Valve has gone on a spree against ‘smurfs’ in Dota 2, bringing down the almighty banhammer against 90,000 accounts in a sweep designed to improve the competitive scene. Not only that, but Valve confirmed that it traced ‘every single one’ of the smurf accounts back to its main account, which has drastic implications for those taking part in the disruptive activity.
That’s A Lot of Smurfs
For those that don’t know, ‘smurfing’ is the act of creating a new account to deliberately play against lower-ranked players, thus making yourself look better. It can also be used to classify a player who uses multiple accounts to get less challenging lobbies or games, though.
In a recent blog post, Valve took a dominant stand against smurfs, declaring that it had banned a whopping 90,000 smurf accounts, tracking them back to their original owners and stating that even the main accounts could face ‘a wide range of punishments’ in future.
Valve urged users to actively report anyone they suspected of smurfing in their Dota 2 matches, as ‘Dota is a game best enjoyed when played on an even field,’ and smurfing simply disrupts that.
It’s the same as players in Call of Duty ‘reverse boosting’ – which is where they throw a series of matches to trick SBMM into thinking they’re less skilled, only to then dominate in their next few games when SBMM adjusts. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s a known practice.
Do you think smurfs are too disruptive to the competitive scene, or do you simply not care?
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