The smurfing problem that plagued Overwatch 2 has hit Marvel Rivals and players are already frustrated by how it’s affecting competitive.
Generally speaking, smurfs are high-level players who use alternate accounts so they can compete in lower-level ranked matches.
Smurfing quickly beset the competitive landscape in Overwatch 2 shortly after its launch, with “unranked to Grand Master” challenges becoming a popular – albeit controversial – brand of streaming content.
To the delight of players, an early 2025 blog post from Blizzard Entertainment detailed the company’s vow to crackdown on smurfing and the streaming channels that partake in it. Now Overwatch competitor Marvel Rivals is battling the same issue with its competitive ranked mode.
Marvel Rivals players worry that smurfing is already a problem
A user in the Marvel Rivals subreddit aired out their frustrations about stumbling upon a stream where a high-ranked player and their teammates were using alt accounts to “destroy silver lobbies” in competitive.
The Redditor went on to lament that the viewers poking fun at the situation in chat also calls into question the future health of the game.
Dozens of other users claimed they often encounter smurfs as well. One person said, “…I know smurfing isn’t a new thing but it feels especially bad in rivals right now. [In] almost 1 in 3 games, there’s a level 12-13 account in gold with 90+% win rate.”
Another player chimed in to say that two of the five ranked games they played recently included smurfs stomping out lower-level opponents. “There is no point in having a ranked mode if you’re constantly fighting people that aren’t your rank,” they added.
Naturally, players can’t help but wonder if and how NetEase Games will respond to the rapidly growing issue.
Valorant still struggles with smurfs despite Riot’s attempts to combat them and now Blizzard is tackling the issue head-on in Overwatch. As such, the Marvel Rivals community can only hope that NetEase acts before it’s too late.
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