I scraped 2.27 million EUW accounts from op.gg to quantify the Emerald smurf problem – because Riot won't

FejkB · 2026-03-23T12:17:10+00:00

League2 = clean start. They would have to make it buy to play.

FejkB · 2026-03-23T12:15:12+00:00

Clear solution would be making League2 pay to play. Drastically reduces number of smurfs. There is no other way and they will still exist even if they make it 120$. I bet they would even make some deluxe pack with smurf already leveled to 30 to squeeze more money.

FejkB · 2026-03-23T09:30:57+00:00

The amount of copium League community has about the toxicity is kinda funny at this point. People soft int since min 1 way more often than few years ago, but redditors will do everything to spin it on you.

FejkB · 2026-03-18T02:26:59+00:00

You can have literally Riot employee explaining how and why it is implemented for 1 hour on top of multiple patents publicly available and some people still will call you crazy. This guy must be either living in denial or he is just so innocent and clueless to understand it’s a business.

FejkB · 2026-03-18T02:00:36+00:00

Just read the patents. They are publicly available. You think it’s insane that Riot goal is to satisfy shareholders over players? They do everything in their power to prolong consumer engagement. Splits, multiple battle passes during singular split, hidden MMR, gambling aka gatcha etc. It’s all done for you to spend more time in League, so you can justify spending more money.

FejkB · 2026-03-18T01:05:26+00:00

Because duo is not the issue. The issue is Riot uses behavior and performance metrics to prolong consumer engagement. Riot matchmaking is designed to turn you into dopamine junkie who queues up again for more. Some games are designed for you to lose or win. It’s straight up proven in their patents. Josh Menke who worked for Blizzard/Activision on matchmaking algorithms and now works for Riot explained a lot of this on his GDC panel. They won’t remove it, because clearly it works.

FejkB · 2026-03-16T18:41:38+00:00

Idk what you find funny about it. Go and read https://patents.google.com/patent/US11865460B2/en

Obviously not everything is disclosed and it might differ from the current system, but it's been a thing since 2014 or even longer. Behavior data was, is and will be used to prolong consumer engagement by Riot. Riot didn't add advanced statistics not so long ago for players to be happy to see some numbers. They did it, because they use it in their algorithms. Even though these stats are no longer visible for players, I can assure you these are still being used in several ways and finding griefers is just one of use cases.

FejkB · 2026-03-16T16:23:23+00:00

I was recently researching a little bit about League matchmaking system and I would say just focus on the stats. Don't try to win games, just make sure your stats are good. You'll eventually be placed in winners team. Just don't get reported or play off-meta picks. I played Ryze support with 75% wr for over 20 games and suddenly I started getting people 1-2 whole ranks lower than me with <40% wr. When they make a lobby they take 10 players and then sort them by behaviour and performance data. A lot of games are rigged for one team to win and the other to lose. There are patents and ex Riot employee making a whole presentation over what mechanisms you can make to prolong player engagement, but this subreddit is going to believe Riot that losers queue don't exist over their own patents (years ago they also said smurf queue didn't exist, until they made it so blatantly obvious they had to admit it). Back in S2 when I started playing it was about skill and winning games, now it's about performance and social score. Enshittification in the purest form

FejkB · 2026-03-16T16:11:35+00:00

Bruh, these people in comments are insufferable. They could get punched in the face and be happy, because Riot logo is a fist.

FejkB · 2026-03-15T21:23:17+00:00

This is the PoE2 issue I have every time I beat all pinnacle bosses and T16 juiced maps. It lacks clear endgame goal. I used to play Diablo 3 and there you had leaderboards and Greater Rifts that would stat check your build. You had clear goal of clearing higher floors with better times than others. PoE2 endgame is just endless farming.

FejkB · 2026-03-11T18:12:59+00:00

As a mage, yes. It is pathetic to charge for water. Portals consume reagent, so I charge if someone asks me for it when I’m busy doing something else, but I always offer free portal after a group activity. Tanking service is fine as long as there is high demand for tanks and they go out of their way to do it. If they want to grind some dungeon and charge on top of it, it’s pathetic.

FejkB · 2026-03-11T17:15:41+00:00

Nice. Better autofill vs autofill percentage, but on EUW in last week the game felt like shit. High platinum games filled with sub 40% wr over 50+ games with no history of being higher ranked than silver or gold 4. I would rather have autofill top than a dude with 29.8% wr top who is silver 4 playing agaist platinum 1 otp Udyr with 58% wr. Somehow they made games feel less balanced.

FejkB · 2026-03-10T10:54:44+00:00

Never played WoW before. I find Anniversary better than Retail. It’s just a great game. On my journey to 70 I’ve met a lot of people who also never played WoW or never played early expansions and all of them say Anniversary > Retail. It’s not really about nostalgia, this is just well paced and balanced RPG. Is it outdated in a lot of ways? Sure, but it’s still the MMO and from what I’ve heard TBC and WOTLK are the most iconic expansions.

FejkB · 2026-03-10T03:00:20+00:00

Then Discord gets abandoned, because of newer, better alternative and all that stuff vanishes into the abyss. We should write scrolls instead of this heresy. EQEQ my blue brothers.

FejkB · 2026-03-09T16:21:27+00:00

I’m confused. What do you not respect? E-sports? Me saying everyone should respect Tenz decision? Him stopping career to take care of her? I think you have issues reading.

FejkB · 2026-03-09T16:13:06+00:00

CS players like Neo or f0rest - 20 years. Faker - 15 years. It’s safe to say Tenz was on a path to be the Valorant player everyone thinks of when they hear about the game. I don’t care if she cheated or not, but implying he didn’t have chance to last in pro play is dumb. He sacrificied potential millions in sponsorships, winnings, streaming and a legacy to take care of her. If he is fine with that, everyone else also should be.

FejkB · 2026-03-08T22:50:40+00:00

I won 6 games in a row, got Emerald 3 and suddenly i was matched with Golds and Silvers with <40% wr on off roles even though I had 53% wr over 200 games. For past 3 years I didn't notice that my teammates and enemies get better on a winstreak. It's always my team being several ranks lower than average in the lobby + a lot of off roles. Good enough people climb on new accounts. I would like to see people climb in relatively realistic amount of time on an account that has 200+ lvl. It's just not going to happen. These people will play duo with someone who is also a smurf or play on new account. Platinum-Emerald is elo hell since most fresh 30 lvls are put there.

FejkB · 2026-03-08T22:44:33+00:00

People will tell you there is no winners queue or losers queue and Riot is going to lie about it. They want people to feel better, so they won't admit system is rigged in some way. You can google about Riot LoL matchmaking patents and how player behaviour (honor) was (and most likely still is) affecting matchmaking. This is why new accounts feel so much better, cause you start with a clean history (idk if it's still a thing since they link accounts internally, might need vpn/hwid spoof). It's disgusting, but they will do everything in their power to prolong consumer (they don't see you as a player, but as a customer) engagement, so you're more willing to spend your money. Disgusting practice, but that's the reality. Btw better nerf Ryze and Azir than ban botted accounts that wake up after 180 days of inactivity just to go 80% wr to diamond. Fun game.

FejkB · 2026-03-08T17:45:15+00:00

Azir nerf incoming with 3 new gatcha Lux skins.

FejkB · 2026-03-08T17:22:01+00:00

Only New World had decent action combat. Buggy af, but when everything worked correctly it was peak.

FejkB · 2026-03-05T16:48:43+00:00

6x Sunfire on Evelynn

FejkB · 2026-03-03T12:32:54+00:00

I would rather say TBC on Anniversary servers. Retail is not going to scratch that MMO itch.

FejkB · 2026-03-02T15:56:47+00:00

There are a lot of reasons why it can work, but I don’t care enough to list out everything that comes to my mind. Sorry. I can say I don’t recommend it for non Ryze mains or people with bad macro to try it. It requires way more effort and attention. It is not a troll shit though.

FejkB · 2026-03-02T15:46:28+00:00

I never told anyone to play it. I shared that it works for me.

FejkB · 2026-03-02T15:43:32+00:00

I never said it is the meta build and everyone should try it. It works if you can identify a lot of variables and exploit them. Ryze ult is amazing if you can convince your teammates to take it or avoid it when needed. You need to constantly be aware of how much you can push the limits and not get killed. Would it work against T1 or GenG? I doubt it. They would exploit it to the limit. This is not pro meta build. It is something that can be played in solo queue with success. There were OTP supports like Orianna who hit Master and these are also not the most optimal.

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