Dota 2 pros face matchmaking hell after Valve bans smurfing

Dota 2 Pros have found themselves under Valve’s ban hammer thanks to the company’s new hardline policy on smurfing.

Smurfing is the practice of high MMR-rated players creating alternative accounts to artificially lower their MMR ranking. It’s a practice that is widely frowned upon amongst the community.

Valve recently came down hard on the practice last year, banning around 90,000 accounts.

While smurfing negatively affects pub games, many Dota 2 pros are unable to play outside of scrims without a smurf account. Now, some pros are waiting over an hour to find a casual game.

Trying to play dota with my teammate @AceDota.
In the past we played together on smurfs, I won't defend smurfing, it's good that it's banned!

Are we allowed to play together outside of tournament games and team practice? 🥲@DOTA2 Please let us play the game together! pic.twitter.com/t3F1wrE56N

— Melchior Hillenkamp (@Seleri4096) January 17, 2024

“Are we allowed to play together outside of tournament games and team practice?” Gaiman Gladiator’s Captain, Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp, asked on Twitter. Tagging in Valve’s official Dota 2 account, too.

Dota 2 pros are obviously among the game’s highest-rated players, which means many of them struggle to find matches in public games. As the matchmaking system is designed to place you with players of a similar skill level, Dota 2 pros are having to wait hours to find a full team and opposition with a high enough MMR.

This has been causing them quite the headache if they ever want to play outside of official scrims and team practice sessions. Pro player’s smurf accounts have come under the hammer already too — including Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, whose smurf account had around 7000 hours of play.

how can we play dota 2 with friends if can’t find normal matches on a main acc and we can’t smurf❓

— Anathan Pham (@anadota99) December 19, 2023

Former OG player and two-time TI winner, Anathan “ana” Pham, was the first player to comment on this predicament back in December last year. According to him, even unranked matchmaking was problematic for pros.

But Valve doesn’t seem sympathetic to the problem. This means pro players who create smurf accounts or share accounts with others to play in pub games with friends or solo run the risk of getting hit with a VAC ban on their main account. This is exactly what happened to Steven “StingeR” Vargas — during his match against Thunder Awaken in the South American Qualifiers for DreamLeague Season 22 no less.

While there’s no place for smurfing in Dota 2, hopefully Valve can find a place for pro players in the game outside of the tournament system soon.