Smurfing is exagerated

[Lezt00]

When a person beat you with over whelming superiorty. it doesn't mean that he is a smurf. This game if you play it enough will tell you that comebacks are rare, and simple mistakes are fatal. The player whom keeps his units alive longer will be able to field more in a battle. This game is Newb unfriendly, but i really doubt that there are really top ranked players preying on the new.

[Chris]

Nice sentiment... but about as naive as claiming that the game is perfectly balanced.

Both the DoW games and CoH seem to have a very poor competitive player base in terms of numbers. Once you get to a certain rank games start drying up so you make a new account... of course this is counter productive because (time zones withstanding) if top players smurfed less and spent more time on their main accounts they'd be able to play eachother more often... but wtvr.

Newbies arn't the best people to spot smurfs but intermediate players are. As an intermediate player you spend a lot of time playing other intermediates but you'll also get ranked against low and high ranked players depending on how many players are online at that time. This gives you insight into multiple skill brackets, so when you see a low rank player with a big win streak playing like the high ranked player you fought earlier it's pretty easy to spot the smurf.

[Lezt00]

i don't think i claimed it to be perfectly ballanced,

it is also true that some good players don't play on rank, and if their rank remains low but their skill is on par with some better players. i just find it rude to call people smurfs and make a hassle over it.

[Dellian]

What about the players that have gotten very good at playing singlepayer and decide to play online?
They could kick some ass and yet they can be judged as a smurf?...

[dupsky]

When a person beat you with over whelming superiorty. it doesn't mean that he is a smurf.

no your right, it may have just been divine intervention.

[Scooter]

The games start drying up? What are you talking about?
I've been level 9/10 for ages, and I can get a 1v1 game in 1-5 minutes any time of day.

[Demonic Spoon]

no your right, it may have just been divine intervention.

Or he is simply a superior player.

[dupsky]

Or he is simply a superior player.

you forgot the rest of the sentance..........hiding under a brand new name.

[carolinaherps]

Yeah, I run into smurfers all the time. These level-1 players that know how to pin me down from the start of the game, then wire up places I've never even thought of before. But what the heck, at least I learn something from the game. Better than the rampant drophackers that Relic can't seem to stop.

[Timeless]

We could do a test, dupsky...maybe we should if I can ever find the time. You pick a game like SupCom that I don't own and I bet I could go out and buy it, play it a week like I normally do before I get online, then get on and beat you badly enough you'd swear I was a smurf.

Smurfing happens, but the guy is right. It's grossly exagerrated.

[Dark_Avenger]

This game is Newb unfriendly, but i really doubt that there are really top ranked players preying on the new.

they may not be preaying on the new, but I can damn well tell you they get most of their points from lower leveled guys, Im level 9, quite an accomplishment for me, then I go up against goldreader lvl 20 (or something like that), I swear that they might only get to play someone else good if that someone else good is on at the same time

[dupsky]

We could do a test, dupsky...maybe we should if I can ever find the time. You pick a game like SupCom that I don't own and I bet I could go out and buy it, play it a week like I normally do before I get online, then get on and beat you badly enough you'd swear I was a smurf.


i accept your challenge..however, even if you are an exeptionaly fast learner in rts's and you somehow manage to win, this doesnt prove anything because the majority of people are not such players and the problem of smurfing is rampant enough to have something done about it.

[AirborneSpartan]

you are right. I get so many stupid people that have no sense of strategy call me a smurf because I just dominated them. What do they expect? That they are the greatest players in the world? Just because I actually organize what I am going to do ahead of time, then execute it doesnt make me a smurf. I am a level 4 with 13 wins and 6 losses. If I was a smurf then i would have 19 wins and 0 losses.

[SoxSexSax]

The main problem is people who are level 4-6 thinking they are somehow "good". A level 6 getting beat by a level 1 surprises me not one jot, but it probably surprises them. I personally umbrella rank anyone from 1-6 as "noob", but most level sixes wouldn't. Hence, you get lots of smurfing accusations from players who really aren't much (if any) better than their opponent to begin with.

[Thanasis]

Let's not confuse false accusations to real situations.
Both exist and are wrong.
But whoever has spend some time watching replays and playing, he knows how to recognise a pro-smurf from a good-but-still-not-great-low-level-player.
Good-low-level-players that are being accused as smurfs are usually smart guys who have played RTS games before and have some general rules on their mind.
They still don't know the insight of the game, but I bet they will and soon become high level players. Thus when you watch their games you see some "silly" (in terms of CoH general strat rules) actions, but on the other hand you don't see them sending their units one after another to get crippled at enemy's strong positions.

I'm one...let's say good enough player in WW2 combat flight sims, and though I have not played all sims, I bet I can master them faster than anyone who's not of the same league, cause I have some general rules on my mind and know how to enforce them. I may need some time to learn the FM (flying models) and DM (damage models) of any new sim, but from day 1 I will be able to be called as a smurf (though these things do not exist in flight sims, cause there we don't have 1x1 leagues - it's all about team's tactics).

Anyway :)

[Demonic Spoon]

Some players are just good when they start for some reason.

I played a 2v2 CAL match against a couple people who had only played for 2 weeks. Both level one...They very nearly won.

A few days later I noticed they were both level 6-7, despite not playing that many games. They mopped the floor with almost everyone they played against at that low level...

Those types of people exist.

[Texture]

Dark Avenger:

That isn't a smurf. That is you getting your ass kicked by a high ranking player. Soooo.... whats yer point?

Of course the high ranking players have to often play lower ranks... there are only a few people ALLOWED in the top ranks... that's why it's a ladder.

There are definitely two kinds of people around ranks 4-7. The good, and the persistent. The good have w/l ratios better than 3 to 1, the persistant are like 1 to 1 or worse but have played so many games they are up to rank 7. I'm always shocked when I'm running all over a level 7, having expected a tough game, until I check tha record later. lol