Overwatch has always had an issue with smurfing in its competitive mode, which is where an incredibly skilled player makes a secondary account just to fly through the ranks, or to beat down on more unskilled players. While a vast majority of players find smurfing distasteful, it has not gone away, and a new exploit may make it even worse.
Shared by Twitter user Ricky MLG, if players leave all five of their placement games on a new account, they will automatically be placed in gold. This causes high-ranked teams to lose a massive amount of competitive points, usually 50+, for being beaten by a full team of smurfs. Further, upon winning against the team of fake Gold players, only 2-4 points will be gained. No matter how one looks at it, this glitch is far less fun than when Overwatch players were turned into doors.
The exploit is incredibly dangerous to the competitive ecosystem of Overwatch, as it not only makes competitive easier to smurf in, but also lowers the rewards gained for high level players when they do pull off a victory. Beyond that, it makes little sense for leavers to be rewarded by placing in Gold instantly, the middle-of-the-road tier where most Overwatch players reside. Blizzard updates the game frequently, even to make Mercy sing on Busan, so hopefully a legitimate problem such as this is fixed as soon as possible.
This exploit should be top priority for Blizzard, along with reworks of certain heroes, as Overwatch's massive player base will be less inclined to put their time into the game if they feel as if the experience is unfair. Beyond that, these issues need to be fixed long before Overwatch 2 releases, as the sequel launching with more smurfing problems than usual could be dangerous for its long-term success. However, while the glitch clearly needs to be rectified, it raises the question of what exactly should be done about leavers in placement games.
Blizzard is in a tough place here, as leavers no doubt deserve to be punished. There is almost nothing more frustrating in a game of Overwatch than when a teammate backs out of the game early, but a heavy punishment plays directly into the hands of smurfs. They want to be knocked down to lower ranks anyway, so doing so would hardly be a punishment. Blizzard could do away with placements, though that would mostly defeat the purpose of different seasons for competitive play. Not counting left games is another flawed concept, as it enables endless opportunities for griefing to keep people stuck in placements.
When a fix will come is unclear, though it will likely be after the conclusion of the Summer Games 2020 event. What exactly Blizzard does going forward regarding this problem also remains to be seen, but it’s no doubt in a tough place. Seasonal bans could be handed out to placement game leavers, or Blizzard could simply stop allowing extra purchases of the game. The latter seems unlikely, though, ensuring that some form of smurfing will likely always be a part of Overwatch.
Overwatch is available on the Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.