Do note that smurfing can be nearly impossible to detect.
Using alt accounts is allowed as far I'm allowed.
This means that a Predator player can get into a Bronze lobby on a new account, if their intent isn't to stay in that lower rank then it's not really against the rules.
Since it pretty much depends on the intentions of a player (Which unless we find some mind reading technology) it'll be quite hard to crack down on.
I'd say that reporting will do quite a lot, though note that manual bans can take a long time as they get a lot of reports per day, they do stack up.
@XHelperZ I don't think it's too difficult for hideouts to spot Smurf farmers fairly quickly in the stats, esp as you say along with reports too.
Farmers bot-wise are easy to detect, though any user-based gameplay could be considered hard to detect.
This account could either be an alternative account or just a really good player that switched to Apex.
You could theoretically say that if someone is suddenly playing better/worse that they're a smurf that's being boosted or that someone bought.
Though this could be hard in it's own aspects as you'd have to create a model to see what kind of stats would mimic such behaviour without any false positives.
Automation is pretty much out of the question (at least from what I can see with my own information), manual reporting becomes even harder as players can have good or bad days. (Though of course you can look over a larger portion of time)
Even then, I'd believe that it's not that easy.
If I'm being honest, I'm surprised that they even included "Smurfing" as a report reason as there isn't really any way for the player to know if a player is smurfing or playing on an alt account.
Playing on a new account to climb the ranks isn't exactly something that's against the rules as far I'm aware, this is just an alt account where someone is still trying their best.
Throwing down to a rank is considered smurfing, at least, that's how the definition of a smurf has been taught to me.
Though these new accounts for these challenges aren't really throwing games to stay low, they just create a new account. (Which technically causes less harm, though even so it does cause harm when they're climbing)
But do consider that even if a high ranked player doesn't play for 2 seasons, they could simply fall down to bronze whilst still performing really great once they come back.
It's not exactly bannable to do that, yet it still results in a massive skill disparity.
Personally I feel like the ranked system is flawed in this aspect as it technically makes it harder to detect if someone is intentionally trying to get into a lower rank.
(Though even if placement matches are used to put someone in a rank, it would still be subjective to consider if someone is smurfing or not, unless blatantly done)
Creating a new account doesn't really count as smurfing in my book as they're not throwing to stay low.
Yes it does still cause damage to other players and I think something must be done about this. (And it might seem like I'm just going on about the definition which would be trivial, trust me that's not my main point)
Though I feel like you can't really ban players for smurfing (especially not the way ranked is currently designed)
After all, detecting if someone is smurfing isn't something that can be done without mindreading.
There are blatant cases yes, though these just make up a small percentage of the playerbase.
And I mean, come on, we can't exactly start banning alt accounts.
(Even if it were to be attempted, I'd assume there would be many issues due to technical limitations for detecting it)
@XHelperZ I think hideouts has been very specific on what they are looking out for, regarding smurfs, and it's not bots. Bots is an entirely different issue.
This is still the current position on smurfing afaik from apex hideouts.
"So does this mean I can get banned for doing the “Solo to masters in all legend”?
" No. This is intended for players that abuse the system and create new accounts consistently to farm lower level lobbies. Having one smurf to do a grind like that will not get you banned"
https://mobile.twitter.com/rspn_hideouts/status/1390020385706364929
The question put to Conor was about a ranked challenge. He replied
"create new accounts consistently to farm lower level lobbies."
To me, it seems to be very specifically about banning farming pub or farming ranked smurfs, who are specifically and persistently wipeing out lower level lobbies for whatever reason. Not ranked challenge smurfs who are passing through.
I used to think all smurfing was bannable, until I saw Hideouts clarification. I don't know why such a distinction was made.
I think they probably are destroying noob lobbies at the beginning, but after a short while they are no longer in noob lobbies. You have to get to level 10 to start ranked, so you have to make some effort to get there quick and would get put on the top lobbies of whatever level you are at, because of that.
How many players actually do a ranked grind to master like that? Not that many I would think.
Idk but there must be a much bigger issue, visible in the data, with a larger number of players creating new accounts on a constant basis, purely to farm noob pub lobbies, constantly ruining those lobbies, probably to ruin the novice experience, much like trolling.
Would they put the effort in to get to level 10 before losing interest and starting afresh?
With the accounts being free, it seems to me to be more of a moral position that has been taken to try and protect genuine new players, as against hacks and bots etc which is imo actual cheating.
Ranked demotion itself creates a smurf issue, where I was recently stomped by a premade previous x2 season master trio in silver III.
Changing an account platform creates the same issue, with no cross progression.
Neither could be considered cheating imo.
Smurfing is frowned on but not a bannable offence unless in very specific circumstances, outlined above. I have learned its not a simple issue.
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