Overwatch players want Blizzard to start banning smurfs like Dota 2

Smurfs have become incredibly common in Overwatch over the years and many players are now calling on Blizzard to copy Dota 2 and start banning them.

In video games, smurfing happens when players make alternate accounts to play on. Sometimes this is done in an attempt to focus on different heroes, purposefully throw to get a lower rank to play with friends or just not take the game as seriously.

As such, it seems like almost every game features at least one player not on their main account. This often leads to frustration from those on the receiving end of nonstop Widowmaker headshots from a Grandmaster DPS queuing in Gold.

On PC, players are required to purchase a new game if they want to smurf, but on console, all players need to do is just make a new system account. This has made the issue of smurfing a major one on console as it costs nothing to do so.

Now, with Dota 2 announcing that smurfing is a bannable offense, many within the Overwatch community are calling on Blizzard to follow suit.

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On the Competitive Overwatch Reddit, a post suggesting Blizzard copy Dota’s policies is gaining traction.

“As someone who has climbed the ranks from starting as a genuine Bronze player to being Top 500 towards the end of my career. I can confidently say that Smurfing sucks at all ranks and ruins the quality of games dramatically,” one player wrote.

Others agreed, and called on Blizzard to start banning those who smurf. “Yup across the board. Get em out,” remarked another.

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“In general if we want a healthy player base with new people able to come in and learn the game to keep a reasonable size or players, we likely need some mitigation of people playing outside their actual skill level, and banning smurfs might be a part of that,” another stated.

Meanwhile, similar discussions happened on the official Blizzard forums with users calling for a ban on smurfs, but felt that it was unlikely the company would act.

“It’s too sensible for Activision so…it probably won’t ever happen,” one user joked.

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Even users with multiple accounts agreed. “I have 10 smurfs across both PC and Console at this point, and I genuinely want smurfing to be bannable. It ruins literally, countless games, and discourages regular players from playing Comp at all.”

It will be interesting to see if Blizzard has some sort of smurf plan in place once Overwatch 2 launches, but for the time being, the company hasn’t responded to calls for the ban on smurfs plaguing the ranked scene.