In regard to League of Legends or other multiplayer titles, you might have heard the phrase smurf or smurf account. But what does smurf mean, and what are smurf account used for? No problem, we got you covered. Read everything you need to know about them here.
Have you ever heard of the term "smurf" while playing League of Legends or other popular multiplayer titles and asked yourself what this even means? Well, we got you covered and will explain everything you need to know about the cute blue dwarves...uhm, I mean the secondary accounts, of course.
League of Legends: What's A Smurf?
A smurf is a second account, which was created to play against weaker or inexperienced opponents. A second account like this is also called a "smurf account". Most of the time players create a smurf account to train new champions, other play styles or just to stomp weaker players. Wonderful, isn't it?
The act of playing on a second account is a called "smurfing" in the gaming landscape. It's basically a form of "playing undercover"
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Where Does The Term "Smurfing" Come From?
But why is it called "smurf" and does it have anything to do with the little blue dwarves and their funny hats? Well, the term has nothing to do with them, sadly. Most likely, the term hails from Warcraft II.
The real time strategy game, developed by Blizzard in 1996, was one of the most popular games of its time. Even back then, there were some players, that nobody wanted to play against, because they were just too good. In this case, these were Geoff "Shlongor" Frazier and Greg "Warp" Boyko.
Since they have beaten other players multiple times, nobody wanted to play against them anymore. So they had to create a second account. How do you think they named them? "PapaSmurf" and "Smurfette", and voilà, the smurf-accounts were born.
Why Are People Playing On Smurf Accounts?
There are several reasons, why some people like to play on second accounts. Most of them just want to play against weaker or inexperienced opponents to boost their own ego. Others use smurf accounts to play together with their friend, who might be in a lower elo.
There are also pro-players using smurfs to hide their true identity. And some players want to try out new things, learn new champions or train different play styles and tactics.
For some of these given examples, it might be nice to have a second account, but most players just want to stomp weaker enemies. Well, some people built a whole streaming career out of that.
The Consequences Of Smurfing
Smurfing has positive and negative aspects. On one side, players can be frustrated and leave the game, after getting stomped again and again by higher elo or more experienced players.
On the other side, you can train new things with a smurf account, without fighting against your usual opponents, which would simply destroy you while trying out new things.
In League of Legends, smurfs have a rather bad reputation. And not because of the smurfing itself, but because of the toxic and bad behavior of smurf players. These guys can do whatever they want and write whatever they want without caring about the account. It's just they're second one after all
What to do against smurfs?
Riot as taken some measures to prevent and work against smurfing. The matchmaking system tries to match players evenly to their MMR and elo. But it's hard to eliminate smurf accounts for good, since players can always create another one.
In most games, it's against the terms of service to create a smurf account, and bans can be a consequence. So think twice, if it's worth the struggle.
It's safe to say that smurfing has more negative than positive aspects to it, and it doesn't matter if the player is toxic or what else. In the end he's destroying the balance of the game and nobody can stop him from doing so.
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