One of the biggest issues that has plagued League of Legends in the past has been the use of smurf accounts—people playing in a lower rank than their real skill. Now, Riot Games is taking steps to combat this rampant problem with a new change in Patch 14.15.
From League Patch 14.15 onward, players will not only have to reach level 30 but must also complete 10 non-ranked Summoner’s Rift matches to unlock ranked queues. In this way, Riot’s system will be able to judge which accounts are being used by actual new players, used by smurfs, or being botted.
“Some legitimate new players use ARAM and Bots to level up and we do not get a good enough signal on their actual skill level,” lead gameplay designer Phroxzon said. “A reasonable amount of them also are alt accounts that we would like to place at their actual skill level, rather than erroneously placing too low and stomping everyone on the way up.”
These changes have been a long time coming, with plans being announced as far back as January. Along with the new 10-game requirement, Riot is working on Vanguard and other technologies to fight against accounts that are being leveled for the purpose of selling or boosting, which is another massive problem for the ranked grind at the moment.
These precautions are not foolproof since many people who level up and boost accounts can still take the extra time to reach the requirements. This should, however, discourage other players who want to make smurf accounts since it will take much more time to level an account to 30 and then complete 10 whole games of Summoner’s Rift.
Additionally, those players might not even be able to misrepresent their real rank by purposely throwing their games since the developers will be keeping an eye out for any unusual behavior from suspected smurfs.
