When professionals resort to a Overwatch second account, the fun of the game suffers. But what if you want to profit from the suffering of your teammates?
It often comes as a surprise that, as a high-level player, you can be unceremoniously defeated by a fresh account – especially common in MOBAs and shooters. These second accounts of professionals, commonly referred to as “Smurfs”, cause several problems.
By the time the matchmaking system properly ranks the professional on their second account, several weeks can pass while they slaughter through the ranks of significantly worse players, who quickly lose their motivation.
The Twitch streamer IDDQD did not create his Smurf account just to unwind a bit, but to troll players deliberately and simply steamroll them. With provocative statements like “I fak all” – in broken English – he further provoked the opposing team. Here’s an excerpt from his stream.
Many Overwatch players were upset by this behavior and called in the official forum to ban the Smurfer and all their accounts. Smurfing is simply unsportsmanlike behavior that ruins the gaming experience for all other participants. Meanwhile, the post in the forum has been deleted – “name-calling” and “hate speech against individuals” are generally not permitted in Blizzard’s forums (except in China, where banned cheaters and fraudsters are published).
Cortyn says: I consider “smurfing” to be a double-edged sword. It’s entirely understandable when a professional player wants to play a few more relaxed rounds where they do not have to worry about their skill rating and just want to “unwind”. In that case, I can absolutely understand using a Smurf account for relaxation. However, anyone who uses smurfing just to demonstrate their superiority to everyone else and to attract more viewers to their channel should be ashamed and deserve a ban – on all their accounts.
To make a running comparison: I wouldn’t let Usain Bolt compete in the district youth games of Kuhkaffhausen either…
Other disruptive behaviors – such as teabagging – are also being made harder in Overwatch.
