Overwatch smurfs making matches “unplayable” post-Winter Sale influx

A new wave of Overwatch smurf accounts following the Christmas sale is rendering the game “unplayable” for players across the ranked leaderboard.

There are two types of players that the gaming sphere isn’t particularly fond of: cheaters and smurfs. While the former speaks for itself, the latter refers to high level players who create new accounts in order to be matched with lower-level players.

Of course, this means that they’ll likely demolish the competition, ruining games for those at the bottom end of the ranked spectrum and stifling their progression up the ladder.

It turns out that the post-Christmas sale period has seemingly seen a whole slew of smurfs returning to Overwatch, and they’re causing havoc in games from bronze to platinum.

Overwatch smurfs are back in style

Following Blizzard’s festive season sale, players have noticed an influx of higher-level players posing as Bronze-ranked ones.

• Read More: Overwatch players discover “crazy potential” of Cassidy’s new ‘Air Roll’ ability

“Overwatch’s low rank is almost unplayable right now,” seethes one fan. “After the recent winter sales the number of smurfs increased disproportionately. It’s impossible to play a game and not have one or two smurfs on the opposing team.

“It’s frustrating, the only people left who buy this game are people who already play it. High Elo smurfs are the ones who spend the money to get more accounts. Out of 10 games I played yesterday, one didn’t have smurfs.

Concluding that they “can’t deal with this anymore,” they state that “it’s really ruining the fun for me and I bet for many others, but Blizzard will do nothing.”

It turns out, though, that smurfs have managed to worm their way into the game’s higher ranks, including Platinum.

“What do you mean by low rank?” asks one player. “Platinum has been worse than usual these last few months. It feels like rolling a dice. I would say I get smurfs on either my team or enemy or both teams at least 40%-50% of the time.” Another echoes this, writing “Platinum is surprisingly more Elo hell than gold. Just wait. The smurfs there are people who are hardcore DPS carrying a Mercy to Diamond/Masters.”

It seems like the sales are largely the root of the issue, with one fan commenting “even in quick play classic I find that every time Blizzard runs a sale matchmaking is just broken and for the next little while the game becomes a lot less fun.”

Whether Blizzard bring down the ban hammer on these players remains to be seen, however whatever they choose to do, they’ll have to do it quickly.