The game has no way of knowing that a player is a smurf so it distributes points at the end of the round as if both players were of equal skill. When a player gets totally demolished by a player of a similar rank, they usually take a big loss of points. This system would be the foundation of how other games’ ranked systems, like Overwatch, work today and is a big reason why gamers get salty when a smurf destroys them in-game. The online ranking system in Halo 2 was a fairly complex algorithm at the time that would factor in a round’s final result, while taking into account each player's individual ranks to decide how many points were awarded or lost. Eventually the 2004 release of Halo 2 would revolutionize online matchmaking and the first game-centric definition for “smurfing” was added to Urban Dictionary that same year.
Bungie / MicrosoftĪs the use of the internet became more commonplace, smurfing spread like wildfire. 'Halo 2' laid the foundations for modern-day online game matchmaking. Frazier was caught by surprise and lost early on, but Boyko was able to win in the end. In fact, in that same entry Fraizer tells the story of how he and Boyko joined a game with another smurf account by the name “Spiderman,” who was actually another skilled player in disguise. The practice and name quickly spread among early online gamers. Well we have lots of fun playing as smurfs.” He played as Spiderman making me think he sucked. “But the joke was on me because Zima pulled my own trick on me. We make them think we really suck and then beat them up,” wrote Fraizer in an entry dated March 8, 1996. “Warp and I enjoy making up names and playing people at War2. This is how both Frazier and Boyko chronicled the joys of their smurfing adventures.
Warcraft 2 didn’t come with any way for players to record and save replays, so diehard fans would take screenshots of their games’ results and blog about memorable games. The origins of Smurfingįraizer and Boyko smurfing in a game of 'Warcraft 2.' Shlonglor's War 2 Stories This running joke is all thanks to two gamers who decided to play a prank on their online opponents back in 1996 before online matchmaking for competitive games even existed. Nearly 96,000 Redditors have joined the IRL Smurfing subreddit where they share videos of musicians pretending to be bad at the guitar in a video chat room or veteran soccer players styling on some newbies.
#OVERWATCH ONLINE GAMING TV#
This genre of video is a riff on the reality TV show Celebrities Undercover and has been dubbed “ IRL Smurfing” on Reddit.
#OVERWATCH ONLINE GAMING PRO#
The internet has begun using the term as a catch-all phrase for when a pro pretends to be an amateur for a gag video. The term has also taken on a whole new meaning outside of gaming thanks to the popularity of Twitch streamers, like Turner “Tfue” Tenney and Félix “xQc” Lengyel, who smurf to entertain their audience. Fornite bans players who are caught smurfing, but League of Legends famously defended smurfing as a way for players to test unconventional strategies. To this day, smurfing falls in a grey area for many online games. Smurfing also runs counter to the basic function of most online games, where players rank up and compete against opponents at a similar skill level, making it harder for those less-skilled players to progress.
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