Smurfing has been a part of League of Legends for as long as the game has been around. The term, for those unaware, has to do with players creating alternate accounts to play, which hampers ranked matches because high-ranking players may as well be matched against low-ranking ones during their climb. This climb through the rankings, though, has gotten longer in recent seasons, something that Riot Games states was an intentional move.
Responding to a player on Twitter earlier today, the developer noted that players are encouraged to stick to their main accounts in League of Legends. Smurfing is not something that Riot Games supports and making the rank system more taxing was in a bid to have players shy away from making alternate accounts.
The climb takes a lot longer now. This is intentional. We really don’t want players creating alt accounts just to blow through the climb. We encourage players to stay on their mains. Smurfing ruins the game experience for others. ~Yadon
— Riot Games Support (@RiotSupport) February 17, 2020
Some years back, it was easier for highly skilled players to breeze through the lower rungs of the ladder and reach their desired rank placements in League of Legends. Now, the same process takes a bit longer. The changes to the system mean MMR will go up at the same pace, while rank will take longer to catch up. In a way, Riot Games is right in the sense that the added frustration from playing more will persuade players to stick to their main accounts. However, at the same time, regular players just trying to rank up will have a tougher time.
In either case, Riot Games is yet to find any plausible solution against smurfing in League of Legends. Hence, like it or not, smurfing is here to stay, at least until the developer finds a way to detect and ban secondary accounts in automated fashion.
Elsewhere, Riot Games has decided to employ a new anti-cheat system against the ever-growing number of cheaters and cheat-developers for League of Legends. The game will now be using kernel drivers to fight against third-party injections at the core of an operating system. Since Riot Games is moving to multiple games, the developer deemed it best to protect all of its properties with a single, robust, and evolved anti-cheat system. Hence, the new kernel drivers will not only be safeguarding League of Legends but other projects as well.
