'Cease this behaviour immediately': Marvel Rivals is finally punishing smurfs by forcing them—and some innocent players—to smurf

There's been a serious smurf infestation in Marvel Rivals for some time now, and sadly, I'm not talking about the little blue guys. I can't remember when it all started, but it's one of the many problems that came over from Overwatch, as streamers started doing bronze to GM trend videos.

This saw everyone and their mum buy a new account with the intention of ranking it as high as possible. Even if players could pass Diamond, it meant that bronze lobbies were full of people who shouldn't be there, resulting in poor bronze players getting curb-stomped on a regular basis.

NetEase has been aware of this issue from day one—it'd be hard to avoid, as all the top streamers are or have been doing something like this. But over the last few months, it seems as if there's been a dedicated push to discourage smurfing.

Earlier this week, the Marvel Rivals streamer known as ottr got a penalty notice during a Spider-Man to Celestial run: "The system has detected that you have recently been smurfing. We urge you to cease this behaviour immediately. If you continue down this path, we will impose further penalties."

The further penalties will likely just mean a ban of varying lengths, or, as one player found out, a season ban and a rank reset, which means they'll have to start from bronze next season. Wait, what? So, to punish people for smurfing NetEase is going to make them smurf. An ingenious plan, I can in no way see this backfiring or becoming ineffective.

Banned until end of season for "smurfing" even though I am a returning player who deranked due to inactivity. from r/marvelrivals

I think that NetEase should go the other way with this punishment, and throw all of those found guilty straight into Eternity matches, see how fun it is then. Bronze to GM is overplayed anyway, I want to see more GM to Bronze runs.

A season ban is a good place to start, though, but the only problem with this penalty is that the player in question didn't actually do the crime. "Banned until end of season for smurfing even though I am a returning player who deranked due to inactivity," poorF2Pnoob says. "I am a returning player who has not played the game since S1.0. I deranked from Celestial to Diamond to Gold or Silver.

"I played a couple of games with some friends and got slapped with an hour suspension for smurfing. When I tried to log on later, the suspension got extended by itself, and this morning, when I woke up, I saw that I am banned until the end of the season."

Maybe it's my brain that's too small, maybe I can't see the whole picture. It could be that this is another genius plan to ensure no one ever stops playing Marvel Rivals to avoid their account deranking via inactivity. Although that would be incredibly unfair, especially considering how much of a slog it is to play Marvel Rivals competitive games.

All things considered, Marvel Rivals ranked isn't in a great place right now. Smurfing is an annoying part of that, which fills lobbies with higher-ranked players that beat you up and throw you away like yesterday's trash. It's also a lot more prevalent here than in other competitive games.

There are also issues with hero balance, as more overpowered characters join the ranks and get buffed and nerfed with fun as the priority, which causes balance to suffer. And the new chrono shield card items have messed up ranked, as it gives players a free pass to lose, meaning that people rank up higher than they should be. Nothing feels like it's in the right place, which is indescribably irritating for a competitive game.

But all things considered, it's good that there's finally some proper penalties for smurfing being dished out. I'm not entirely convinced that they'll amount to anything, as it's so easy to make new accounts in a free-to-play game, but it's worth a shot.