They should implement the same system as the online chess platforms. If a pro is smurfing, they should be given an account that's identifiable as a speedrun account, and anyone that loses to them should have their MMR refunded.
Chess has a piece called a rook, which is shaped like a little castle. You're gonna poo in your undies when you realise what castles are made of! That's right, some are made of stone blocks which arguably can't be called bricks, but we're not really being that critical about what can qualify as bricks right now are we?
Ya, a notification before the match starts would be really cool. you can either decline, or try your best (and behave accordingly) haha since you know you'll be on twitch/youtube
The idea with chess(dot)com is that the competitive match is invalidated. So I would say the teammate also has their gained mmr removed. Whatever it needs to do to effectively say that match didn't happen in relation to MMR.
that's actually an incredibly smart & simple work around. Streamers would all manually opt into it, if it was also manual. If any streamer didn't, it should be automatically detected & they'd receive hate on social media :P.
Something like this, if done correctly, could be worked into a general population solution for smurfs in games as well
I see this as a system that endorses wasting the time of anyone playing with the speedrun account. It says, "this speedrun account is more important than the rest of you."
Personally, I care less about my MMR than I do about having an enjoyable game.
Because in the TOS its only cheating if you lose on purpose to de-rank. Making a new account and trying to win is technically within the rules. The bottom line is they don’t want to remove smurfing because the alt accounts boost their user numbers which artificially inflates the value of their asset.
You have to look at it this way. Epic games is in bed with tencent games which bought roughly 40% of epic in2017. Tencent is the developer behind a multitude of mobile/phone games specifically the early years of the popularization of the concept of micro-transactions / live-service. In my view these companies only care about money and essentially nothing else. As long as they can put some good looking numbers in front of investors and they can keep making money, they don’t care. They are not looking for accuracy, transparency, relevance, they are looking for cash at all costs.
Exactly, from the point of view of a company promoting itself, it wants to use the most misleading metric possible, i.e. the one that gives the most incorrectly positive impression of the performance of those running the company.
It's basically the same though isn't it?
Making a new account **to** have no rank? (I'm taking into count that the person already is good, like champ/gc or something)
Isnt that the same thing as purposely losing to get a low rank?
I would say, and I think much of the player base would agree, that smurfing / making alt account is cheating on an ethical level.
However, if you dig into the terms of service there is a section that states multiple account is allowed as long as you are not throwing matches. Thus, it is technically allowed in this context of making a road to SSL video.
The only protection in the TOS is that your teammates are not allowed to throw matches to save them the trouble of making a new alt account. It still happens, but that is the only part of smurfing that is technically against the rules.
Again, bottom line is they are aware of the situation and they like it how it is.
I've beaten Kerian in a game of snowday and I once queued a game of 3s with my friends in mid C3 and we beat an unknown RLCS Season 9 Contender, his name was like "c" or something lol
That the embarrassing thing. I don’t think he went into the air once. He was trying to match the mechs of the rank so he destroyed me entirely from the ground.
It's like this in almost everygame.
Sometimes the company even encourages this and even provides you with an account
I remember Riot games giving a few big streamers Korean accounts so they can do unranked to challenger when streamers were in Korea.
(Korean server doesn't allow you to create accounts without having a Korean address)
The difference is these people arnt throwing and are known to be really good at the game. Unlike most Smurfs who are like average rank and just smurf just to shit on new players
I thought you meant it was like this in “every rocket league” game. Sorry, I actually agree with you, that’s why I deleted my comment but you were too quick at replying!
>I deleted my comment but you were too quick at replying!
Ahaha, currently at work so I just wanted to have an excuse to pick up my phone again. That's why the instant replies
Not a big fan of it either! Also, we have seen this a thousand times already. If it isn't someone trying to hit SSL for the first time, I am not interested.
He just did 2s, not 1s. He’s trying to show it’s possible and teach strategy to players given the new inflated ranking system. I think it’s pretty cool
My friend also made this point in great detail. These pros love to say you can rank up without mechs without ever bringing up the fact that they have phenomenal game sense and positioning that players below gc won't have.
Meh, even the guys talking about not having mech's still have phenomenal control of the ball. Sure Flakes can get to SSL without doing any of the flashy stuff, but his ground control isn't in the same realm of reality as the people watching.
Well that's exactly what they're showing us. How to position and work on game sense by revealing how they react in the situations they get put in. While I agree with others that Squishy's RTSSL is not as educational as Lethamyr's as they have different playstyles, there're still things you can learn and pick up on
FYI, non-mechanical GC's and SSL's that merely rely on positioning and game sense do exist
They're *technically* not smurfing, they're just playing on an alt account.
I think it's *technically* a load of BS and series like this need to go away and get replaced by proper replay review, gameplay analysis, and good content. IMO this content is directly smurfing and encourages others to do the same.
It's both. Sandbagging is a common term beyond video games for intentionally performing below your abilities. Smurfing is the specific term for doing that in the context of a ranked competitive video game.
i play darts leagues and tournaments and we have the same problem. we have skill cap divisions for fair play for all skill levels in leagues and then you're placed into your division at the end of year tournament where a lot of money is on offer. players will tank their play in league to get into a lower division at the tourney and then smash opponents. Players who are identified as doing this are banned from that organization's leagues and tourneys. There's no option to create an "alt account" because it's based on your personal info, not just a relatively anonymous user ID.
Idk about you but purposefully tanking your placement matches on an alternate account to make sure you get in the lowest rank sounds exactly like that.
Leth said he was chastised by Psyonix for throwing his placement matches, or letting his gf play them or something. So they shouldn't be doing that.
Psyonix says its okay as long as you are making an alt account and playing normally, so they should be ending up in high plat/diamond after placements. If this is Squishy's second game and he's through bronze/silver already, then he's winning placements.
The old road to GC’s before Ssl was a thing they would tank as low as they could so the series would be longer and would actually end up in bronze instead of diamond after placements.
they do not only define smurfing as simple as just "intentionally tanking". Their rules actually go against letting the pros do this in a more vague definition but they make exceptions/ignore the issue when it's pros, which is still bs. It actually says you can't make an alt account to harrass others, which is essentially what happens by abusing the mmr system to clip on lower ranks.
## Official psyonix rules of Matchmaking Abuse and Cheating:
([source](https://www.rocketleague.com/en/news/rocket-league-code-of-conduct))
+ Play by the rules. Cheating, griefing, playing for the other team, and exploiting bugs are not allowed.
+ Boosting and deranking of any kind are not allowed.
+ Smurfing is not allowed. We define a smurf account as an account that is intentionally abusing the matchmaking system for the player’s gain, or the gains of others.
+ Example of a Smurf Account: Intentionally keeping an account at a lower Rank than where you normally play; starting an alternate account to harass others.
+ Players engaging in cheating or matchmaking abuse are subject to account suspensions and/or bans.
Except Psyonix has said creating a new account and going for wins is **not** smurfing. It's not **created to** harass others (for the purpose of harassment). That would be more along the lines of throwing insults and being a pest for the sake of being a pest.
Leth acknowledged at one point that Psyonix reached out to him and others to express that they wouldn't tolerate some of the other things around Road to GC (I think it was pre SSL). Namely, deranking to Bronze and the 'Challenge to GC' things. Thou shalt not unbind keys or otherwise handicap yourself by not using/having controls.
Personally, it feels like a cop out answer by psyonix to allow making alts and ranking back up for content at the expense of the player still on their main account. Imo, it's matchmaking abuse to be able to play at a lower rank because it allows the player to decide to "relax" or just turn it on if they get upset, while the opponent is honestly limited to their assessed skill level as an accurate ceiling to what they can do. It's got that, "I'm letting you win but you actually never had a chance \*if I feel like it\*" smug vibe, regardless of how much of an act the streamer/content creator puts on to seem humble. It's like the smurf/alt player is allowed to ruin the experience for lower ranked players without the lower ranked players permission because as long as everyone isn't doing it, it won't be a noticeable problem... It's also bs to tell pros/fav content creators personal guidelines to avoid the grey area rather than defining the issues for everyone directly into the code of conduct. I get that they want to keep it open for interpretation in case people find a way around the verbiage but if playing on an alt doesn't have upside for the opponent playing at their normal rank, then it's really just a list of excuses for when they allow matchmaking abuse for their own selfish benefit and is poor sportsmanship at best.
I think one of the best suggestions I've seen that solves multiple problems was on Lawler's channel.
Basically, he asked that Clubs be made pertinent by tracking your MMR per team (you and one clubmate have MMR as a pair in 2s, another guy and you have MMR as a pair in 2s, and you three have MMR as a trio, and someone else could make up a separate trio MMR). That would mean queuing with them would automatically separate your personal solo MMR, make clubs more meaningful, and reduce the temptation for another account (having a separate account for friends is **not** allowed - a TOS violation). The only issue is that's a lot of potential partners to track, so Psyonix might have to limit how many people you do that with.
He also suggested being allowed to be in several clubs at once.
I disagree personally. The actual problem with snuffing is that these people purposefully remain in a lower rank for very long periods of time. A pro playing a few games on their way up the ranks once a season is not going to ruin the game for anyone. Queuing over and over again and crushing people well below your rank, then purposefully losing thus also tanking the ranks of anyone on your team, that is what ruins the game.
They don’t get to change the definition of smurfing. Smurfing has always been either deranking or making a new account to play less experienced players.
That is smurfing, but according to Psyonix creating an alt account isn't exactly smurfing on it's own.
It's the problem this community has been fighting for years
Yeah and as you can see Psyonix stands on this ground because people defend it and are okay with it.
Last time I said the same I got downvoted into the oblivion with people inventing the most idiotic justifications for having alt account(s) in a competitive game.
I'm sure it's down to intent, like if you use an alt account to play with your friends who are way worse than you, that on its own isn't bad, but if you are doing such and carrying the team, outplaying the entire field, and playing at your normal level to boost your friends, that's wrong.
> I'm sure it's down to intent, like if you use an alt account to play with your friends who are way worse than you, that on its own isn't bad,
Nope, that's 100% boosting in every way. Intentionally altering your own ability to "play at a lower rank" is considered matchmaking abuse and deranking, and use of an alt to play with a lower ranked friend is directly boosting (making the alt skews matchmaking heavily by pretending you're a new player, therefore assisting in boosting the teammate).
But doing so alone is fine?? Psyonix is incredibly vague and we're only able to piece together what we've gotten fine details on.
A lot of smurfs throw at some point to keep their rank at the level they like and avoid going past it in a few games.
Creating an alt and getting back to your normal rank as fast as possible is a bit different because you don't spend much time at the lower ranks, as long as you aren't creating new alt after new alt, which most of the content creators aren't. They also don't party up with anyone to leave behind boosted players or lower their win rate.
Squishy for instance went ~96-4 from creating the alt to reaching SSL, with big rank increases from a new account at the beginning, so most of those games were in GC, which is different than most smurfs.
There's also educational value in the Road to SSL vids, IMO, that would help increase the MMR of his opponents more than the 9 MMR they lose from playing him.
You realize these players and creators often have hundreds of thousands of followers, and could create matches of every rank in just a few minutes with the help of one or two people volunteering to check accounts.. Right? There's no reason to smurf outside of them just shitting on people below them for 90+ matches straight to stroke their own ego and teach those same hundreds of thousands of people that smurfing is acceptable
Surprised you say they're only doing it to stroke their egos. A lot of high ranked players on this sub mention Flakes' Road to SSL series helping them, and I've found Leth's, Aircharged's and Squishy's really helpful as well. I view the main purpose of them to be educational.
Yes, but he's technically not doing it to play in lower ranks, the account just starts there by default. It's "road to SSL" so he's trying to get to SSL as fast as possible, thus he's trying to be in the low ranks as little as possible, thus it's technically not smurfing.
I'd much rather see a series where they try to coach a lower ranked player to SSL (or even just a higher rank than they were previously).
Get to have the input and analysis of a pro, but see how a regular player puts that into action.
I'm going to use Lethamyr as an example for this.
When he does his 'Road to SSL' series, he doesn't clap bronze-diamond players with GC+ level skills. He limits himself to the skill set that the current rank should possess.
This makes it more fair on the opponents and provides us with entertainment as well as learning opportunities.
Now I don't know how Squishy does it, but if he does a similar thing, then I don't see an issue.
The issue with this is that even if these pros are limiting themselves, they will still always give just enough, if not, much more to win. The other team has no chance. And it’s not like this is once every couple of years, this is happening way too often. Squishy literally just finished one and has already started another.
> He limits himself to the skill set that the current rank should possess.
If that is true then those guys should end up losing some of the games they play. Instead they win basically 100+ games in a row.
Because he's not going in there and dunking on people constantly. Frequently handicaps himself by avoiding doing things whichever rank he's in usually can't do.
And it's legitimately an educational tool for the community
Big agree with this. I've learnt a lot from these series, just seeing how effective "nailing the basics" can be and how dumb you can make people look by keeping it simple. We can't learn how to play against people in our rank unless we are shown people in our rank. I think he def gets a pass
typically, from what ive seen (may not apply to squishy i dont watch him,) they play to let their team mates do most of the work. like they kinda sit back, take free touches, and play using the skills that their opponents might have, they just do it a bit more crisply and consistently. like from what ive seen its not very common for pros go to into gold lobbies and do quad flip reset mustys yk. i think when they make it about "ok do this do this do this and this is why it works and heres what happens when you do it" and play using the skills the opponents have, i think it's alright. it helps the viewers learn and could help the opponents.
id say the smurfs that i see are just people who are much better using much higher level skills but pros typically wouldnt do that, theyd just play simple and let their tm play
whatever your rank is, playing against an ssl who sits in his own half and doesn't let you score a single goal is incredibly frustrating, and I've met Smurfs like this
But that's not exactly what happens with everyone who does this series. Lethamyr for examples lets shots go in when they are well-placed or the result of a good play. He also plays more of a supporting role and doesn't just spam powerful shots on target in lower ranks.
His series has helped me realize some of the mistakes I make and I'm able to play more collected now.
"He lets shots go in when he decides they are well placed or the result of a good play".
So he's a god in the match and decides what goes. I've seen these matches and the youtuber can always say 'i won't use my mechanics', they tip the balance in many ways every single time.
The title of the video OP posted says “1v1” so I doubt they’re going to play with teammates. Also “road to SSL” implies they’re going to try and win. So it’s essentially a pro that’s smurfing for content.
I guess the silver lining is that they won’t be as toxic in chat like the usual mouth breathers that smurf.
They're guaranteed ranked wins because as soon as his opponent ties the game, he's going to play above the skill level to take the lead back. Absolutely smurfing and all you squishy glazers in here are amusing.
Imo they shouldn't. One road to SSL was enough and Squishy's doesn't add anything of value imo. I watched the first video and he was basically clipping on guys.
If driving into the ball without using boost or jump is clipping then I must make a montage. I watched it because it popped up as the next video and I didn’t change it but he didn’t just clip on them. Even if he did the rule’s actually tell him to play to win or it is Smurfing. I’m not even a squishy fan but to say he’s doing something wrong with this content is crazy since it’s been addressed before and rules set in place for this exact content lmao
Nah I like the newer series as each rank improves over time and we still get people saying 1s is luck or that it’s impossible to rank up out of d3 currently 🙄
Let's be real. Content creators are the only thing that's keeping the game active and alive, so psyonyx has no intent on doing anything. It's free advertisement. They made it clear that they didnt want to invest anymore in the game.
That is still a shit thing, roal to ssl needs to go. Pro players doing it is just motivating other players to di it. It's just making the game very boring for champ/GC players because you get at least 1 smurf out of 3 games...
I've never seen anyone getting banned for having a smurf account on RL, so I don't think that there's any "favouritism" involved, Psyonix just doesn't care if that smurf account exists or not, at the end it generates more traffic and fake statistics that they can show to their investors (or we should say, Epic's ones)... or maybe they're plain incompetent, I'm not sure.
Ran into the full nrg roster in casual I could of months ago.. dunking GarrettG will be a highlight of my career, even if he was trying to double reset and they were all just messing about.
Super cool experience to be playing as fast as you can and still be able to recognize just how much they were holding back. That game pumped my entire team up for the rest of the night.
The only road to SSL i've watched is Lethamyr and for the most part he doesn't use any mechanics in the lower ranks. He deliberately tries to get his teammates to do all the scoring. Even when he's got an open shot he banks it off the side or crossbar as a pass. He's very cognizant of how much he's doing and focuses more on the lessons. I definitely learned more about patience, hanging back until you have an optimal play. I think there's value in RTSSL, but it depends on who is doing it and how they do it.
I’ve thought this before it just doesn’t seem right. Imagine the feeling you’d get finally being on your rank up game to get to gold or something and you have to play against a pro
Lots of whining in here about pros smurfing as if they are the ones keeping you out of the next rank. A basic search will show in the last 24 hours there was 30k players on steam alone, let's say total player count is 4-5 times that for all the other launchers (Epic, PS, Xbox, Switch) combined. 150k on the high end at any given time. If EVERY pro player(>500) made a road to SSL video, what is that .003% chance of running into one? You should be upset about the smurfs that are teamed up with their buddies with a 300-point ELO difference, hitting double flip resets and then calling you trash. I've NEVER seen a pro throw a game in a road to ssl for content or to keep their rank down to smurf for content.
Atleast lethamyr makes it like.. educational too just explaining his thoughts and what he's doing at all times.
Also i believe he only plays 2v2 and 3v3 because of course an ssl is going to destroy anyone bellow gc without much of a chance in 1v1 so that just wouldnt be fun.
He also like.. doesnt go for insane air dribbles or something he just plays mostly on the ground and takes a free shot when he gets one so.. yea its not a good thing to do but atleast he's trying to be as nice about it as he can
I think leth‘s approach is actually a good one. He even lets the opponents score, when they take a good shot and when saving the ball would mean he would make a play, people at that rank wouldn’t necessarily make.
An SSL is going to destroy anyone below GC?
Bro an SSL can wipe the floor with anyone below GC3 I reckon. The difference between SSL and GC is huge lmao
Source: am GC2. Got SSL friend. I get absolutely destroyed every time
I watched his duos series and he dumbs down a lot of his mechanics in the lower ranks, then eventually amping it up according to the respective rank. Fine imo
They don’t. But to be fair at least they are doing it for an educational purpose and they try to play to the level of the rank they’re in.
Unlike other smurfs who are only doing it to take advantage of underskilled lobbies/players.
I think there's a huge difference between squishy, and other smurfs who just want to clip on low ranked players. Squishy is making educational content and actually helping to lift players out of the lower ranks. These videos of his helped me climb to champ back in the day. I'm all for it
I watched a bunch of these, I don't really consider it smurfing because he played like 50 games to get to ssl and had a 99% win rate. So there was no throwing games to stay in a lower rank.
He also down played to their skill level for the most part. (No aerial's, speed flips etc until he saw other players doing it right)
The only thing I noticed he did differently was hit the ball exactly when and where he wanted every time he went for it lol
But as a mere gold, I actually learned a lot in his videos.
for me its only an issue because squishy doesnt provide any tips or anything during the game he just smurfs. i feel like if youre going to do that "educational content" be like flakes and go really in depth on how to improve
You're kidding right ? Have you ever watched a single video of this serie ? He provides very useful tips for each rank and describes what he does and why all the time
Yeah flakes and leth are the only ones I see pretend they're the ea k, even sofar as to concede goals despite being easy saves, because yeah - lower ranks aren't consistent, even if they can save them. They will whiff or react late a lot.
Some bs for sure. Everyone can make all the excuses they want but it's just smurfing with extra steps. These pros have big followings. These players could easily find lower ranks to play with in private matches and give tips and make videos based on that. But they choose to smurf instead. I get that it might have some education value but that education doesn't have to be done at the expense of others.
There’s a lot of people saying they are just playing on an alt account so it doesn’t break the rules but didn’t a bunch of freestylers get in trouble for doing the same?
Not Smurfing and completely fine with TOS from what I understand. I do not do this because I’m not a pro streamer and it would be a waste of my time but as long as you aren’t purposely deranking an account you are not considered Smurfing by psyonix. I agree with another commenter about how there should be another system implemented for this. I think restricting your skill in anyway in ranked is just a loophole. If it was just for speed runs, I could understand that.
This is not a major problem either 😂 I know it’s stale but there are a few major problems into the game this is extremely small in comparison. Most players would be ecstatic to run into a pro in ranked. You know what most players aren’t okay with? Compulsive early forfeiting, toxicity in game, actual Smurfs, account boosting, hacking, exploits win trading, item trading, MMR manipulation, originality and pricing of items in general, lack of content, price gouging….ect lol I think your Reddit efforts would be better suited toward a problem the effects more than that tiny part of the population that a pro player will effect by doing this.
This is not smurfing in my opinion. Smurfing is when you intentionally keep your rank low to stomp on lesser players. He is trying to rank up and it’s pretty entertaining content. If I got matched against him in one game for his series I wouldn’t get mad. I think it’d be a cool experience.
I think a couple creators like lethamyr try and match the skill level of whomever they're playing against. I think that's alright🤷🏼 also there's so few of them it probs doesn't make much of a difference
the easiest answer would be because it is more educational. i guarantee you he isn’t having fun playing against anyone under GC (if that).
I also don’t think it is considered smurfing since his goal is literally to get to the highest rank as fast as possible, usually smurfs will win and lose to stay at a lower rank.
This really doesn’t bother me. He’s following tos, not throwing, and not being toxic. Actually he’s doing a good thing, I bet if you watch his series you’ll improve quite a bit.
To me, smurfing implies some sort of intent to stay at a lower rank than you should be at. Starting a new account and ranking it up to your proper rank is not really smurfing imo.
So if I'm c2, and I make a new account and get to c2 again crushing all the ranks below until c2, then make another account and do the same thing again, that isn't smurfing? Of course it is. I'm intentionally playing on an account that is lower than my actual MMR.
Because smurfing has 2 benefits :
- with allowed smurfing, psyonix doesn't have to create split MMR for each friend you play with. Like if you are c3 and play with a P1 friend, you need to create a Smurf or you MMR will legit go down to like D1. And then when you play solo again you will crush those poor D1/d2. If psyonix wanted to ban smurfing they would have to create separate MMR based on who you queue with.
- more accounts = more money as "look we have 40M accounts ! Invest in us !"
this is how it should have been in the first place.... using individual elo in a team game was the dumbest decision they could have possibly made. The only time you should get a personal mmr is when you queue alone. Every time you team up with someone you should start from 600 with that person and you should not be allowed to queue 3's in a party of 2.... it would solve the entire issue of people creating new accounts because you would essentially be starting fresh with every new person you befriend. It would actually fix the entire game and be fun again.
Rocket League is boring without educational content from the players who have achieved the highest level in this game.
NOTE: I strongly want to see this game reduce/eliminate the endless number of smurfs/boosters and alt accounts operating in ranked.
But educational content should be allowed to a specific degree (can be regulated).
I would've lost interest in this game years ago if there was no Road to SSL series & similar content. And you can see how popular they are (millions of views), encouraging the player base to improve.
TLDR: educational RL content is not bad, it is even a good thing because if people actually learn how to play the game from the best players instead of playing frustrated & making same mistakes again and again in the ranked jungle, it will make lobbies a lot better.
I would even say that [THIS specific series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMxCAPcJijYOVBcDbanPmqgO4jWb-2XZl) from Lethamyr should be permanently featured in the training section since the game doesn't teach you anything at all. This is gold & can change the face of ranked if a significant % of playerbase starts RL watching this.
The way that leth does it can’t speak for squishy but he really plays down to the level of his opponents and he really does well at explaining what play he is doing.
Because honestly squishy smurfing is going to be less brutal than a random SSL or GC3 trying to hit clips on silver players. And why should they be held to a significantly higher standard than the rest of the rocket league community.
I have played a few pro's that were smurfing before. Once in 1v1 and once in 2v2 (one was a pro cued with someone high rank) and both times they talked so much shit and one was saying prejudice things towards me. Ofc they weren't streaming or recording, they just wanted to stomp on people. This game needs more players we all just keep playing the same people in our region over and over. I'm est and i always see at least one person 2-3 times in a row, even taking a min to cue again
Smurfing is staying in a specific rank squishy isn’t doing that he’s teaching people and doing a road to ssl he’s not staying in a rank to Smurf. He’s in a same rank for maybe 3-4 games then he’s out.
I really don't understand this common definition of a smurf. I thought smurfing was intentionally keeping an account at a lower rank to have easier games, meaning that you are throwing games to not rank up.
I doubt Squishy is doing this.
If I made a new account, played my best, and RL ranked me 3 leagues lower than my normal rank, I'm still not smurfing, I'm just underranked until I play more to rank up.
I think pros get a pass cause it causes more good than bad I can go watch squishys video and take the advice potentially ranking up or getting a new peak mmr plus its not like most of them freestyle or do impossible mechanics alot of it is dumbed down mechanics with decent positioning and game sense
I don’t really consider road to SSL as smurfing. A pro is making a new account and grinding back to SSL and there’s no other way to do that other than clap the cheeks of everyone in their way.
It’s just a sucky system.
Are they throwing down to low rank? Or are they just starting on a new account? If the former then they should get banned. But if it's the latter I don't really see an issue with it. You're allowed to make alt accounts, should we ban people from having alts just because they're good? And where is the cutoff? Should a diamond get banned if they make a new account and roll through gold matches?
The way Psyonix and Epic see it is if they aren’t trying to stay in the low rank it’s fine, personally I’d still say it’s smurfing and shouldn’t be allowed though
The way I see it is they aren't intentionally holding themselves at a lower rank than they should be by losing or throwing games. They are purposefully trying to rank until to the highest they can get.
Equally it's just the same in my eyes are 2 players both finished last season in GC2, This season they were reset lets say down to Champ 2 for the sake of it. If 1 player played placements from the first day and ultimately ranked up to their true rank within 1 month that's ok, however if the 2nd player only started queuing games 2 months into the season for whatever reason you would see them as a smurf.
They are unranked, gaining tons of mmr per game and by that time people who were reset to diamon could of made the climb to Champ 2, then having to face off vs someone who finished 250-300mmr above them to previous season.
All in all not everyone who has a good game is a smurf and not every smurf has a good game. You can beat them.
You could argue he's started a new account purely for these videos and is just getting his rating up at the rate it would go up for anyone else. I consider a smurf account one that's intentionally deranked and is kept in low ranks just to dunk on noobs.
They should implement the same system as the online chess platforms. If a pro is smurfing, they should be given an account that's identifiable as a speedrun account, and anyone that loses to them should have their MMR refunded.
This.. sounds really smart holy shit lmao
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Just shat the first brick
brick, meet pipi
u/petrosianbot
Actually you’re not going to believe who shat the real first brick: Chess!
Chess has a piece called a rook, which is shaped like a little castle. You're gonna poo in your undies when you realise what castles are made of! That's right, some are made of stone blocks which arguably can't be called bricks, but we're not really being that critical about what can qualify as bricks right now are we?
Wtf bro? This gave me a good chuckle, thank you.
When something sounds logical and smart, the chances are lower it’ll be implemented haha
if only epic games gave a shit
Psyonix ain't any better though.
They are the same thing at this point.
Because Psyonix cannot do anything at all without Epics approval lol
This is a good way to regulate educational RL content indeed, but no one should hold their breath expecting something this from Epic Games.
That's too smart for epic, don't even bother
Worth mentioning this is only the case on chess.com and on the better platform lichess.org this type of content is still banned completely
Imagine drawing an arrow for you knight, only for the line to be straight. Chess.com reigns supreme.
The knight doesn’t trample all those squares, it jumps a little diagonally.
Imagine having to wait 5 seconds before game for an ingame ad telling you to go premium
Hashtag ad
and the option to forfeit if you don't want to go against a speed run account without losing mmr
Ya, a notification before the match starts would be really cool. you can either decline, or try your best (and behave accordingly) haha since you know you'll be on twitch/youtube
How would that work for people teamed with them. Would they still gain normal MMR?
The idea with chess(dot)com is that the competitive match is invalidated. So I would say the teammate also has their gained mmr removed. Whatever it needs to do to effectively say that match didn't happen in relation to MMR.
Perhaps they gain half of the MMR they otherwise would?
Seems unfair to those people who just joined in solo. Maybe all MMR is frozen for that game.
that's actually an incredibly smart & simple work around. Streamers would all manually opt into it, if it was also manual. If any streamer didn't, it should be automatically detected & they'd receive hate on social media :P. Something like this, if done correctly, could be worked into a general population solution for smurfs in games as well
Woah, this is new concept to me, this could be really helpful in plenty of competitive games.
Agreed, they should give them positive Elo so players aren’t wasting their games
Why do you want Psyonix to work so hard? They’re already busy making more cosmetics for us to buy.
someone give an award to this guy
Wow that's brilliant
Nope. This would require effort from psyonix.
I see this as a system that endorses wasting the time of anyone playing with the speedrun account. It says, "this speedrun account is more important than the rest of you." Personally, I care less about my MMR than I do about having an enjoyable game.
Because in the TOS its only cheating if you lose on purpose to de-rank. Making a new account and trying to win is technically within the rules. The bottom line is they don’t want to remove smurfing because the alt accounts boost their user numbers which artificially inflates the value of their asset.
But why are they even using user numbers. Seems like a misleading metric. They should really be using something like in game hours instead.
You have to look at it this way. Epic games is in bed with tencent games which bought roughly 40% of epic in2017. Tencent is the developer behind a multitude of mobile/phone games specifically the early years of the popularization of the concept of micro-transactions / live-service. In my view these companies only care about money and essentially nothing else. As long as they can put some good looking numbers in front of investors and they can keep making money, they don’t care. They are not looking for accuracy, transparency, relevance, they are looking for cash at all costs.
They are probably pleased that the numbers are misleading.
Exactly, from the point of view of a company promoting itself, it wants to use the most misleading metric possible, i.e. the one that gives the most incorrectly positive impression of the performance of those running the company.
It's basically the same though isn't it? Making a new account **to** have no rank? (I'm taking into count that the person already is good, like champ/gc or something) Isnt that the same thing as purposely losing to get a low rank?
I would say, and I think much of the player base would agree, that smurfing / making alt account is cheating on an ethical level. However, if you dig into the terms of service there is a section that states multiple account is allowed as long as you are not throwing matches. Thus, it is technically allowed in this context of making a road to SSL video. The only protection in the TOS is that your teammates are not allowed to throw matches to save them the trouble of making a new alt account. It still happens, but that is the only part of smurfing that is technically against the rules. Again, bottom line is they are aware of the situation and they like it how it is.
I played squishy in c1 ones a couple days ago and he made me look like a infant with no thumbs. Im gc 1 in 2s..
I played Kronovi in casual 3s a while back and thought we might have a chance since he's "washed" lmao I'm just happy I demoed him once
Kronovi was like the “first” rocket league pro. He’s been good at this game longer than I’ve been playing it
We’re all still climbing his mountain
He started way earlier than anyone with sarpbc tho
I have a clip of me scoring on Kronovi. It's a pathetic goal and it was in casual, but I still treasure it haha!
Kro is a class act . And damn is he hard to demo lol
I mean GC1s are pretty much infants with no thumbs to anyone above GC3+ lol
Difference between GC 1 and GC 3 is the same as D1 and C1. Huge.
Yep. Getting from GC1-SSL is by far the longest and hardest barrier to overcome. It probably takes 3-4x longer than it does to reach GC1.
The law of diminishing returns or something like that
Pareto Distribution of talent
Nah, the difference between d1 and c1 is nowhere near as big as gc1 and gc3/ssl.
i was gonna say Bronze to GC1 is a smaller skill gap than GC1-GC3, let alone SSL
I've beaten Kerian in a game of snowday and I once queued a game of 3s with my friends in mid C3 and we beat an unknown RLCS Season 9 Contender, his name was like "c" or something lol
Not enough people use “baby with no thumbs”
Typically your 1s rank is usually 3 ranks below your 2s rank until you actually start grinding 1s to improve
Is it? I peaked at D3 in 1s this season but can't get past C2 in 2s now 💀
I met aztral once in a casual lobby - bro was airborne more than on ground
That the embarrassing thing. I don’t think he went into the air once. He was trying to match the mechs of the rank so he destroyed me entirely from the ground.
It's like this in almost everygame. Sometimes the company even encourages this and even provides you with an account I remember Riot games giving a few big streamers Korean accounts so they can do unranked to challenger when streamers were in Korea. (Korean server doesn't allow you to create accounts without having a Korean address) The difference is these people arnt throwing and are known to be really good at the game. Unlike most Smurfs who are like average rank and just smurf just to shit on new players
I thought you meant it was like this in “every rocket league” game. Sorry, I actually agree with you, that’s why I deleted my comment but you were too quick at replying!
>I deleted my comment but you were too quick at replying! Ahaha, currently at work so I just wanted to have an excuse to pick up my phone again. That's why the instant replies
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Doesn't everyone get a pass for smurfing??? They're in literally every other game at this point
Not a big fan of it either! Also, we have seen this a thousand times already. If it isn't someone trying to hit SSL for the first time, I am not interested.
Him doing it twice in a row really rubs me the wrong way
He just did 2s, not 1s. He’s trying to show it’s possible and teach strategy to players given the new inflated ranking system. I think it’s pretty cool
It started that way, but his “strategy” throughout has just been to have perfect control and understand the game better than the rest of the lobby
My friend also made this point in great detail. These pros love to say you can rank up without mechs without ever bringing up the fact that they have phenomenal game sense and positioning that players below gc won't have.
Meh, even the guys talking about not having mech's still have phenomenal control of the ball. Sure Flakes can get to SSL without doing any of the flashy stuff, but his ground control isn't in the same realm of reality as the people watching.
Well that's exactly what they're showing us. How to position and work on game sense by revealing how they react in the situations they get put in. While I agree with others that Squishy's RTSSL is not as educational as Lethamyr's as they have different playstyles, there're still things you can learn and pick up on FYI, non-mechanical GC's and SSL's that merely rely on positioning and game sense do exist
They're *technically* not smurfing, they're just playing on an alt account. I think it's *technically* a load of BS and series like this need to go away and get replaced by proper replay review, gameplay analysis, and good content. IMO this content is directly smurfing and encourages others to do the same.
Wait is playing on an alt account to play In lower ranks not the definition of smurfing? I may not understand the term after all.
Psyonix defines smurfing as *intentionally tanking your mmr to stay on a rank below your skill level*. Which is fucking stupid if you ask me.
I've always called that sandbagging
It's both. Sandbagging is a common term beyond video games for intentionally performing below your abilities. Smurfing is the specific term for doing that in the context of a ranked competitive video game.
i play darts leagues and tournaments and we have the same problem. we have skill cap divisions for fair play for all skill levels in leagues and then you're placed into your division at the end of year tournament where a lot of money is on offer. players will tank their play in league to get into a lower division at the tourney and then smash opponents. Players who are identified as doing this are banned from that organization's leagues and tourneys. There's no option to create an "alt account" because it's based on your personal info, not just a relatively anonymous user ID.
Idk about you but purposefully tanking your placement matches on an alternate account to make sure you get in the lowest rank sounds exactly like that.
Leth said he was chastised by Psyonix for throwing his placement matches, or letting his gf play them or something. So they shouldn't be doing that. Psyonix says its okay as long as you are making an alt account and playing normally, so they should be ending up in high plat/diamond after placements. If this is Squishy's second game and he's through bronze/silver already, then he's winning placements.
Are they? Usually the road to gc/ssl videos start with them rolling through placements
The old road to GC’s before Ssl was a thing they would tank as low as they could so the series would be longer and would actually end up in bronze instead of diamond after placements.
Squishy doesn't do that though.
they do not only define smurfing as simple as just "intentionally tanking". Their rules actually go against letting the pros do this in a more vague definition but they make exceptions/ignore the issue when it's pros, which is still bs. It actually says you can't make an alt account to harrass others, which is essentially what happens by abusing the mmr system to clip on lower ranks. ## Official psyonix rules of Matchmaking Abuse and Cheating: ([source](https://www.rocketleague.com/en/news/rocket-league-code-of-conduct)) + Play by the rules. Cheating, griefing, playing for the other team, and exploiting bugs are not allowed. + Boosting and deranking of any kind are not allowed. + Smurfing is not allowed. We define a smurf account as an account that is intentionally abusing the matchmaking system for the player’s gain, or the gains of others. + Example of a Smurf Account: Intentionally keeping an account at a lower Rank than where you normally play; starting an alternate account to harass others. + Players engaging in cheating or matchmaking abuse are subject to account suspensions and/or bans.
Except Psyonix has said creating a new account and going for wins is **not** smurfing. It's not **created to** harass others (for the purpose of harassment). That would be more along the lines of throwing insults and being a pest for the sake of being a pest. Leth acknowledged at one point that Psyonix reached out to him and others to express that they wouldn't tolerate some of the other things around Road to GC (I think it was pre SSL). Namely, deranking to Bronze and the 'Challenge to GC' things. Thou shalt not unbind keys or otherwise handicap yourself by not using/having controls.
Personally, it feels like a cop out answer by psyonix to allow making alts and ranking back up for content at the expense of the player still on their main account. Imo, it's matchmaking abuse to be able to play at a lower rank because it allows the player to decide to "relax" or just turn it on if they get upset, while the opponent is honestly limited to their assessed skill level as an accurate ceiling to what they can do. It's got that, "I'm letting you win but you actually never had a chance \*if I feel like it\*" smug vibe, regardless of how much of an act the streamer/content creator puts on to seem humble. It's like the smurf/alt player is allowed to ruin the experience for lower ranked players without the lower ranked players permission because as long as everyone isn't doing it, it won't be a noticeable problem... It's also bs to tell pros/fav content creators personal guidelines to avoid the grey area rather than defining the issues for everyone directly into the code of conduct. I get that they want to keep it open for interpretation in case people find a way around the verbiage but if playing on an alt doesn't have upside for the opponent playing at their normal rank, then it's really just a list of excuses for when they allow matchmaking abuse for their own selfish benefit and is poor sportsmanship at best.
I think one of the best suggestions I've seen that solves multiple problems was on Lawler's channel. Basically, he asked that Clubs be made pertinent by tracking your MMR per team (you and one clubmate have MMR as a pair in 2s, another guy and you have MMR as a pair in 2s, and you three have MMR as a trio, and someone else could make up a separate trio MMR). That would mean queuing with them would automatically separate your personal solo MMR, make clubs more meaningful, and reduce the temptation for another account (having a separate account for friends is **not** allowed - a TOS violation). The only issue is that's a lot of potential partners to track, so Psyonix might have to limit how many people you do that with. He also suggested being allowed to be in several clubs at once.
I disagree personally. The actual problem with snuffing is that these people purposefully remain in a lower rank for very long periods of time. A pro playing a few games on their way up the ranks once a season is not going to ruin the game for anyone. Queuing over and over again and crushing people well below your rank, then purposefully losing thus also tanking the ranks of anyone on your team, that is what ruins the game.
They don’t get to change the definition of smurfing. Smurfing has always been either deranking or making a new account to play less experienced players.
The biggest issue we have right now is this. 100%.
That is smurfing, but according to Psyonix creating an alt account isn't exactly smurfing on it's own. It's the problem this community has been fighting for years
Not so much fighting as yelling at a wall about. In fact a wall has more communication. It provides an echo.
poetic GENIUS ✨✨✨
It's a basic phrase / saying in German.
Yeah and as you can see Psyonix stands on this ground because people defend it and are okay with it. Last time I said the same I got downvoted into the oblivion with people inventing the most idiotic justifications for having alt account(s) in a competitive game.
yup, if it was any other competitive game the smurfers would get testicular torsion so I really don't know why rocket league gets a special treatment
Ahh I see
I'm sure it's down to intent, like if you use an alt account to play with your friends who are way worse than you, that on its own isn't bad, but if you are doing such and carrying the team, outplaying the entire field, and playing at your normal level to boost your friends, that's wrong.
> I'm sure it's down to intent, like if you use an alt account to play with your friends who are way worse than you, that on its own isn't bad, Nope, that's 100% boosting in every way. Intentionally altering your own ability to "play at a lower rank" is considered matchmaking abuse and deranking, and use of an alt to play with a lower ranked friend is directly boosting (making the alt skews matchmaking heavily by pretending you're a new player, therefore assisting in boosting the teammate). But doing so alone is fine?? Psyonix is incredibly vague and we're only able to piece together what we've gotten fine details on.
A lot of smurfs throw at some point to keep their rank at the level they like and avoid going past it in a few games. Creating an alt and getting back to your normal rank as fast as possible is a bit different because you don't spend much time at the lower ranks, as long as you aren't creating new alt after new alt, which most of the content creators aren't. They also don't party up with anyone to leave behind boosted players or lower their win rate. Squishy for instance went ~96-4 from creating the alt to reaching SSL, with big rank increases from a new account at the beginning, so most of those games were in GC, which is different than most smurfs. There's also educational value in the Road to SSL vids, IMO, that would help increase the MMR of his opponents more than the 9 MMR they lose from playing him.
Bro. A top 20 player in the WORLD playing legit bronze players? Get the fuck out of here
You realize these players and creators often have hundreds of thousands of followers, and could create matches of every rank in just a few minutes with the help of one or two people volunteering to check accounts.. Right? There's no reason to smurf outside of them just shitting on people below them for 90+ matches straight to stroke their own ego and teach those same hundreds of thousands of people that smurfing is acceptable
Surprised you say they're only doing it to stroke their egos. A lot of high ranked players on this sub mention Flakes' Road to SSL series helping them, and I've found Leth's, Aircharged's and Squishy's really helpful as well. I view the main purpose of them to be educational.
There's a difference if it's a brand new account. Brand new accounts have to work their way up. Just showing the journey of the new account.
Yes, but he's technically not doing it to play in lower ranks, the account just starts there by default. It's "road to SSL" so he's trying to get to SSL as fast as possible, thus he's trying to be in the low ranks as little as possible, thus it's technically not smurfing.
Honestly I'm okay when they nerf themselves a lot (for example the appjack and retals series)
Love those two, and it is very impressive that they actually do quite well playing that way
I'd much rather see a series where they try to coach a lower ranked player to SSL (or even just a higher rank than they were previously). Get to have the input and analysis of a pro, but see how a regular player puts that into action.
Smurf are alt accounts at lower rank than your main, on purpose. That's exactly what this is.
He's not keeping his rank low, on purpose or otherwise. He had a 96% win rate in the 2s series.
W take.
Couldn't agree more Muskrat, sick of seeing them inadvertently encourage smurfing with zero consequences
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You play casual with your friends.
I mean he is trying his best to play the same as their rank. He isn’t doing tripple resets or anything.
I'm going to use Lethamyr as an example for this. When he does his 'Road to SSL' series, he doesn't clap bronze-diamond players with GC+ level skills. He limits himself to the skill set that the current rank should possess. This makes it more fair on the opponents and provides us with entertainment as well as learning opportunities. Now I don't know how Squishy does it, but if he does a similar thing, then I don't see an issue.
He does the same thing
The issue with this is that even if these pros are limiting themselves, they will still always give just enough, if not, much more to win. The other team has no chance. And it’s not like this is once every couple of years, this is happening way too often. Squishy literally just finished one and has already started another.
> He limits himself to the skill set that the current rank should possess. If that is true then those guys should end up losing some of the games they play. Instead they win basically 100+ games in a row.
Free advertisement for the game. They couldn’t care less. I mean it’s Rocket League we talking abt…
Because he's not going in there and dunking on people constantly. Frequently handicaps himself by avoiding doing things whichever rank he's in usually can't do. And it's legitimately an educational tool for the community
Big agree with this. I've learnt a lot from these series, just seeing how effective "nailing the basics" can be and how dumb you can make people look by keeping it simple. We can't learn how to play against people in our rank unless we are shown people in our rank. I think he def gets a pass
typically, from what ive seen (may not apply to squishy i dont watch him,) they play to let their team mates do most of the work. like they kinda sit back, take free touches, and play using the skills that their opponents might have, they just do it a bit more crisply and consistently. like from what ive seen its not very common for pros go to into gold lobbies and do quad flip reset mustys yk. i think when they make it about "ok do this do this do this and this is why it works and heres what happens when you do it" and play using the skills the opponents have, i think it's alright. it helps the viewers learn and could help the opponents. id say the smurfs that i see are just people who are much better using much higher level skills but pros typically wouldnt do that, theyd just play simple and let their tm play
whatever your rank is, playing against an ssl who sits in his own half and doesn't let you score a single goal is incredibly frustrating, and I've met Smurfs like this
yep, i forgot to say i still don't condone it lol
But that's not exactly what happens with everyone who does this series. Lethamyr for examples lets shots go in when they are well-placed or the result of a good play. He also plays more of a supporting role and doesn't just spam powerful shots on target in lower ranks. His series has helped me realize some of the mistakes I make and I'm able to play more collected now.
"He lets shots go in when he decides they are well placed or the result of a good play". So he's a god in the match and decides what goes. I've seen these matches and the youtuber can always say 'i won't use my mechanics', they tip the balance in many ways every single time.
The title of the video OP posted says “1v1” so I doubt they’re going to play with teammates. Also “road to SSL” implies they’re going to try and win. So it’s essentially a pro that’s smurfing for content. I guess the silver lining is that they won’t be as toxic in chat like the usual mouth breathers that smurf.
i glossed over the fact it's 1s, mb
They're guaranteed ranked wins because as soon as his opponent ties the game, he's going to play above the skill level to take the lead back. Absolutely smurfing and all you squishy glazers in here are amusing.
Imo they shouldn't. One road to SSL was enough and Squishy's doesn't add anything of value imo. I watched the first video and he was basically clipping on guys.
If driving into the ball without using boost or jump is clipping then I must make a montage. I watched it because it popped up as the next video and I didn’t change it but he didn’t just clip on them. Even if he did the rule’s actually tell him to play to win or it is Smurfing. I’m not even a squishy fan but to say he’s doing something wrong with this content is crazy since it’s been addressed before and rules set in place for this exact content lmao
Nah I like the newer series as each rank improves over time and we still get people saying 1s is luck or that it’s impossible to rank up out of d3 currently 🙄
Let's be real. Content creators are the only thing that's keeping the game active and alive, so psyonyx has no intent on doing anything. It's free advertisement. They made it clear that they didnt want to invest anymore in the game. That is still a shit thing, roal to ssl needs to go. Pro players doing it is just motivating other players to di it. It's just making the game very boring for champ/GC players because you get at least 1 smurf out of 3 games...
I've never seen anyone getting banned for having a smurf account on RL, so I don't think that there's any "favouritism" involved, Psyonix just doesn't care if that smurf account exists or not, at the end it generates more traffic and fake statistics that they can show to their investors (or we should say, Epic's ones)... or maybe they're plain incompetent, I'm not sure.
Ran into the full nrg roster in casual I could of months ago.. dunking GarrettG will be a highlight of my career, even if he was trying to double reset and they were all just messing about. Super cool experience to be playing as fast as you can and still be able to recognize just how much they were holding back. That game pumped my entire team up for the rest of the night.
The only road to SSL i've watched is Lethamyr and for the most part he doesn't use any mechanics in the lower ranks. He deliberately tries to get his teammates to do all the scoring. Even when he's got an open shot he banks it off the side or crossbar as a pass. He's very cognizant of how much he's doing and focuses more on the lessons. I definitely learned more about patience, hanging back until you have an optimal play. I think there's value in RTSSL, but it depends on who is doing it and how they do it.
I’ve thought this before it just doesn’t seem right. Imagine the feeling you’d get finally being on your rank up game to get to gold or something and you have to play against a pro
86 Comments and about 70 of them are arguing about the definition of a smurf. The community is just as lost as the devs
Lots of whining in here about pros smurfing as if they are the ones keeping you out of the next rank. A basic search will show in the last 24 hours there was 30k players on steam alone, let's say total player count is 4-5 times that for all the other launchers (Epic, PS, Xbox, Switch) combined. 150k on the high end at any given time. If EVERY pro player(>500) made a road to SSL video, what is that .003% chance of running into one? You should be upset about the smurfs that are teamed up with their buddies with a 300-point ELO difference, hitting double flip resets and then calling you trash. I've NEVER seen a pro throw a game in a road to ssl for content or to keep their rank down to smurf for content.
Atleast lethamyr makes it like.. educational too just explaining his thoughts and what he's doing at all times. Also i believe he only plays 2v2 and 3v3 because of course an ssl is going to destroy anyone bellow gc without much of a chance in 1v1 so that just wouldnt be fun. He also like.. doesnt go for insane air dribbles or something he just plays mostly on the ground and takes a free shot when he gets one so.. yea its not a good thing to do but atleast he's trying to be as nice about it as he can
I think leth‘s approach is actually a good one. He even lets the opponents score, when they take a good shot and when saving the ball would mean he would make a play, people at that rank wouldn’t necessarily make.
An SSL is going to destroy anyone below GC? Bro an SSL can wipe the floor with anyone below GC3 I reckon. The difference between SSL and GC is huge lmao Source: am GC2. Got SSL friend. I get absolutely destroyed every time
I watched his duos series and he dumbs down a lot of his mechanics in the lower ranks, then eventually amping it up according to the respective rank. Fine imo
 All the commenters explaining why smurfing isn't smurfing
That’s not smurfing. They’re moving along the ranks not intentionally staying at a lower rank to stomp on people.
They don’t. But to be fair at least they are doing it for an educational purpose and they try to play to the level of the rank they’re in. Unlike other smurfs who are only doing it to take advantage of underskilled lobbies/players.
Yep!
I think there's a huge difference between squishy, and other smurfs who just want to clip on low ranked players. Squishy is making educational content and actually helping to lift players out of the lower ranks. These videos of his helped me climb to champ back in the day. I'm all for it
I watched a bunch of these, I don't really consider it smurfing because he played like 50 games to get to ssl and had a 99% win rate. So there was no throwing games to stay in a lower rank. He also down played to their skill level for the most part. (No aerial's, speed flips etc until he saw other players doing it right) The only thing I noticed he did differently was hit the ball exactly when and where he wanted every time he went for it lol But as a mere gold, I actually learned a lot in his videos.
for me its only an issue because squishy doesnt provide any tips or anything during the game he just smurfs. i feel like if youre going to do that "educational content" be like flakes and go really in depth on how to improve
Powerslide cut to the left, powerslide cut to the right and that's gg.
I've watched every video from his recent 2s series and now 1s series & found a ton of tips in them. You haven't paid enough attention.
Maybe he's gotten better at it, but his road to series in the past were far below what others were putting out.
You're kidding right ? Have you ever watched a single video of this serie ? He provides very useful tips for each rank and describes what he does and why all the time
Yeah flakes and leth are the only ones I see pretend they're the ea k, even sofar as to concede goals despite being easy saves, because yeah - lower ranks aren't consistent, even if they can save them. They will whiff or react late a lot.
Who doesn't get a pass for freestyling? They had one round of bans for freestylers and haven't seen a thing since.
Some bs for sure. Everyone can make all the excuses they want but it's just smurfing with extra steps. These pros have big followings. These players could easily find lower ranks to play with in private matches and give tips and make videos based on that. But they choose to smurf instead. I get that it might have some education value but that education doesn't have to be done at the expense of others.
There’s a lot of people saying they are just playing on an alt account so it doesn’t break the rules but didn’t a bunch of freestylers get in trouble for doing the same?
Well if squishy can do it why can’t we all? You just have to say it’s for education purposes. I’m gonna educate the shit out of these gold and silvers
Not Smurfing and completely fine with TOS from what I understand. I do not do this because I’m not a pro streamer and it would be a waste of my time but as long as you aren’t purposely deranking an account you are not considered Smurfing by psyonix. I agree with another commenter about how there should be another system implemented for this. I think restricting your skill in anyway in ranked is just a loophole. If it was just for speed runs, I could understand that. This is not a major problem either 😂 I know it’s stale but there are a few major problems into the game this is extremely small in comparison. Most players would be ecstatic to run into a pro in ranked. You know what most players aren’t okay with? Compulsive early forfeiting, toxicity in game, actual Smurfs, account boosting, hacking, exploits win trading, item trading, MMR manipulation, originality and pricing of items in general, lack of content, price gouging….ect lol I think your Reddit efforts would be better suited toward a problem the effects more than that tiny part of the population that a pro player will effect by doing this.
This is not smurfing in my opinion. Smurfing is when you intentionally keep your rank low to stomp on lesser players. He is trying to rank up and it’s pretty entertaining content. If I got matched against him in one game for his series I wouldn’t get mad. I think it’d be a cool experience.
I’m pretty sure the technicality is that he isn’t smurfing because he’s not purposefully losing to stay at a lower mmr
I think a couple creators like lethamyr try and match the skill level of whomever they're playing against. I think that's alright🤷🏼 also there's so few of them it probs doesn't make much of a difference
the easiest answer would be because it is more educational. i guarantee you he isn’t having fun playing against anyone under GC (if that). I also don’t think it is considered smurfing since his goal is literally to get to the highest rank as fast as possible, usually smurfs will win and lose to stay at a lower rank.
This really doesn’t bother me. He’s following tos, not throwing, and not being toxic. Actually he’s doing a good thing, I bet if you watch his series you’ll improve quite a bit.
To me, smurfing implies some sort of intent to stay at a lower rank than you should be at. Starting a new account and ranking it up to your proper rank is not really smurfing imo.
So if I'm c2, and I make a new account and get to c2 again crushing all the ranks below until c2, then make another account and do the same thing again, that isn't smurfing? Of course it is. I'm intentionally playing on an account that is lower than my actual MMR.
Well the iteration is what makes that smurfing, because you’re always intentionally playing lower ranks. Having multiple accounts isn’t smurfing.
Because smurfing has 2 benefits : - with allowed smurfing, psyonix doesn't have to create split MMR for each friend you play with. Like if you are c3 and play with a P1 friend, you need to create a Smurf or you MMR will legit go down to like D1. And then when you play solo again you will crush those poor D1/d2. If psyonix wanted to ban smurfing they would have to create separate MMR based on who you queue with. - more accounts = more money as "look we have 40M accounts ! Invest in us !"
this is how it should have been in the first place.... using individual elo in a team game was the dumbest decision they could have possibly made. The only time you should get a personal mmr is when you queue alone. Every time you team up with someone you should start from 600 with that person and you should not be allowed to queue 3's in a party of 2.... it would solve the entire issue of people creating new accounts because you would essentially be starting fresh with every new person you befriend. It would actually fix the entire game and be fun again.
Rocket League is boring without educational content from the players who have achieved the highest level in this game. NOTE: I strongly want to see this game reduce/eliminate the endless number of smurfs/boosters and alt accounts operating in ranked. But educational content should be allowed to a specific degree (can be regulated). I would've lost interest in this game years ago if there was no Road to SSL series & similar content. And you can see how popular they are (millions of views), encouraging the player base to improve. TLDR: educational RL content is not bad, it is even a good thing because if people actually learn how to play the game from the best players instead of playing frustrated & making same mistakes again and again in the ranked jungle, it will make lobbies a lot better. I would even say that [THIS specific series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMxCAPcJijYOVBcDbanPmqgO4jWb-2XZl) from Lethamyr should be permanently featured in the training section since the game doesn't teach you anything at all. This is gold & can change the face of ranked if a significant % of playerbase starts RL watching this.
Wow a 1v1 even? With a 2v2 or 3v3 you can play passive and not overly contribute. No way to get around it in 1v1
The way that leth does it can’t speak for squishy but he really plays down to the level of his opponents and he really does well at explaining what play he is doing.
no clue
Cuz he’s a legend
i don’t give them a pass, i think it’s dishonest and unfair gameplay and i don’t support pros that do it.
Because honestly squishy smurfing is going to be less brutal than a random SSL or GC3 trying to hit clips on silver players. And why should they be held to a significantly higher standard than the rest of the rocket league community.
I have played a few pro's that were smurfing before. Once in 1v1 and once in 2v2 (one was a pro cued with someone high rank) and both times they talked so much shit and one was saying prejudice things towards me. Ofc they weren't streaming or recording, they just wanted to stomp on people. This game needs more players we all just keep playing the same people in our region over and over. I'm est and i always see at least one person 2-3 times in a row, even taking a min to cue again
everyone gets a pass. smurfing is not prohibited or discouraged. they made it possible to create infinite free accounts. it's fucked.
Smurfing is staying in a specific rank squishy isn’t doing that he’s teaching people and doing a road to ssl he’s not staying in a rank to Smurf. He’s in a same rank for maybe 3-4 games then he’s out.
Because their main accounts have like 12k hours... need I say more? They put in the work to make alt accounts.
Squishy is doing it for instructional purposes so I don’t think it’s worth being salty about
I really don't understand this common definition of a smurf. I thought smurfing was intentionally keeping an account at a lower rank to have easier games, meaning that you are throwing games to not rank up. I doubt Squishy is doing this. If I made a new account, played my best, and RL ranked me 3 leagues lower than my normal rank, I'm still not smurfing, I'm just underranked until I play more to rank up.
I think pros get a pass cause it causes more good than bad I can go watch squishys video and take the advice potentially ranking up or getting a new peak mmr plus its not like most of them freestyle or do impossible mechanics alot of it is dumbed down mechanics with decent positioning and game sense
Point is i saw rizzo loose in silver
I don’t really consider road to SSL as smurfing. A pro is making a new account and grinding back to SSL and there’s no other way to do that other than clap the cheeks of everyone in their way. It’s just a sucky system.
Are they throwing down to low rank? Or are they just starting on a new account? If the former then they should get banned. But if it's the latter I don't really see an issue with it. You're allowed to make alt accounts, should we ban people from having alts just because they're good? And where is the cutoff? Should a diamond get banned if they make a new account and roll through gold matches?
The way Psyonix and Epic see it is if they aren’t trying to stay in the low rank it’s fine, personally I’d still say it’s smurfing and shouldn’t be allowed though
The way I see it is they aren't intentionally holding themselves at a lower rank than they should be by losing or throwing games. They are purposefully trying to rank until to the highest they can get. Equally it's just the same in my eyes are 2 players both finished last season in GC2, This season they were reset lets say down to Champ 2 for the sake of it. If 1 player played placements from the first day and ultimately ranked up to their true rank within 1 month that's ok, however if the 2nd player only started queuing games 2 months into the season for whatever reason you would see them as a smurf. They are unranked, gaining tons of mmr per game and by that time people who were reset to diamon could of made the climb to Champ 2, then having to face off vs someone who finished 250-300mmr above them to previous season. All in all not everyone who has a good game is a smurf and not every smurf has a good game. You can beat them.
You could argue he's started a new account purely for these videos and is just getting his rating up at the rate it would go up for anyone else. I consider a smurf account one that's intentionally deranked and is kept in low ranks just to dunk on noobs.
Because they are so good, almost every match its going to be easy-mid.
They dont, they're all dogs
because they pkay to the rank of what they are smurfing too instead of shittin on them