Valve banned a player. And it wasn’t just a ban — it was a ban for playing with a boosted account! In the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, that’s an actual event. Today, the CS.MONEY blog is going to tell you why it’s so important to get rid of all smurfs and boosted accounts.
Who are smurfs?
First, let’s make sure all the terms are clear. In this post, we are going to mention “smurfs,” “boost,” and “matchmaking” a lot. We’ll start off by explaining the meaning of these words.
A smurf isn’t only that little blue man in a white cap but also an actual pest! Smurfs are skillful players who deliberately play on accounts with a low rank. As you might’ve guessed, they have no problem beating all opponents and looking gorgeous in the process.
Boosts are actions aimed at rapidly increasing the account’s rank which compromise the normal practice of player queuing. Boosts are usually handled by special people who receive access to the account and quickly collect XPs.
Matchmaking is a player queuing system. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive uses a hidden rating for player selection. It’s calculated according to the Glicko-2 system, based on not only wins and losses but on a number of other factors as well.
The whole rating system is designed to make it difficult for the player to quickly change the rating. It’s a curious feature. We elaborated on Glicko-2 in another post — be sure to check it out.
Why is the queuing system so important?
We’re going to tell you everything in simple words. It’s a difficult match that’ll bring you the most fun. A few too easy matches might cheer you up, but you won’t get much fun out of such gameplay. It poses a problem.
The opposite situation is problematic too. If you’re unlucky to have a number of extremely demanding matches in a row, where you have to go to great lengths to win a single round like it’s a marathon, that’s sure to cause annoyance and frustration. As a result, you’ll have to buy a chill pill and take a rain check on that game for a couple of days.
Somewhere between “way too easy” and “abominably difficult,” there lies the perfect balance, the flow state. That’s the gameplay where the difficulty is predictable and conquerable. This kind of gameplay is the most enjoyable and makes you want to play one more game.
That’s why a sweaty match is the most satisfying — you’ll need (that’s the exact right word — need) to put in some effort to win. And definitely with a chance to win. Matchmaking is all about creating this manner of matches. Okay, it’s clear what the flow state means. But what does boosting have to do with that?
Why is boosting a bad thing?
Because this process spoils players’ lives. Thing is, there are two parties involved in boosting: the client and the executor. The latter gets access to the account and starts wreaking havoc in matches. For his teammates, he acts as a locomotive and makes their match “too easy.” For his opponents, he is a raid boss. To them, playing against such a whiz kid is an “abominably difficult” task.
As a result, while the executor is racking up XPs, he’s erasing the fun of the game for dozens of people in the process. But the problems do not end there. After he’s taken the much-coveted “Global” or the tenth level on FACEIT, the account returns to the owner. Who, obviously, isn’t capable of playing at the same level.
At this point, the opposite problem arises. The team of the player with the boosted account plays like there are only four of them, rendering the game “abominably difficult.” On the contrary, for their opponents, life becomes “too easy”, they just have to stay alert and not go AFK. In the end, one boosted account spoils the game for a whole bunch of people.
What do I do?
Finally, Valve resorted to banning. To deal with such “matchmaking pests,” regular users should complain to the developers. There’s already a post on the game’s subreddit where one of the players shared his success in this enterprise. So whenever you meet a guy who’s clearly playing much worse or better than they should be, contact Valve.
Another obvious tip: don’t order a boost or smurf. Besides simply ruining players’ lives, it’s also punishable. Transferring access to your account violates the Steam agreement and leads to a permanent and irreversible account block. That’s right, the profile gets completely blocked, forever. No access to your inventory and no way to regain it with stories about how you let your little brother play a little.
Also, you can just be glad. Valve have finally, almost ten years after the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, set out to clean up the matchmaking. The company has already proven itself in the crusade against cheaters. VACnet and Trust Factor have really worked. We only hope that the methods of fighting smurfs and boosted accounts will be equally good.
