Re: Start Banning Smurfs
What everyone seems to be missing in this thread is that SBMM is broken for most people on their main accounts. There have been other detailed write ups, but in short, whatever data has been collected on people playing since day 1 puts them in games with people they stand no chance against.
When these same people make a new account, within about 5 matches or so they are placed against people who are actually similarly skilled and provide somewhat difficulty to play with.
I.E. on this account, i've been playing since launch, my KD is only about 1.2 and I am forever put in lobbies with 20 kill badge, 4k damage players who just wreck the entire lobby.
On my second account, I actually get put against people who (like me) sometimes forget to strafe, miss a reload or a weapon swap, or otherwise make an occasional mistake that can make or break the game. On average, my damage per game has gone way up but my kills per game is staying around the same. This tells me i'm getting put with players who are capable of healing and hiding and similarly skilled to me.
Everyone also seems to forget that, just because the person that wrecked your face seemed overly good, it doesn't necessarily mean they are a smurf. It is possible for people who play FPS every day of their life to give Apex a try and while they are playing their first few rounds, SBMM hasn't been able to properly put them with the necessary players equivalent to them because it hasn't figured out their capabilities yet but it will improve.
The other thing people forget is, we all have good games and we all have bad games. Maybe you have a really good game and get 9 kills and 2000 damage and SBMM bumps you up a tier into a new rank. Now you get your face stomped and you just assume these people are smurfs when in reality its likely just the same people who ran you over like a freight train on their way to that 'rung' on the SBMM ladder that you just got put in.
You cant always be put with people that are weaker than you. Think about the game from their point of view. They'd have a perpetual feeling of exact frustration you feel when you get run over, and ultimately they would leave.
Your logic to ban smurfs is illogical. Most of the smurfs are simply trying to climb the rungs of SBMM to play with people who are truly similarly skilled. You might get put with "smurfs" once and when they steamroll the lobby they get pushed up the ladder and with other people. It's part of the game, you cant assume a persons difficulty and positioning when there isn't enough data to place them properly. And to add to it, most "smurfs" are only creating "smurfs" because their main accounts are broken.
Some days you're the dog, and some days you're the fire hydrant.
