New Feature Idea : Educational Smurf Games

Windranger DOTA 2 Hero Warriors Ice

I am a pretty low MMR player, around 2.8k but I do enjoy watching videos of established pros / Good streamers smurfing and explaining what we could do better to improve the game as they are playing it.

I learn that way a lot more than watching videos.

What are the problems of smufing:
1. The opponents mostly end up losing MMR, which is a waste of time and it leads to frustration.
2. Some people just don't like losing.

Possible new feature:
1. Enable pros/established streamers with an ability to find a game in a set bracket range. Let's call this an Educational Smurf Game a.k.a ESG
2. Until the end of the game, none of the players would know that the game they are playing is an ESG. The Smurf account and player / streamer behind it is revealed in the end.
3. In the case the opponent team loses to the smurf
a. MMR is not lost – I like the idea that they are given the winning MMR for being a part of it as they still spent time playing it. Maybe if Valve doesn't want to give free MMR, there could be an option in settings, where the set the preference to be part of a ESG.
b. The loss is not counted. No streaks / other records broken would be counted in this scenario.
4. In the case the opponent team wins,
a. The team with the Smurf still loses MMR, the SMURF account loses something like 100 MMR.

Pros of this idea:
1. Amazing way for popular streamers to educate fellow players. Especially new players.
2. Nice way to increase interaction between established streamers/players. Players who lost can check the steamer's channel to see what they were doing wrong?
3. Might encourage more people to stream.
4. Everyone likes to have a chance of playing against really high MMR players / popular streams / pros.
5. Noone will probably lose MMR or other important stats.

Cons of this idea:
1. Probably difficult to implement.
2. Hard to get around the fact that few people might not like losing no matter what the fact is. – Maybe a search option with a preference setting is a work around ?
3. Who decides which are the accounts that get this access and on what basis?

Either way, just an idea. Could be even part of TI Battle Pass next year.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/nfiaaz/new_feature_idea_educational_smurf_games/

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