Marvel Rivals Fans Are Getting Sick Of Smurfing

Marvel Rivals can be a pretty fun game at times, though it really depends on exactly what mode you’re playing. For example, a Grandmaster player in ranked mode will have a lot more competitive matches, while someone stuck in Bronze will be having a much harder time. The lack of a ban phase is one big reason for that, but there’s another rising issue that’s starting to annoy a lot of players – smurfing.

For those that have never heard the term, this is a word used to describe players who are really good, but deliberately start new accounts or tank their own ranking to play against much less skilled opponents. It’s a common problem in online games, and one that a lot of Marvel Rivals players are starting to get intensely sick of.

Marvel Rivals Fans Are Getting Sick Of Smurfing

In a new post on the Marvel Rivals subreddit, a user called Westo6Besto9 described the smurfing situation as “out of control”, laying the blame at the foot of streamers. While not explicitly stated, this is most likely a dig at certain streamers that like to do “Unranked to Grandmaster” challenges – sometimes under the guise of being educational – in which they take a new account and play as a character they’ve never played before, and see how long it takes to get to Grandmaster rank.

The replies to Westo6Besto9’s post are full of other people complaining about how bad the smurfing situation is right now, with many recounting games against incredibly talented players at low level, including some that are at the lowest level possible to play ranked. For example, a player called Quietstormx1 shows evidence of a Jeff player that had sneaked into ranked by constantly losing against AI to level up quickly.

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Forget New Heroes, Marvel Rivals Needs To Implement Cross Progression

For a game with so much going for it, it’s a bit bizarre that it has this oversight.

It’s an issue that will likely never go away fully, but players are calling for features that could help ease the issue. For example, a user called TheJSP123 thinks that one of the main problems is that ranked starts in Bronze and players need to climb out, and that forcing people into placement matches before they start ranked would be a good way to at least weed the professional streamers out of the lower ranks.

It is a little surprising that Marvel Rivals has no placement matches in place at all, with competitors like Overwatch having had them for years beforehand. Hopefully, it’s something that NetEase is working on for next season, but we won’t know until that days comes.

Third-Person Shooter

Action

Multiplayer

Released

December 6, 2024

ESRB

T For Teen // Violence

Developer(s)

NetEase Games

Publisher(s)

NetEase Games