For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘smurfing’ refers to the act of using a low level character or account that is below that of your main accounts, to ensure that your opponents are of a level of skill significantly below your own. There’s some debate on whether people using accounts that are only a bit lower also counts, but the generally accepted definition means that it’s not a well-accepted practice among the main competitive gaming communities that exist. It strikes as very unsporting behaviour.

So no big surprise that an Overwatch pro player has come under fire for streaming himself not only doing it, but laughing about it while he was doing it, as well as commenting on their ineptitude compared to him. He even typed ‘I fak you’ into the chat to rub it in for his poor overwhelmed opponents.

The account used the alias IDDQ6, alleged to be a Swedish player known as IDDQD, and thus many outraged viewers have taken to the Overwatch forum to demand some sort of karmic payback for this show of sheer douchebagginess. The stream also went up on Youtube, and a number of the comments follow a similar line – making it very clear that the community does not think that the smurfing was in any way funny or entertaining.

Among suggestions for punishment, there has been a call from a few for ‘IDDQD’ to be permanently banned on all his accounts, with one of the top comments simply saying “Blizzard, wake up, he’s smurf streaming and you’re not banning him”

While I’m not sure a permaban is the right punishment, it’s up to Blizzard if they want to drop any sort of hammer to discourage this sort of gameplay for the future.