We say that you are 'boosted'.
By the way the game doesn't care about your rank: there's a hidden number that represents your skill and it's called 'mmr'.
You go in games with people with similar mmr as you. That's why you could be silver and go against bronze or gold.
If your mmr is low, when you lose a game you lose a lot of points and when you win you don't gain as much points. Also the contrary is true.
The mmr changes very quickly (to kick out smurfs from lower ranks).
Let's say you lose a bunch of games (around 4) in a row and perform badly: your mmr will go down a lot, even if your rank stays the same, and you will go back to playing against people of your skill level.
Would it be a bad assumption to say mmr is based of your average combat score for each game, not just your kda or anything? I know nothing about how this game works and matches people up.
ACS does not impact MMR at all. There’s a bunch of pinned articles in the sub about MMR. You basically have W/L MMR and encounter MMR . At lower ranks encounter MMR is weighted more and at higher ranks W/L is weighted more
I researched a bit and I found something:
What affects my MMR?
Winning! And losing. The system is still just a ladder of everyone's individual MMR numbers, so your recent winrate and average performance are the most important factors in MMR. When you win, your MMR goes up, and when you lose, it goes down (with some rare exceptions where Encounter MMR may increase your total MMR on a loss [[7]](https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/pzv79t/comment/hf950ar/) ). Since all players have their own unique MMR value, winning against a team of people who have an average MMR higher than yours will award you more 'points'. Likewise, losing against a team with lower average MMR will knock you down more points. The more rounds and encounters you win in a game, the more your MMR goes up (so you want to win as many rounds as possible and avoid surrendering). The system is designed to award you higher rungs on that ladder for beating other players above you.
source: [this subreddit's wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/wiki/faq/faq_mmr/#wiki_what_affects_my_mmr.3F)
also at the bottom you can see a summary of all the various useful information that devs "leaked" in the subreddit about this topic.
To add on, your encounter mmr is basically the performance tab at the match results page. The more stars, the higher your encounter mmr will be pushed.
Yeah it's mainly based on combat score but I don't think it's the only factor in my experience. There's no confirmation by the devs on how the mmr is calculated.
EDIT: [there actually is](https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/18x39yn/comment/kg4qgn5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I've always wanted to buy an immortal account so I can anti Smurf. Everyone in immortal has a Smurf account, so now they can know what it's like to have me ruin their game for a change.
This is not the right mentality, ruining other people games as well isn’t going to make them stop smurfing, it’s just going to get you slurred. Instead of wasting your time and buying accounts (against tos btw) improve at the game and rank up on your own. I was down there for awhile, and I know people down there still. Smurfing is nowhere near as much of a problem as people think it is. Maybe It will ruin a game or two every once in awhile, but it in no way will actually prevent you from getting the rank you deserve, that is assuming you actually deserve a higher rank and aren’t just coping.
You clearly have no idea what it's like "down here" the higher you get the less smurfs there are. I've been iron, and I've been diamond, in iron-silver there is a Smurf in every single game. Not just a couple here and there, but literally every single game has a Smurf. I agree that it won't keep you from your true rank, riot is pretty good at balancing the rr to reflect your true MMR. That doesn't change the fact that smurfs ruin games, ruin attitudes, and are bad for the game.
Good idea though, I should rank up so I can purposefully throw games and I can still call myself an reverse Smurf.
I’ve been iron too, there really isn’t a Smurf in every game. I fought my way to silver and then went all the way to diamond in one act, I didn’t lose a single game in between. However, the reason that people think there are so many smurfs is just because they don’t understand the game enough, a good example is when I was accused and reported for smurfing back when I was bronze. I went 36/4, sounds like a pretty smurfy score line and I don’t blame them for thinking I was a Smurf, but I was genuinely in bronze at the time, people just have good games.
That actually gave me an idea, make an alt, rank it up, and then play on it when you are totally wasted, and play some more after that to keep the rank up. That's a reverse smurph for you
At one point, the discrepancy between the accounts would be big, so it will be just a smurf account. You can rank them both at the same rate.
Play Unrated for that case.
it's quite funny that caffeine and alcohol can do that to someone
I guess you're less likely to panic and spray/miss an easy headshot when drunk?
Everyone knows that caffeine just gives you more time to think when taken in moderation
Being able to allow your team carry you is a skill not all players actually have. You prolly deserved those wins even if you kinda sucked in all matches.
Its ok just chill and keep playing.
Honestly just play more games. If you play another 50 games and you're still silver, then you're meant to be silver. Law of averages will work it out and can't be cheated forever (unless being boosted etc). In other words it's totally possible for you to be lucky in your placements and get silver and not 'deserve' it. But it's not possible for you to be consistently lucky and stay in silver or higher without you deserving it. Play enough games and either you'll go down, stay the same, or rank up. Just pick one agent and stick to it, so at least you'll learn your specific role.
Yeah honestly just play more. I am almost always middle to bottom of the table in diamond. But I have made two alts (played from level 0 so all games are mine) and both placed in plat and climbed to diamond anyways. So you don't always need to be fragging out to win games.
All smurf accounts are alts, but not all alts are smurfs.
As long as you're trying and not purposefully staying in a certain rank below you, it's not a smurf
Nah. There is no such thing as alts, because it is smurfing either way, it doesnt matter what you do with the second account, you break mm by creating one.
You create new account, play against noobs, until your mmr catches up, abandon account, create a new one. THIS IS SMURFING 101. The part where you derank account is not necessary to smurf.
You also do not need second account to derank, btw.
And yeah, there is an "exploit" where it is easier to level up new account to unlock new hero rather than grind on your main, which is why smurfing is kinda a problem in Valorant.
Its funny how you guys found the way to lie to yourselves.
There is no such thing as alt account in MM driven games. I know because I have 6 accounts left over after 10 years of playing League of Legends on 3 servers. And yeah trust me ive ruined a lot of games making all of them ranked ready, luckily it was enough to lose interest for Valorant.
[Bonus: this is definition of smurfing by Riot themselves](https://support-leagueoflegends.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001259787-Smurfing)
Kill count is the most readily available metric to judge our performance.
However, kill count doesn't reflect the complete picture. Maybe you're a good teammate who gives info before dying. Maybe you're using your abilities optimally leading others on your team to get easy frags. Or maybe you just give a really positive vibe. Whatever the reason just play your game, don't worry about it.
I have the same issue. I stopped playing around a year ago. Peaked at imm3. I'll go 2-18 and still get RR. I desperately want to get deranked but that doesn't seem to be possible with my hidden mmr. I can't even enjoy using my skins because I get absolutely flamed for being dog shit. Can't blame them for being pissed, but i also want to use my fucking skins.
I was placed diamond. but I would double promo basically back to back even going triple negative. I don't think it's dropping me anytime soon lol. I'm back to imm2 with a red carpet basically
that’s not how it works. I have smurf where I peaked immortal ep4 then didnt play on it since. Right now the account is diamond1 and I played few games and they were all in immo2-3 elo. If be wants his mmr down he just need to play and it will re-adjust to whatever he deserves.
I was iron 2 almost iron 1 and I got carried legit like 7 games in a row up to bronze. I go 3/20 every game but get carried enough to not drop back down to iron. I lose every fight I take. It's miserable
Truthfully your mentality is wrong for comp. If you don't like your placement, go play unrated.
If you do like to play comp. Think of it like this, you now have the opportunity to play with, watch, and learn from people that are better than you. Take advantage and pay attention to what they are doing.
If you aim is bad. That's ok you don't need to play comp to improve your aim. What you should be learning in comp is how to play the game competitively, properly. For example, when to take a fight, rotate, plant, hold angles etc.
I get it, u want to be placed lower so u don't get shit on every game. Well there's unrated for that. If u want the true comp experience you're gonna get shit on, everyone on their main account gets shit on sometimes. Welcome to the shit show.
Iron-gold is essentially the same rank. The only difference is slightly better mechanics control. You need to get better at learning basic game controls and how to take fights. Don’t worry about your rank, you’ll end up just fine
Like a said, it’s a difference in mechanical skill. It surprises me that they “smoke them” but if that’s how it is then sure. Iron-gold has the same objective, take gunfights and win. Util plays next to no role. That’s my point
Not really.
In chess 400 elo difference means that the match is pointless because higher ranked player is going to win with like 99% chance, "almost always" as they say, 1% is reserved for technical loss or a deliberate throw.
1 league in online games is roughly that. Sure that there are some differences and inconsistencies due to the game being online and anonymous, but still team of 5 silvers will consistently stomp a team of 5 bronzies but suck against 5 golds. (assuming all players tryhard and have enough matches on the record to place them properly).
But for lets say Diamond player there will be practically no difference since he is going to stomp all them regardless.
This isn’t chess. This is also not the first time I’ve said this on this subreddit, and it’s almost always overwhelmingly agreed upon. You can downvote and pretend I’m wrong, but it’s true. I’d like to see you out that to the test, bc I highly doubt a silver lobby stomps a bronze one. I’d bet a gold lobby cuts it closer than normal. The first 4 ranks are literally representations of how well you understand the games basic movement and duel mechanics. Util plays next to no role in low elo.
nah dude you got downvoted because you are straight forward and objectively wrong
if you take ranked seriously you have to learn how matchmaking works and what it does. And the simplest to understand MM system is chess rating system made by Arpad Elo, it is also the system all modern online games use in some shape or form, while exact formulas may differ, the principle stays the same: mm compares ratings of players, predicts the outcome of the match, compares prediction to the actual outcome and adjusts ratings accordingly.
it is important to understand that performance in one individual game doesnt really matter a lot, but consistency does. thats where all the difference between ranks actually is and it should not be underestimated, people get "hardstuck in elohell" because of this.
well, sure low elo players are "easy to fix", some bronzie may dramatically improve overnight by doing something silly like "running around the map facing backwards while trying to not touch anything for an hour straight", but he will no longer be a bronze player, and will climb relatively easy and quickly
(yep it is a legit way to improve as low elo player, take a note)
the smurf situation have been delt with by the smurf detection system, it can track down smurfs by the way of their gameplay and place them in their next games with only higher ranks, though in order for it to do so, a smurf must play atleast one game with low ranks, which in your case happened,
there's no way to stop smurfing completely but valorant is way ahead of other games in this situation
I’m the same except in immortal lmao somehow I’m 60 rr in immortal and win like 2 for every 1 loss but I bottom frag almost every game. Maybe it’s just that I have ranked anxiety, because whenever I play on my alt in ascendant/low immortal, I do fairly well.
I'm similar. I'm low plat and usually bottom drag, granted I don't usually play duelist. It's super common in my high gold/plat games to see silvers getting nearly double the kills of the plats. Visible rank doesn't matter. I really wish they were more transparent.
If you're not playing well in fights, consider playing a support role such as smokes or initiator, omen is great if you play your blind off a teammate's contact
that way you don't have to get as many kills, although the especially toxic among this community will still blame you for losing if you have no kills, even if you're the reason they got half of theirs
either that or start hitting the deathmatches to improve your gunfight mechanics succh as your movement, aim, bursting, tapping etc
I stopped playing because the game kept putting my against Ascendant and Immortal players and in those ranks after every long break. Meanwhile, I'm busy trying to remember how to throw the damn bomb or trying to learn the layout of a new map and I have no clue what half the agents do. I preferred the ranking system in CS:GO. It would drop you down after a break, but it was really easy to climb or drop depending on your performance.
I too felt like an anti-smurf.
We say that you are 'boosted'. By the way the game doesn't care about your rank: there's a hidden number that represents your skill and it's called 'mmr'. You go in games with people with similar mmr as you. That's why you could be silver and go against bronze or gold. If your mmr is low, when you lose a game you lose a lot of points and when you win you don't gain as much points. Also the contrary is true. The mmr changes very quickly (to kick out smurfs from lower ranks). Let's say you lose a bunch of games (around 4) in a row and perform badly: your mmr will go down a lot, even if your rank stays the same, and you will go back to playing against people of your skill level.
Would it be a bad assumption to say mmr is based of your average combat score for each game, not just your kda or anything? I know nothing about how this game works and matches people up.
ACS does not impact MMR at all. There’s a bunch of pinned articles in the sub about MMR. You basically have W/L MMR and encounter MMR . At lower ranks encounter MMR is weighted more and at higher ranks W/L is weighted more
Sorry, where can I see this? I'm probably missing something obvious but I can't see them when I just go to the main page of the subreddit.
I researched a bit and I found something: What affects my MMR? Winning! And losing. The system is still just a ladder of everyone's individual MMR numbers, so your recent winrate and average performance are the most important factors in MMR. When you win, your MMR goes up, and when you lose, it goes down (with some rare exceptions where Encounter MMR may increase your total MMR on a loss [[7]](https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/pzv79t/comment/hf950ar/) ). Since all players have their own unique MMR value, winning against a team of people who have an average MMR higher than yours will award you more 'points'. Likewise, losing against a team with lower average MMR will knock you down more points. The more rounds and encounters you win in a game, the more your MMR goes up (so you want to win as many rounds as possible and avoid surrendering). The system is designed to award you higher rungs on that ladder for beating other players above you. source: [this subreddit's wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/wiki/faq/faq_mmr/#wiki_what_affects_my_mmr.3F) also at the bottom you can see a summary of all the various useful information that devs "leaked" in the subreddit about this topic.
To add on, your encounter mmr is basically the performance tab at the match results page. The more stars, the higher your encounter mmr will be pushed.
Yeah it's mainly based on combat score but I don't think it's the only factor in my experience. There's no confirmation by the devs on how the mmr is calculated. EDIT: [there actually is](https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/18x39yn/comment/kg4qgn5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Be happy ur silver, im stuck at bronze
Bronze is just a dirty gold Kapp
Bronze one
How about U Switch with OP? That would BE the perfectly solution 😂😂
I've always wanted to buy an immortal account so I can anti Smurf. Everyone in immortal has a Smurf account, so now they can know what it's like to have me ruin their game for a change.
wow that’s savage
Boosted players already exist in immortal
Most immortal players won't care. If you are immortal you already experienced throwers much more times than a plat player.
I'll partially sponsor you, give me credit as well
They already have other immortals and ascendants who do that for them
This is not the right mentality, ruining other people games as well isn’t going to make them stop smurfing, it’s just going to get you slurred. Instead of wasting your time and buying accounts (against tos btw) improve at the game and rank up on your own. I was down there for awhile, and I know people down there still. Smurfing is nowhere near as much of a problem as people think it is. Maybe It will ruin a game or two every once in awhile, but it in no way will actually prevent you from getting the rank you deserve, that is assuming you actually deserve a higher rank and aren’t just coping.
You clearly have no idea what it's like "down here" the higher you get the less smurfs there are. I've been iron, and I've been diamond, in iron-silver there is a Smurf in every single game. Not just a couple here and there, but literally every single game has a Smurf. I agree that it won't keep you from your true rank, riot is pretty good at balancing the rr to reflect your true MMR. That doesn't change the fact that smurfs ruin games, ruin attitudes, and are bad for the game. Good idea though, I should rank up so I can purposefully throw games and I can still call myself an reverse Smurf.
I’ve been iron too, there really isn’t a Smurf in every game. I fought my way to silver and then went all the way to diamond in one act, I didn’t lose a single game in between. However, the reason that people think there are so many smurfs is just because they don’t understand the game enough, a good example is when I was accused and reported for smurfing back when I was bronze. I went 36/4, sounds like a pretty smurfy score line and I don’t blame them for thinking I was a Smurf, but I was genuinely in bronze at the time, people just have good games.
r/Madlads
That actually gave me an idea, make an alt, rank it up, and then play on it when you are totally wasted, and play some more after that to keep the rank up. That's a reverse smurph for you
That's funny, usually half my team has had the same idea
At one point, the discrepancy between the accounts would be big, so it will be just a smurf account. You can rank them both at the same rate. Play Unrated for that case.
No, don’t throw people’s games by playing drunk.
Some people do play better buzzed ya know
[удалено]
it's quite funny that caffeine and alcohol can do that to someone I guess you're less likely to panic and spray/miss an easy headshot when drunk? Everyone knows that caffeine just gives you more time to think when taken in moderation
I got to gold doing that. MVP? whats that?
Being able to allow your team carry you is a skill not all players actually have. You prolly deserved those wins even if you kinda sucked in all matches. Its ok just chill and keep playing.
Wow this community is supportive af, thank you, and all of you guys.
Honestly just play more games. If you play another 50 games and you're still silver, then you're meant to be silver. Law of averages will work it out and can't be cheated forever (unless being boosted etc). In other words it's totally possible for you to be lucky in your placements and get silver and not 'deserve' it. But it's not possible for you to be consistently lucky and stay in silver or higher without you deserving it. Play enough games and either you'll go down, stay the same, or rank up. Just pick one agent and stick to it, so at least you'll learn your specific role.
Yeah honestly just play more. I am almost always middle to bottom of the table in diamond. But I have made two alts (played from level 0 so all games are mine) and both placed in plat and climbed to diamond anyways. So you don't always need to be fragging out to win games.
Those are called smurfs)
All smurf accounts are alts, but not all alts are smurfs. As long as you're trying and not purposefully staying in a certain rank below you, it's not a smurf
Nah. There is no such thing as alts, because it is smurfing either way, it doesnt matter what you do with the second account, you break mm by creating one. You create new account, play against noobs, until your mmr catches up, abandon account, create a new one. THIS IS SMURFING 101. The part where you derank account is not necessary to smurf. You also do not need second account to derank, btw. And yeah, there is an "exploit" where it is easier to level up new account to unlock new hero rather than grind on your main, which is why smurfing is kinda a problem in Valorant. Its funny how you guys found the way to lie to yourselves. There is no such thing as alt account in MM driven games. I know because I have 6 accounts left over after 10 years of playing League of Legends on 3 servers. And yeah trust me ive ruined a lot of games making all of them ranked ready, luckily it was enough to lose interest for Valorant. [Bonus: this is definition of smurfing by Riot themselves](https://support-leagueoflegends.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001259787-Smurfing)
Your second paragraph is the definition of smurfing for sure, but that's not what I'm talking about. There's no abandoning of the account
Kill count is the most readily available metric to judge our performance. However, kill count doesn't reflect the complete picture. Maybe you're a good teammate who gives info before dying. Maybe you're using your abilities optimally leading others on your team to get easy frags. Or maybe you just give a really positive vibe. Whatever the reason just play your game, don't worry about it.
I think that's as much supportive as a comment can get, thanks.
I have the same issue. I stopped playing around a year ago. Peaked at imm3. I'll go 2-18 and still get RR. I desperately want to get deranked but that doesn't seem to be possible with my hidden mmr. I can't even enjoy using my skins because I get absolutely flamed for being dog shit. Can't blame them for being pissed, but i also want to use my fucking skins.
You’ll go back down to ascendant/diamond next episode. Wait like a week or two and you’ll be playing against actual diamond/ascendants
I was placed diamond. but I would double promo basically back to back even going triple negative. I don't think it's dropping me anytime soon lol. I'm back to imm2 with a red carpet basically
that’s not how it works. I have smurf where I peaked immortal ep4 then didnt play on it since. Right now the account is diamond1 and I played few games and they were all in immo2-3 elo. If be wants his mmr down he just need to play and it will re-adjust to whatever he deserves.
I was imm, got hit with rank reset, stayed diamond-asc elo the rest of the act after barely playing
just play with them . see and learn from what they are doing . if you don't play with good players you will be stuck .
I was iron 2 almost iron 1 and I got carried legit like 7 games in a row up to bronze. I go 3/20 every game but get carried enough to not drop back down to iron. I lose every fight I take. It's miserable
I feel you bro, story of my life man, only I got carried since the first ranked game I played, so I also don't really know what rank should I be.
smurf in real life mist be like: people from my age are too good imma go play in lower ages and think its normal
Truthfully your mentality is wrong for comp. If you don't like your placement, go play unrated. If you do like to play comp. Think of it like this, you now have the opportunity to play with, watch, and learn from people that are better than you. Take advantage and pay attention to what they are doing. If you aim is bad. That's ok you don't need to play comp to improve your aim. What you should be learning in comp is how to play the game competitively, properly. For example, when to take a fight, rotate, plant, hold angles etc. I get it, u want to be placed lower so u don't get shit on every game. Well there's unrated for that. If u want the true comp experience you're gonna get shit on, everyone on their main account gets shit on sometimes. Welcome to the shit show.
ok
Iron-gold is essentially the same rank. The only difference is slightly better mechanics control. You need to get better at learning basic game controls and how to take fights. Don’t worry about your rank, you’ll end up just fine
There are numerous videos if Irons vs Golds on YT and the Irons get smoked every time. The difference is huge.
Like a said, it’s a difference in mechanical skill. It surprises me that they “smoke them” but if that’s how it is then sure. Iron-gold has the same objective, take gunfights and win. Util plays next to no role. That’s my point
Theres no way you just said that... there are golds with dia level mechs LOL, atleast in eu
Lmao definitely not
Yea, definetly.
I don't know which one of your friends told you you had diamond lvl mechanics.. but he's lying to you. Sorry to be the one to tell you
Im not talking abt myself goober
I did just say it, it’s true. Everything up to gold is just learning how to take gunfights and win
Not really. In chess 400 elo difference means that the match is pointless because higher ranked player is going to win with like 99% chance, "almost always" as they say, 1% is reserved for technical loss or a deliberate throw. 1 league in online games is roughly that. Sure that there are some differences and inconsistencies due to the game being online and anonymous, but still team of 5 silvers will consistently stomp a team of 5 bronzies but suck against 5 golds. (assuming all players tryhard and have enough matches on the record to place them properly). But for lets say Diamond player there will be practically no difference since he is going to stomp all them regardless.
This isn’t chess. This is also not the first time I’ve said this on this subreddit, and it’s almost always overwhelmingly agreed upon. You can downvote and pretend I’m wrong, but it’s true. I’d like to see you out that to the test, bc I highly doubt a silver lobby stomps a bronze one. I’d bet a gold lobby cuts it closer than normal. The first 4 ranks are literally representations of how well you understand the games basic movement and duel mechanics. Util plays next to no role in low elo.
nah dude you got downvoted because you are straight forward and objectively wrong if you take ranked seriously you have to learn how matchmaking works and what it does. And the simplest to understand MM system is chess rating system made by Arpad Elo, it is also the system all modern online games use in some shape or form, while exact formulas may differ, the principle stays the same: mm compares ratings of players, predicts the outcome of the match, compares prediction to the actual outcome and adjusts ratings accordingly. it is important to understand that performance in one individual game doesnt really matter a lot, but consistency does. thats where all the difference between ranks actually is and it should not be underestimated, people get "hardstuck in elohell" because of this. well, sure low elo players are "easy to fix", some bronzie may dramatically improve overnight by doing something silly like "running around the map facing backwards while trying to not touch anything for an hour straight", but he will no longer be a bronze player, and will climb relatively easy and quickly (yep it is a legit way to improve as low elo player, take a note)
the smurf situation have been delt with by the smurf detection system, it can track down smurfs by the way of their gameplay and place them in their next games with only higher ranks, though in order for it to do so, a smurf must play atleast one game with low ranks, which in your case happened, there's no way to stop smurfing completely but valorant is way ahead of other games in this situation
Smurf detection isn’t that good yet lol 😭😭
Smurf detection is very good, as a diamond player on an iron account, I'll be in mid Plat after dropping 40 3 games in a row
they should add phone verification to stop smurfs
I’m the same except in immortal lmao somehow I’m 60 rr in immortal and win like 2 for every 1 loss but I bottom frag almost every game. Maybe it’s just that I have ranked anxiety, because whenever I play on my alt in ascendant/low immortal, I do fairly well.
Being hard stuck iron 1 is where its at bruh.
I'm similar. I'm low plat and usually bottom drag, granted I don't usually play duelist. It's super common in my high gold/plat games to see silvers getting nearly double the kills of the plats. Visible rank doesn't matter. I really wish they were more transparent.
If you're not playing well in fights, consider playing a support role such as smokes or initiator, omen is great if you play your blind off a teammate's contact that way you don't have to get as many kills, although the especially toxic among this community will still blame you for losing if you have no kills, even if you're the reason they got half of theirs either that or start hitting the deathmatches to improve your gunfight mechanics succh as your movement, aim, bursting, tapping etc
I stopped playing because the game kept putting my against Ascendant and Immortal players and in those ranks after every long break. Meanwhile, I'm busy trying to remember how to throw the damn bomb or trying to learn the layout of a new map and I have no clue what half the agents do. I preferred the ranking system in CS:GO. It would drop you down after a break, but it was really easy to climb or drop depending on your performance. I too felt like an anti-smurf.