All you need to know about Smurfing

"Smurfing Gaming term: Entering your regular server under a different name so u can see whats going on without being recognized. In League of Legends, smurfing is an intentional act by an experienced player to gain personal benefits such as increasing referrals, playing with beginner friends, or make oneself feel better."


Before you say something along the lines of "omg hypershatter u smurfette noob", I ask you to read this article carefully and thoroughly with an open perspective. For the past months, I have been playing my smurf account every now and then. I figured none of my friends would have enough time and dedication to play an online game for more than a couple of hours before giving up, and spamming referral links on random forums isn't worth the time or effort.


What I have discovered from my days of smurfing is that smurfing exists in every game. How do I know other than seeing an enemy Master Yi getting 3 BF swords before 25minutes? If you see a player jungling, then he/she must be a smurf (we assume lvl 1 players dont know how to even lane properly). So now that I established the fact that every game contains at least 2 smurfs (one of them being you), let's move on to other aspects of smurfing.


Is smurfing the right thing to do?
Before I go further into detail, let's get this golden rule clear. Smurfing should not be justified. When you smurf, you are POSSIBLY  ruining the gameplay experience of other beginning players. But, let's be honest, who gives a shit? We know Riot doesn't, otherwise the "one account per IP" policy would have been established long ago. Furthermore, from what I have gathered, the ONLY players that complain in game about smurfing are - put your surprise face on - smurfs themselves or other MOBA experienced players. Also, with all the HoN and DoTA players joining LoL, the playing ground was never fair to begin with (they are BETTER in last hitting and zoning than a lot of the level 30s here). Another interesting I discovered lately is the amount of complaints about how a player would play with his/her beginner friends to teach them about LoL, but the enemy smurfs are ruining the game. I ask you this, WTF ARE YOU DOING then? Therefore. I say this once again, smurfing should not be justified.

Benefits of smurfing

Now that we have established that smurfing is not the right thing to do, let's go into detail ^^. Smurfing provides many benefits. One of them is NOT releasing your rage on noobs because you fail at lvl 30 games -smurfing, in this case, is a catalyst for your ass to get banned eventually.  

Why smurf?

-getting referral points and rewards

-freedom of testing out new champions with no hindrance

-play with your friends that are new to this game

1. Getting referral points and rewards

The rule of thumb in any online video game is, if there is no rule specifically stated and everyone is doing it, you cannot get punished for it. Countless players smurf to get referrals the easy way, and like I said before, Riot doesn't care. Laying down the laws at this point of game promotion does more harm than benefit. (of course they will never admit this).

Smurfing requires you to get to level 5 to earn the rewards. Rewards worth noting are a 4-win double IP boost for every completion of referral, and a free tier 3 champion upon the completion of 10 referrals. It's faster than playing on your main if you want to gain IP quickly. However, do realize that newbies don't know how to surrender, so every game is likely to end when the Nexus is blown up. But, who doesn't like getting 30 kills?

2. Freedom of testing new champions

If you are playing Nasus or Shaco for the first time in level 30 normals, very high chance you will feed hard and perhaps completing 2 core items at best (one of them is your boots!). Playing 10 games at least to even get decent and progress half way through your core build can be very frustrating and time consuming, not to mention the amount of trolling done to you making this game an absolute hell. Practice games are not useful either. Most players leave or AFK half way through knowing there are no penalties. Most games are played with 10% effort. There is no way to see how strong your character truly is.

Which brings us to smurfing. Although smurfing contains a lot of beginners, most of them try VERY HARD. Plus the fact that other smurfs always exist and HoN/DoTA players are decent at basics, you can test your champions out and face challenges whenever you are ready.  

3. Play with your beginner friends

Think of yourself as a white knight for your friends. Protect them against the trolls and other smurfs, teach them, and have fun.

Smurfing Etiquette 

If you decide to smurf, even though it probably isn't the right thing to do, follow some basic etiquettes to improve the gameplay experience for everyone.

1. don't try hard, chill

2. call out the other smurfs and go after them as a priority

3. don't troll/flame beginners, ever

4. teach other beginners how to play, even if it means you will lose a kill, last hitting, or dying because you are typing. give them tips and website guides.

Over 9000. DO NOT, DO NOT FKING PLAY GAREN.

good luck and have fun!