Valve has decided to crack down on all smurf accounts, and they’re tracing them back to the gamer’s main account for a little bit of extra punishment.
Smurfing, the act of creating a new game account in order to avoid playing against tougher opponents if you have a high-ranked main account, is now under the spotlight as Valve tries to one-up gamers who use this practice to cheat or play with toxic behaviour.
In a post titled “Smurfing is Not Welcome in Dota”, Valve mentions how they have already banned 90,000 smurf accounts and they have tracked “every single one” back to the main account holder.
They explain how, from now on, if your main account is found to be associated with a smurf account, you are liable to face punishments ranging from “temporary adjustments to behaviour scores to permanent account bans.”.
The team is focused on providing an even playing field to allow everyone to enjoy the game as best as possible by eliminating players that will stomp you in-game, run cheats without having their main accounts flagged, or just be toxic behind the anonymity of the internet.
Overall I think it’s a good idea to be cracking down on smurf accounts, I’ve had them ruin games for me quite a few times in the past and it completely sucks the joy out of gaming and if you’re sucking the joy out of gaming you deserve the punishment. Go Valve.