In solo q I think I’ve encountered one meepo smurf which was painful, we spend entire match dealing easily with him and then he get aghs and it’s fucking impossible to do anything without a troll, witch doctor, lock, necro or bristle.

In party queue I often see 200 matches people playing like it’s TI in unranked

Much more common in party queue

I see them every 10-15 games on solo Q but sometimes it’s just seems like a bad player in the end

7kish mmr and have not encountered smurfs in a while (maybe 1 invoker smurf?)

Unfortunately there are account buyers but it’s true Smurfs are rare and it’s amazing.

Sometimes people just pop off for whatever reason. The only time I actually encounter Smurfs is in party queue, and it’s nonstop I swear. Party queue smurfing is RAMPANT.

Come play in 1k. Its boosterland

My theory is that the lower the behavior score the higher the chance of getting smurfs. Probably i’ve been encountering more because my bs is lowering

Here is a simple and semi-accurate Smurf presence test:

Look at the games you played over 6 months ago. You will see the guy who did really well is now 2000 mmr higher. Was that a Smurf? Probably.

Really depends on the time of day you Que, as well as your ability to analyze if someone is smurfing /account buying.

Also with the ability to hide games played, obviously you won’t see the smurfing as clearly

Lol this thread, can we just accept that there are still smurfs and boosters active.

I get a Tinker Smurf every once in a while from 2k-4k MMR for years now.

Here’s the match I had with this tinker player https://www.dotabuff.com/players/341361866. His 2nd tinker game 3 days ago literally went 30/1/21

Perhaps in your soloQs, sure. I play partyQ and 3/5 games will have an obvious smurf. And I’m the kind of person who gives someone credit when they play well.

But here’s what I see in most of my games in 4k partyQ:

1. <500 wins Ancient/Divine
2. <800 games played playing mid Invoker/OD
3. <25 level accounts being Divine/Ancient
4. 1 or 2 legit accounts with the rest of the party populated by smurfs (low amount of games played and still high rank)
5. Many times you can tell just by the movement. Low games played but having a very high APM zoning out our mid by standing between the waves etc. etc.

The uncommon games where everyone looks like a non-smurf account are some of the best games I’ve played (who woulda games where both sides have equal chances of winning would be fun).

So stop trying to pretend smurfs aren’t a problem. After the big smurf banwave, the next month was some of the best Dota games I’ve played where each account seemed to be normal. But now they’re back again, while yes, not all whining means they’re smurfs but there’s a huge amount that are, and there’s no need to downplay that fact.

Try playing mid to low tier AU and SEA then…

There’s about 50% of the time in my games, a player who seems infallible throughout the game and overall performing quite well who also happens to have a level 40 profile and less than 1000 games. People smurf like crazy in divine and immortal.