4Game

The title didn't happen in the same game, but it was like every other game when it was the worst.

Just want to chime in on the whole smurfing conversation with my experience as a relatively new player. I started playing 2 years ago and currently have a bit more than 1k games in total. Having played the original Dota and tons of other competitive games, I climbed quickly in a small number of games (got Ancient 5 with 200+ ranked games, now Div 3 with 500) and was flagged as a smurf by Overwolf. That led me to some very polarized ranked social experience.

In many games around Legend/Ancient, I got easily accused of being a smurf by the opponent team both when I'm winning/losing. Obviously, they'd accuse me of being a smurf when they're losing, or try to make fun of me with "smurf and lost" when winning. In the beginning I tried to argue with "who smurf as a support main" but in the end I just don't care.

What annoyed me more is that my teammates would accuse me being an acc buyer when I play bad. And I have a lot of bad games – I can learn fast but I have little experience in various ways (different heroes, situations, etc) and Dota is so complex. That feeling is the worst when someone tries to nullify your honest Dota career by judging only one performance, especially from your teammates who you try really hard to work with.

All anecdotal, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, there's another side to the smurf coin. People feel powerful and morally validated when they eagerly victimize themselves and accuse someone on the smurf spectrum. Not everyone who climbs fast is a smurf and not every "good" account who plays bad is an acc buyer. It's just as toxic to make the assumption.

Edit: https://www.dotabuff.com/players/51898226