Gaming
Let’s Talk About Smurfs in Competitive Games.
Smurfing is very common, especially in free-to-play games.
What is a smurf in gaming?
I’d like to briefly introduce the concept of smurf for those who don’t know it.
Right now, you might be picturing a small cute blue character living in a mushroom house, trying to escape an evil villain named Gargamel. But that is not what a smurf is in the context of online gaming.
A smurf is a term used for a competitive game player playing on an alt (alternative) account in order to play against lower-ranked players.
As you can imagine, coming across a smurf in a competitive online game can be very frustrating.
I myself have run into multiple smurfs in the competitive games I play. It’s really frustrating because there’s nothing you can do at the moment to counter their wrath.
Of course, you can report them for smurfing after the game, but it’s too late at that point. You have already lost your game and maybe even your rank.
Smurfing is very common, especially in free-to-play games.
This is the case because all a smurf has to do is create a new free account and immediately start playing in low-rank competitive lobbies.
I didn’t realize how easy it was until I created an alt account on Rocket League specifically for the purpose of getting additional rewards.
In Rocket League, you can receive certain rewards by completing challenges daily, week, or month.
I completed these challenges in the casual games modes so that I didn’t smurf.
But it made me realize how easily I could have just hopped into a competitive game and absolutely annihilated the competition.
I’ve found that the main reason people smurf is to boost their friends.
The Concept of Boosting
If you don’t know what boosting is, here’s a brief explanation.
Boosting can be defined as artificially inflating the competitive rank of a lower-rank player.
This is done by having a high-rank player join the team of a lower-rank player on an alt account to carry them to a higher rank.
This practice is very frowned upon in all gaming communities and is the worst form of smurfing.
Not only are boosters smurfing against lower-rank players, but they’re also placing low-rank players in a rank they don’t belong in.
This is also a huge problem because people who play through the game ethically get punished by getting put into a team with these lower-rank players who have been boosted.
In games such as Rocket League, boosting can’t really be hidden due to a very valuable website called https://rocketleague.tracker.network
On this website, you can easily type in a player’s gamer tag and view their ranked history.
I once came across a player that clearly didn’t belong in my rank. So I searched up their gamer tag on this website and found that a week beforehand, they jumped seven up within two hours without losing once.
The graph displayed on the website literally indicated a straight line up between 7 ranks.
That type of thing in Rocket League is almost impossible, indicating that this person has been boosted.
I believe the reason smurfing is still such a big issue is that there is no real way to prevent people from doing it.
They could just ban people who create a second account, which would punish innocent people like me who have no malicious intentions.
Currently, game developers usually permanently ban a player’s account if they smurf. But this doesn’t stop them from just creating a new free account and smurfing again.
Soft IP Banning as a Solution to Smurfing
Realistically, the only way to counter smurfing is to IP Ban them. IP banning is the action of banning someone’s IP address entirely.
This means they won’t be able to access the game servers using their home IP address. This means even their main account will get banned.
Although this may seem harsh, it is, in my opinion, the best way to counter smurfs.
The ban does not have to be permanent, just enough so the recipient learns their lesson.
Final Words.
Not only is smurfing a very frowned upon action, but it also seriously affects innocent players.
Serious action isn’t really being taken against smurfers in most games, but I believe it should be.
I believe the only viable action against smurfs would be an IP ban.
Have you ever come across a smurf while playing a competitive game? Let me know by leaving a comment.
Thank you for reading my story. I wish you a prosperous life.
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