Marvel Rivals Cracks Down on Smurfing with New Report Option
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- Smurfing is officially a reportable offense in Marvel Rivals.
- The option to report smurfing is speculated to work on hardware specification.
- Cheaters are supposedly being successfully banned.
Marvel Rivals is reinforcing its stance on competitive integrity by condemning smurfing – which is the act of making a new account with the intent of playing with lower ranked players. Players can now report others for smurfing; the exact method of determining whether an account is a smurf has not been publicly revealed, but there have been multiple instances of successful ban implementations.
According to a messaging board, numerous players received HWID bans across their various accounts. HWID stands for hardware identification, and a HWID ban is a permanent restriction that prohibits the player from accessing the video game, even on a new computer or with a new account. The ban is connected to the unique hardware identifiers of the banned individual device.
Smurfing is included in “Negative Behavior” options within the report menu. Other negative behavior offenses include throwing, colluding, bussing, and exploiting bugs, all of which are considered cheating.
“Smurfs in Marvel Rivals are ruining the game. Seriously, I queue up for 10 matches, and at least 6 of them are filled with smurfs just farming low-rank players. It’s actually insane how common it is,” one player shared. The sentiment was shared by many others.
There are a handful of free skins readily available on Marvel Rivals. MarvelRivals.gg has instructions on how to acquire the mentioned costumes – clicking on the internal links within the ‘How to Get’ tab reveals articles detailing the appropriate step-by-step process to earn the free Marvel Rivals costumes.
Research by NewZoo states that 45% of Overwatch 2 players who stopped playing in December 2024 switched to Marvel Rivals.
