Valorant dev responds to growing concerns over smurfing in ranked

With concerns growing about smurfing in competitive playlists in Valorant, one dev has responded, and explained how they’re tackling the issue, as well as how they plan to make it better.

Smurfing has been a common issue in most online competitive games. Players will make new accounts or tank their stats on their main ones, so as to queue up against lower-ranked and lesser-skilled players.

While many players do it, from casuals to highly-ranked pros and streamers, it’s something that both game devs and players want to weed out.

Clearly, though, that’s easier said than done.

Valorant dev confirms smurfing investigation

In response to a Reddit post on October 3, which called out smurfing and attempted to offer a solution, Riot’s senior competitive designer EvrMoar explained that the proposed solution was already in place.

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He explains that the system can sometimes detect within 5-10 games whether a player is playing outside of their actual rank or ability, and can adjust accordingly, hence why you’ll see weird anomalies like Bronze players in Diamond lobbies.

He also adds that “we are still working on our smurfing investigation, which is nearing completion,” adding that they are “talking solutions and how to tackle this.”

Admitting that “we understand realistically nothing will ‘solve’ smurfing,” players will at least be happy to see that it’s still being investigated and worked on to diminish as much as possible.

Before long, there should be a significant decrease in smurfs in ranked play, but there’s no timeline yet for when we can expect that to happen.