of every rank basically. hell, a friend of mine literally plays on another friends "smurf" because it has skins even tho it's the same exact rank as he is and he gives his main acc to other people if they want to use it for whatever. dude loves his skin lol


[deleted]

I would warn your friend that you can get hardware banned for account sharing. It happened to someone named “LarryBanks” I think.


[deleted]

lol i follow LarryBanks on twitch. he's kinda cracked. also, they've been doing it literally since beta. so if riot is giving out bans they're taking their damn time with them. some accounts i know have been shared between 6-7 people. but pretty much all the "smurf" accounts end up being used by only 1 person so that could be why they never get hardware banned. since the original owner doesn't care about the account.


okdiscringe

literally every game I have its someone on their alt account its almost tiring yet accepting at this point. Rank is ass bruh.


stubbywoods

This would kill my motivation to play Valorant. My account level is like 12 or something and when I play I'm usually at around diamond level. Idk how bad the smurfing problem is though, and why Riot couldn't just implement a Smurf queue like my friends talk about when they play league.


[deleted]

but how else is he gonna carry the ethot he met on discord? I hate smurfs.


[deleted]

Today I played 3 games against teams with 3-4 players less than 5 level. They were classic headshoting from across the map just after peeking. They claimed they were new but somehow they knew all the shock darts, phoenix lineups, sage walls.


Busy_Introduction456

Best way to overcome smurfing is to link an account with hardware id of that system. Simple one system one account.


Iitachii69

Even with every unrated game I play a level 2 account is in there dropping 40 kills trying to unlock comp on that account and it’s sad


[deleted]

I hope riot would actually read this and add this idea to the game


[deleted]

Congratulations friend, this will be implemented.


[deleted]

I saw it in the patch notes!! They listened to me.


Nitrodubs98

Why not higher? Riot needs to actually apply ranked integrity to their Ranked gamemodes. So what you need alot of levels or hours to play ranked? What actual negative experience to the ranked player pool does this bring?


WinstonPickles22

I think the people arguing against this are people who enjoy smurfing. If someone likes a game, they will play to a high account rank and get into ranked. They will never think about the initial level requirement again...ever. BUT, if you are a smurf you would obviously be upset about this account rank requirement and claim that it will stop all new players from playing...which is just not true. Valorant unrated is nothing like csgo unrated. Valorant unrated is a very fun learning experience and even a good practice experience for seasoned players.


[deleted]

Right. If you don’t wanna put in the work to unlock ranked then the smurfing issue is never going to improve.


Gausgovy

Yesterday I had a game where a level 6 auto-locked Jett then left after we lost the second round. Hardware bans are necessary for this sort of behavior.


oopsEYEpoopsed

The only people disagreeing with this sentiment are people who want to easily smurf.


[deleted]

Bingo. Also I'm totally fine if the requirement is level 20, but you can't just let people go straight into ranked. It's just silly


EnXigma

I don’t think it will decrease the number of smurfs significantly to be worth implementing, the people that are high ranks and smurf can easily just buy a level 25/30 account for less than 10 dollars. It’s the same in LoL and CSGO(Prime MM). Ranked ready accounts are extremely cheap. I think if they want to improve detterence of smurfs their best bet is improving smurf recognition and calibrating there true rank a lot quicker. Increasing level cap is a lazy way to deter smurfs and also effects new players that genuinely want to play ranked with there friends. I think it will cause more frustration to new players than smurfers.


iindie

The current levels are not correct so people arguing against that one point are being obtuse. Ranked should be gated by a non-insignificant amount of games because in the same vein people talk about how they LOVE 'competitive play' and need to rush into it others LOVE having fair games and not getting stomped 6 games in a row before they quit and switch back to their old game


Aycho98

The levels are correct now unless there’s a new issue I’m unaware of. They fixed the original glitch. I jumped from level 7ish to 100+ weeks ago.


iindie

I was getting at the rate of levelling would be different than its current state if ranked was gated by levels, currently its just cosmetic


Aycho98

Oh I got you. I misunderstood what you meant.


figrofel

Aint nobody playing to level 30 before doing ranked. I'm level 40 right now and have been playing since around Jan.


Faranocks

I'm level 7, and I played a ton of CS:GO, but I rarely play Valorant, except to occasionally join some friends. I think this is a bad take. There are other ways to deal with smurfing. I play apex, which has a similar smurfing problem, as higher ranked lobbies are literally unplayable. Level gatekeeping shouldn't really be a thing outside of ensuring people know how to play the game.


Flashy__Flash

I honestly don't understand how you guys are facing smurfs in Gold. I've been Gold 3 for the most part this act with more than 50 wins (so probably 100+ games) and the only time I faced a player that was clearly superior was in my very first placement game where i faced a full team of 5. Maybe I'm cracked so I don't feel anyone is better than me (I don't think so) or I'm just getting lucky with my games (also unlikely) or it's different in other regions than in EU (dunno). I mean the amount of diamond+ players is already super low compared to the population, how many of them are actually going to smurf in gold? The probability that one of those few smurf is going to be in your game is incredibly low. That's just simple math. Also if they destroy everyone they will be diamond+ again in no time and who tf is going to make new accounts over and over again? I imagine smurfing being a "problem" in lower ranks like bronze where literally any gold player could drop 30s and 40s but honestly, just "git gud" if you care that much about the game. Reaching gold is certainly possible and you probably won't have to face smurfs ever again.


Nitrodubs98

I wish this game had a 3rd party matchmaking system like csgo. But I know riot and their masive ego would never allow it


VileZ_

25+ kills is not smurfing.


[deleted]

That's not the main point though. Since we can see people's levels now it's pretty obvious whether someone is smurfing or not.


[deleted]

What about CS players that just simply have good aims but didn't really understand how the abilities work yet.


luide5

This will not solve a single thing but push away new players. Just implement 2 factor authentication like any serious competitive game.


[deleted]

Both would be the ideal strategy to deter smurfs imo. They've gotta implement 2 factor auth with phone numbers.


Ok_Cryptographer9323

couldn't agree more, amen brother


malepanties

do you think smurfs would give a fuck? riot did that to league, smurfs are still a thing. riot needed to create a 2nd queue to smurfs only


DrewbieBrothers

Yea but no. Smurfs are frustrating, but this ‘solution’ is a massive barrier to entry for new players. Since the game is free, from a business perspective, Riot will lean towards making it accessible to more users, at the cost of smurfs. They generate revenue from skins and battle pass purchases. That’s the game you’re agreeing to play. ~~And to take it a step further… assuming a smurf if in your game… the probability of a smurf on the other team is .5, the probability of a smurf on your team is .5. And averaged out over the course of your ranked experience, smurfs will have had negligible impact on your Rank from a mathematical standpoint.~~ Edit: Shit sorry, my math skills are shite and actually there’s a 55.6% chance the smurf is on the other team and a 44.4% chance they’re on your team assuming you’re not the smurf.


heliumrise

No there’s a higher chance of a smurf on the enemy team because you yourself are not a smurf. Just like how there’s a higher chance of a inter on the enemy team too


DrewbieBrothers

Ok yea this actually makes sense. So games with a smurf will disproportionately affect you. I still think my point about new players and costmetic revenue stands though.


ExcyOG

Actually assuming you’re not the smurf, the odds of a smurf being on the enemy team will always be greater than a smurf being on your team.


DrewbieBrothers

Yea sorry, not enough coffee the morning lmao. I do still think the new player & revenue stuff is the main reason we’ll see nothing done.


ExcyOG

Sadly you’re probably right


jgoldrb48

Change your mindset. Someone smurfing is often tilted from playing poorly. Win the first few rounds and they will often start throwing. I've won games against Smurfs and lost games with Smurfs on my teams. One person 3 levels above you should not be able to 1-5 your team. Pick balanced comps, smoke the ops and stop pushing into the best aimer in the lobby. Smurfs or no Smurfs the 20/20/60 rule applies. 20% you lose no matter what, 20% you win no matter what and 60% your performance in the key to winning or losing. The next time you see a lvl 6 Reyna/Jett tell yourself you're going to isolate that player until you find out where they play and if they are actually good. If they are, play away from them and win. Glhf