The development team of Valuing is very invested in communication on the measurements taken to improve the player experience. For some time the developers have been offering a series of articles on the Valorant systems health.
The latest, released on December 20, 2022, concerns game smurf detection. A particularly interesting and delicate subject, this article serves as a summary of the changes made to this system but also as a report to show players the results of the changes.
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Detection of smurfs on Valorant, results of updates
les smurfs or secondary accounts have been a bane for some time on all online games. Use to crush weaker players, make new accounts to allow yourself to be more toxic, sell boosting services or just play with less good friends, this phenomenon reduces Valorant's matchmaking efforts.
Riot explains in an article, which you can find in full on the official website, how to try to solve the problem. This consists of 3 parts:
- A point of definition on smurfs and why we need to talk about them.
- A summary of what has been done in terms of updates.
- A presentation of the results.
We will offer you a summary of the last two parts.
Solutions and updates already implemented
Two updates were implemented during theEpisode 5:
- Automatic detection of smurfs.
- Changes for teams of 5.
Regarding automatic detection Smurfs, Riot does not want to indicate their method so as not to make it easier for those who would like to override this system. However, the team conducted an experiment in North America in patch 5.01.
Two groups were created, a group of smurfs that was intentionally excluded from the detection system and a group of smurfs whose MMR was adjusted as quickly as possible. Next, the team counted the proportion of games being won by dominance (8+ rounds ahead) by each group.
We can see from this result graph that the group whose MMR was adjusted quickly reached a level of play in which they could no longer dominate the games. the smurf detection system so worked.
Today, if a smurf is detected by the system, it reaches its true level in about 4 parts, which is significantly faster than before.
Regarding changes for teams of 5, Riot had already allowed players of very disparate levels to play together from patch 3.10
Since this change, many more players play in teams of 5 and they allow themselves to play much more between different levels.
A risk of such a change is to make the games much more unbalanced. However, by having each player of course have their main accounts despite unbalanced levels, matchmaking can do its job and according to Riot Games, percentage of games finishing 13-10 (or even tighter) is bigger in groups of 5 than in the rest of the queues.
Results and future updates
Result of these updates: Riot estimates that the number of active smurfs has decreased by around 17% since these changes began in 3.10.
For the future, here are the points that the development team wants to improve:
- Refine smurf detection.
- Penalize account sharing and buying more effectively.
- Help players at different levels to play together if they want.
If you are interested in the article in its entirety, visit the Official website Game.
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