Popular Twitch streamer and former OWL pro Daniel ‘Dafran’ Francesca has players demanding consequences for smurfing in Overwatch 2 as the beta draws near.
Smurfing has been a major issue in Overwatch since the inception of ranked play. By creating another account and purposefully placing lower than your actual skill level, players are able to dominate certain ranks with ease.
This makes for unfun games and completely disrupts matchmaking. It’s an even bigger issue on console too, with players able to create new accounts without even having to buy another copy of the game, which is the case for PC.
Now, with Overwatch 2’s beta coming on April 26, players, including a reformed Dafran, are calling on Blizzard to do something about the smurfing problem.
Dafran leads charge against smurfing in Overwatch 2 beta
In a social media thread, the Danish DPS guru pleaded with the developers to take action against smurfs.
“Seriously, Overwatch has to do something about smurfs. Literally ruining matchmaking. I pray they will take some sort of action in Overwatch 2 somehow,” he said. “2 people literally ruined 4 of my matches today with their 100 smurf accounts and they do this EVERY DAY.”
Despite his demands, fans were quick to point out that Francesca himself was guilty of smurfing in the past, referencing how he partook in unranked to Top 500 challenges, where he annihilated lower-ranked players.
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Still, his words resonated with many and a thread began on Reddit with players echoing his sentiments.
https://twitter.com/CamboyYour/status/1508854926008627210
Overwatch players pitch smurf solutions
“They know of smurfing obviously, and they have mentioned it. But the reality is smurfing will likely never go away, and it’ll only become more common if the game goes F2P,” one user warned. “The best solution is to just fix the MMR/matchmaking system. Overwatch’s system is dogsh*t and needs to be addressed in a big way.”
“Smurfing has been giving Blizzard money, it’s the only way they are making money with the way the game currently is because no one has a reason to buy loot boxes,” another claimed.
Others felt that connecting phone numbers to accounts would be a good way to keep players at one account each, but it’s unclear if Blizzard will implement this in the sequel.
We’ll have to see what Blizzard has in store once the Overwatch 2 beta begins on April 26 and if the team has plans to counter smurfing in the future.
