Since 2020, some players have been complaining even more than usual about Riot Games’ matchmaking, which they believe is broken and unfair. The existence of a parallel queue that would bring together certain player profilescalled SmurfQ has been mentioned many times, and although League of Legends publisher denies existence of such queuemore and more testimonials about him are accumulating on the various social networks.
Does the SmurfQ exist?
The answer is simple: yes and no. There is indeed a system in place since 2020 in certain regions, which consists of having players with not only a similar ranking, but also a similar MMR (your hidden ELO) compete against each other. It is for this reason that smurfs (new accounts created by an experienced player) quickly find themselves playing only among themselves. Riot Games does not deny the existence of such a system, but does not like the SmurfQ term which implies that it is a queue different from the classic queue. Smurfs are in the same queue as the Iron IV or Challenger, only as long as they haven’t reached their ELO, they almost only play among themselves, so as not to spoil the gaming experience of players from lower divisionswho don’t want to be run over by people much stronger than them.
Although it can be argued that Riot Games’ explanation plays a lot on words, to deny the existence of this SmurfQ, some arguments deserve to be taken into account. Already, an excellent player from a competing MOBA who would start League of Legends could experience the same things as a classic smurf, even though it is indeed his first account. And above all, because the existence of a special queue, would imply that certain players are not treated in the same way as the others, which would be bad publicity for League of Legends. And in fact, they are not really treated any differently. The matchmaking tries to be balanced, playing these “anomalities” (meaning player whose league does not match their actual level) with each other, but they don’t have a dedicated queue, it’s just that the classic queue takes this into account with the aim of everyone having an enjoyable gaming experience. Yes their game experience is different from a player in the same league, no they don’t have a special queue. Okay, now that we’ve split the hair and played on words to explain the difference between the official position of Riot Games, and the experience of the players, we’ll be able to get to the heart of the matter. By convention, we will continue in this article to refer to this gaming experience as SmurfQ, simply because calling it a different gaming experience based on the actual level of a given player would be extremely cumbersome to read.
SmurfQ Hell
There is a specific player profile for which this truncated gaming experience is going to cause big problems. These are players who were well ranked a few seasons ago and then stopped playing for a few years. If their ranking has been reset, their MMR has remained the same as when they left. These players therefore find themselves facing other people with a similar MMR to theirs, and who are in the same league. Only, these other people are generally smurfs, players whose main account is much better ranked, and who have not stopped the game. While the old ones try to find their reflexes, and to understand the novelties at the level of the map and the objects, the other players in the game are much sharper. Conclusion: the old ones are run over, do not have a pleasant gaming experience, any more than their teammates who have to deal with a person whose level of play is well below the average of that of the other participants in the game.
And their ordeal does not end there. Wait times to find a game are much longersince these profiles are quite rare, which does not help the gaming experience. They need a certain number of parts to get out of this SmurfQ and that the matchmaking adapts to their real level. The lucky ones talk about twenty games, while others mention a number of games between 50 and 60. With the average duration of a game, added to the time spent in queue and the draft phase, players returning to the game should spend between 17 and 50 hours before having an enjoyable experience.
It would be possible for them toremount an account, but that means losing skins, past achievements, and other memorabilia linked to the main account (not to mention the money invested in it). And also waste time going up to level 30 to access the ranked queue again. While the changes to matchmaking in 2020 are understandable, they can still be improved. A system that takes into account the time elapsed since the last ranked to artificially adjust the MMR could be a good thing. Unless it is a secondary account, which the owner has not used for a few years, while continuing to train on his main account. More than ever, the perfect formula seems very complicated to find.
esport-lol
ESPORTMANÍACOS definitely likes to throw cobblestones into the pond. After announcing in mid-2021 that an expansion of the LEC was to be expected on League of Legends – We are still awaiting confirmation – the Spanish media leaked a potential reseller with its price… Info or intox?