Poll: Smurfing

[bowandsword]

I think its ok
The only time i smurf is when either
a teaching friends new to the game to play
b haven't played game for along time (6+ months) and dont want to stuff up stats to get the hang of it again
c wanting to try the least viable thing i can think of

i mostly play dota and my friends play lol (well i play both but dota more)
but apparently skills for lol and dota dont transition well for some of my friends
(no idea why though and its basic things like map awearness and dieng to tower (even though it dose less damage in dota))
but when i do smuft i tend to do C and handcap my self when playing with friends who are new eg playing my worst hero
like meepo (i kid i main that hero and is my best to much starcraft mirco skills)

ot
I personly dont do it when im not doing any of abc and look down of people doing it

but the greatest moment when smurfing is meeting another smurf and then doing c and wining
and stoping them so much fun
but since i main meepo all my games are c anyway or not since i main him hmmmm

and it so much fun watching the game go from "omg a meepo picker dont u know he is the worst" other smurf say to "wtf he can do things" then "either saying meepo should be nerfed or blaming team" as i go 40/2 ish meepo
so much fun crushing the heart of a smurf just so much irony crushing another smurf
I kind of sound like a horrible person now but i am playing meepo doing thing and its another smurf
I 100% am againts this on anyone who isnt a smurfing them selfves
and when im playing dota on smurf i have altest 2 pretty terrible friends with me or someone in first game and im teaching more then playing

so abc if not your a more horrible person then i am

 

[Fireaxe]

Back on games where automatching didn't exist, smurfing was great value. Don't really agree with it on automatched ranking games though.

 

[windlenot]

Eh isn't that why they have like unranked games you can set up tho?

It is possible to play against bots, but they will never provide the same feedback as playing with others.

 

[Zukabazuka]

So, on a Tanakh [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.829625-Stepping-out-of-your-gaming-comfort-zone] brought up the moral questions about it, so now I'd like to get other people's opinions about it.

Is playing on a lower leveled account to play with lower leveled friends fair and acceptable?
NOTE: This does not include creating a new account to play against newer players for personal benefit.

It's completely acceptable. If you want to improve quickly, you have to play with or against people who are reasonably good and will teach you good habits. If you just keep newbies in the shallow end with other newbies, they will be slower to learn. So yeah, smurf away.

Not that there are any ethical concerns to begin with.

So why doesn't people put pro football league against the junior squad? It doesn't work so good really. Why not just go watch football games, should improve your skills a lot. Watching someone do it and then trying to do it yourself is a lot harder than it sounds.

First of you are focused on what you are doing in the game, you don't have time to watch when ever an enemy comes in sight at the other side of the map. Second, the fog of war prevents you from watching what they are doing most of the time and you would have a hard time following them. Then being steam rolled daily doesn't help you get better at the game because you didn't had a chance to fight back.

So the only thing you really learn is, You died to much, you didn't get enough gold to buy gear and you picked a hero you had no idea how to play. So if the first 10 games are like this you are not having fun, and if I'm not having fun I'm switching game.

 

[pspman45]

when I first started playing League of Legends, I played with two friends who had some experience with it, about 80-100 games each. when we would que together, I fought against players who were much better than I was, but that wasn't a lot. it only took about 5-6 games after a few bot matches before I was capable of going to lane by myself and not dying immediately, I got my first kill by myself (those guys would always KS me XD). I would say that being matched with better players definitely improved my play, since I could learn from watching rather than have to figure it out.
this was different when I convinced another friend to play. I stood behind him during his first game, and I saw people placing wards, jungling, and playing champions like Akali or Gangplank who are great picks for stomping new players (this was at the end of season 1). all of those players were on new accounts, but were obviously not new players. this made it much harder to get that friend into League, since it was just die die die (I would only give directions, never take over). So I think yea, making a smurf account might be better if you want to get a friend interested, but it does negatively effect the other players, who might lose interest like my friend almost did.
when I made my own smurf account to try and get some more friends to play (my main account had about 600 games by then), I actually found BETTER PLAYERS when with them, seriously, what the hell...

one more thing, last one. I promise!
A friend of mine went on his smurf one time and wound up fighting against Crs Bear (AKA Nyjacky)

 

[Zakarath]

I'd say it's a pretty obnoxious habit, as I recently gave LoL a second go after leaving it for Dota 2 some time ago; as I wanted to be matched up with other people who also weren't very familiar with the game, I created a new account. The first game I played, on a new account with no record, had 3/5 of my team whining at me for not playing well/ not adhering to the current meta.

OH WELL GUESS I'LL STICK WITH DOTA

 

[Comocat]

What is surprising to me is that you are hesitant to play at a higher tier because of an anticipated negative response, but you are perfectly fine underhandly sabotaging the experience of newer players. Essentially, "I dont want my gaming experience ruined by playing in games where I am certain to lose, so I'll have my friends make fake accounts so people who arent me lose."

 

[BloatedGuppy]

OH WELL GUESS I'LL STICK WITH DOTA

Thank god there's no whiners in DOTA! Nothing but hearty camaraderie and good friendly chuckles. =P

 

[Zakarath]

OH WELL GUESS I'LL STICK WITH DOTA

Thank god there's no whiners in DOTA! Nothing but hearty camaraderie and good friendly chuckles. =P

Heh, true, Dota tends to have about as much vitriol as LoL... I guess it's just the nature of it in that particular game that irked me. Those people in that LoL round made the deliberate decision to play with new players instead of people at their skill level--and then whined at the people they got matched with for being noobs. I don't even...

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Heh, true, Dota tends to have about as much vitriol as LoL... I guess it's just the nature of it in that particular game that irked me. Those people in that LoL round made the deliberate decision to play with new players instead of people at their skill level--and then whined at the people they got matched with for being noobs. I don't even...

Fun DOTA stories from this last week...

1. A Bane went 0-3 in the bottom lane after aggressively trying to harass for his laning partner to give them room to farm. The Bane was accused of "feeding" and we were asked to report him.

2. A Phantom Assassin said "GG, end it now please" after dying once. The score was 3-3 and the game was just over five minutes old.

3. An Ogre Magi gave me shit for "always running from fights and letting other people go in first". I was playing Sniper.

4. In the same game he decided to critique my item build, saw I'd purchased a Shadow Blade, and said "LOL ATTACK SPEED SNIPER".

5. An Omni-Knight was screamed at for insufficient wards after dropping two wards at the start of the game.

6. On a four carry, one ganker team the last guy to pick (a carry) castigated the team for not picking supports.

7. A Weaver was screamed at for not using his "2" skill during an aggressive dive that killed him. He was level 1 and had not selected it yet.

That's just the last few days. I can't speak for LoLites, but they'd have to wake up pretty early in the morning to beat the DOTA crowd for meanness and pettiness. The number of times I've been asked to report someone just for having a bad game alone...

 

[thethird0611]

Ya know, I dont like smurfing if its used just to win games against low level players. I will say thought that I have personally been ok with it when a friend was in low pri. in DotA, and made a smruf to play with us in high pri. It may of put us in a slightly lower mmr, but the games were much funner than going to low pri.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

You should handicap yourself if you're going to smurf. Like, I did it a lot in wc3; but that was because I would try out ridiculous strategies like reverse tower walling. Or abusing ridiculous heroes like the tinker without using an army at all.

 

[windlenot]

What is surprising to me is that you are hesitant to play at a higher tier because of an anticipated negative response, but you are perfectly fine underhandly sabotaging the experience of newer players. Essentially, "I dont want my gaming experience ruined by playing in games where I am certain to lose, so I'll have my friends make fake accounts so people who arent me lose."

I guess that's a fair assessment and solid critique of my experience. And by doing this I have no right to complain when matched against other smurfs, which I don't. But it does raise the question that if I want to play with my friends, should I party up with their main accounts and end up having a (assumingly) miserable time and get slaughtered?

I feel that the only fair thing to do would be to somehow have them self-handicap themselves by using an unfamiliar character or build. Or just not play with them and learn it myself, but I'm a social guy and likes playing with my friends.

 

[Tanakh]

But it does raise the question that if I want to play with my friends, should I party up with their main accounts and end up having a (assumingly) miserable time and get slaughtered?

That's the thing. What you are doing is wrong toward the legit noobs, but this other way is not that much better and LoL is meant to play with friends... there is no legit way to go around it, so just keep going and try to get good.

-snip-

1. Seriously? Was he counterlaned? Because it is mighty hard to die as a support safelane bane unless you go a retard build or items.

4. I like the MoM build, the hero is bad and if the other team is good sniper turns to shit, shadow axe is decent... but not my favourite.

7. Humm... it would lower my opinion of him, why the fuck would he pick skills before seeing his lane? And if the lane was hard, why not take the second skill?

If you are playing a lot, try join ixdl brah.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

1. Seriously? Was he counterlaned? Because it is mighty hard to die as a support safelane bane unless you go a retard build or items.

4. I like the MoM build, the hero is bad and if the other team is good sniper turns to shit, shadow axe is decent... but not my favourite.

7. Humm... it would lower my opinion of him, why the fuck would he pick skills before seeing his lane? And if the lane was hard, why not take the second skill?

If you are playing a lot, try join ixdl brah.

1. No, he was just bad and let himself get caught out of position being aggressive a couple of times, which snowballed into him being under leveled and poor on items. "Being bad" is not grounds for a report though.

4. Sniper has his weaknesses, yeah, one of which is virtually ZERO defensive skills if he gets closed on, hence the Shadow Blade. Regardless, I find it hilarious that anyone would consider attack speed BAD on a Sniper.

7. Probably wouldn't have changed his choice anyway. This is not pro league DOTA. Who expects to get hard dived at level 1? It was a ballsy move and it paid off.

 

[Windcaler]

IMO if you want to play the game with a lower ranked friend then unranked matches should support this. If they dont thats a problem with the game.

However there are full groups of people that make accounts simply to pub stomp and these kinds of people create a toxic atmosphere in communities. Moba games especially are very toxic communities and the last thing they need is more toxicity.

 

[ERaptor]

Well, in LoL i've allways used my main account to play with new buddies. I warn them beforehand, but everyone i did this with later told me that it helped them improve a lot, since they were forced to use "advanced" mechanics right from the start. If you have the Guts to suck up a few losses, it really helps if youre matched against and with stronger players. You see and learn advanced moves, plays with difficult champions, warding, Baron steals etc.

However, if you match yourself as a Level 30 with a Level 10, the Enemy Team usually has the same mixed Levels as well. I never saw that as a problem, until after a lot of 20/0 games where people yelled at me for being a "smurfing retard". Im gonna be completely honest, i didnt care. If my buddy can hold himself against better players and improve upon it, then so can you. Dont play competitive games if you cant take a bashing, scrub!