Earlier today Valve banned 90,000 Dota 2 accounts that have been found to be smurf accounts, which are typically accounts players will make to allow them to play at a lower skill level. Since then almost every major Dota 2 community hub, especially the sub-Reddit, has been filled with people either trying to justify their smurfing or claiming they never did, and it’s hilarious to finally see these people get some punishment.
In a blog post the Dota 2 dev team revealed that the 90,000 accounts were just smurf accounts that have been active in recent months, so are probably just a small percentage of the total number of smurf accounts ever used. They also revealed that they had traced every one of these accounts back to the main account of the person who used it, and they have all been sent a warning.
Going forward, any main account that is found to be associated with a smurf account will get some kind of punishment, that can be as small as adjustments to your behavior score through to outright account bans.
The smurf ban wave comes alongside a brand new behavior and reporting system which launched earlier this week with the Summer Client Update. Those changes were generally well-received by the community and are already paying off, just today I was notified for the first time that someone I had reported for being toxic had been punished.
However, the response to the smurf bans has been pretty different, mostly because all the smurfs seem to be complaining. The Dota 2 sub-Reddit is currently full of posts of people getting banned, or being warned against smurfing, who are trying to justify why they had to smurf so shouldn’t be banned, or claiming they never smurfed in the first place. Chances are, as Valve has been pretty good at identifying cheaters previously, the overwhelming majority of these people are guilty of smurfing and their tears are incredibly satisfying.
There is currently no news on what will happen to pro players who have been found to be using smurf accounts. A lot of top players and high-level streamers are known to use accounts other than their main, some for the purpose of smurfing and showing off, others to try and hide strategies they are working on for pro matches. Should Valve enforce this at all levels equally we could see some big names get some serious punishments.
Smurfing is nothing new in competitive games, and is typically difficult to identify. But Valve seems to have found a way and hopefully will keep banning smurfs until the problem is reduced.
As someone who is terrible at Dota it’s not uncommon to come across an obvious smurf in a game and it completely ruins the fun for all nine other players. Obviously playing against a smurf makes the game nearly unwinnable and no fun, but having a smurf on your team also takes out the fun because it becomes too easy and it feels like you have no impact on the game. With a game of Dota often taking an hour of your time, a single smurf can ruin nine hours of fun for others, so I have zero sympathy for anyone found smurfing.
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