Tarik vs Wardell Explained

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A week and a half ago, Wardell got called out by Tarik for queuing with a known stream sniper. And now Tarik is also getting called out for occasionally smurfing while playing with some of his friends.
But is smurfing as bad as stream sniping and will either problem ever really go away?
Written & Hosted by: Niall McCrossan (@niallmccrossan)
Edited by: Sam Gore
Produced by: Danny Burke (@lurkeyburke)
Footage Courtesy: pastebin.com/LmgBSH7w
Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).
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[@TeamGrieferNation]

Took Tarik 5 mins to reflect and admit he was wrong but wardell had 48 hrs to reflect and still couldnt do it lmao

[@yenmeng]

My man Wardell got hit by the valo brainrot hard

[@rymakesmusic]

tarik had a whole character arc in 5 minutes, shit was hilarious

[@JosoLifts]

@@rymakesmusicalthough funny, it made me respect him even more

[@pablohanmaaa]

@@rymakesmusic yup that shit funny. circus of emotion all happen on that 5 mins.

[@capybara8704]

Nah it took years for tarik to reflect and admit he was wrong. If he didn't woohoojin video, he would think smurfing is fine.

[@GiancarloPaniccia]

The Tarik video of him going through all the phases of his own introspection and coming out having grown as a person is SO SHORT that you could have legit just dropped it into this video. Man emotionally leveled up in under 5min. Respect to him for that. I do wish ranked required a phone number. It would be a start.

[@Joker-hw5ji]

Nah cuz then you get OW2

[@xkuromeh]

Ranked requiring a phone number would just end up killing the game

[@xdtjv2843]

The problem you get with phone number verification to ensure competitive integrity is the fact that you have some cellphone contracts that supply multiple phone numbers, or are ridiculously cheap. You want to disallow these contracts, but some players (mostly poor) are left out then. Overwatch 2 had the luck of having data on these players from before, so also allowed OW1 accounts to play without phone number, which in turn compromised competitive integrity. I also want to note that in OW2 you can juggle your phone number between multiple accounts

[@Flightkid90]

Psych major here and I can tell you it takes longer then that too reflect...also......how do you all know it's genuine ?any streamer and celebrities do this all the time lol. Sooo idk he can simply no stream and duo with Ludwig on a new acct and just type or voice mod...sooo yeah...take anything a streamer say with a cup of salt

[@autisthicc9229]

literally 1984

[@subz3ro358]

wardell is in the wrong here. atleast tarik admitted to some level of wrongdoing and how the other guy had a point

[@Astelch]

hes been in the wrong since early val days defending the op was a balanced gun.

[@sinsee.]

@@AstelchHuh? The OP (love it or hate it) is/was a big part of Counter Strike and Val brought it to their game. It’s supposed to be a powerful and expensive weapon with some risk in buying it because you don’t want the other team taking it. Don’t forget that economy is a big focus with these games.

[@Astelch]

@@sinsee. nah the op was like 4000 something dirt cheap on top of having a crazy fire rate. There was literally no risk in buying it.

[@shkayaanh]

ok but at the same time tarik cant complain about stream snipers streaming w 0 delay. ik the real reason hes mad cuz his frnd is q ing with a sniper but in general everyone snipes lets be honest

[@bnikolab]

@@shkayaanhOf course he can complain. That's like saying: "You can't complain about people robbing you because you don't carry a weapon." Yes, you can, and you should.

[@VibingWithVariety]

And Wardell wonders why people in the Valo scene don't want him around anymore

[@JF69420]

Hey i love your pic. It makes my day 10x better instantly

[@VibingWithVariety]

@@JF69420 thanks

[@JF69420]

@@VibingWithVariety wanna be my fren?

[@wilbertting9211]

@@JF69420 If he doesn't accept, I will :D

[@bobby1379]

he wa0s Ego maniac when on TSM, he keep asking for OP even on eco round.

[@akeno6752]

You cannot remove streamsnipers from the world, but you can not queue with them as a pro player/content creator to not promote it. (Wardell's career was going downhill anyway, he just putting the last nails in the coffin)

[@silentKeys20]

His pro career is pretty much over. No one really wants him, and he really has fallen behind to the competition anyways.

[@Shafiksz]

rip wardell. Can't even retire at all now

[@lukewarmtoast]

what happened to wardell?

[@FPSEric]

They’re both wrong but there’s a fundamental difference between the two. Smurfing isn’t cheating it’s just bullying, and stream sniping is legitimately cheating

[@jowern0224]

not to mention openly doing it on stream AND doing it to a “friend”

[@KristapsJankovskis]

So both are bad... No matter what is worst in this case... Both smurfing and stream sniping are pathetic move from player to do. So in this case both guys are L. The mine reason why tarik gets a + is becouse of his response. He knows he was wrong... Wardell well thats a dude who think these kind of things are cool to do.

[@zenith5317]

At the end of the day, both things are wrong. Don't justify to differentiate the two since u said it too that it's wrong. The point here is on admitting your mistakes and reflecting about it.

[@CrAzY799999]

I just wish, if people are smurfing with low elo friends, they coach them here and there instead of dominating the ranks. too many times I see 30-5 silver smurfer, and their buddy sitting at 2-12.

[@mitchellwilliams3561]

I don’t see the problem with either (I don’t do either but I don’t see a problem with it)

[@danielbourgoin3821]

Tarik's a real one for that response. Very mature and understanding.

[@duncanmacleod8902]

Wardell has been brain rot for like a year and it's really disappointing as someone who has followed him for like 6 years

[@FranklinRogerson]

It's been longer than than, dude missed out on an opportunity to become a star and make bank to go back and live with his mommy

[@FreehhZe]

tariks reaction to him being called a smurf is kinda cool tbh

[@ravenruppie96]

Stream sniping is objectively worse imo. Neither is justified but to say smurfing is the same as knowing literally where your opponents are? Come one now. Grats to Tarik for owning up, boo to Wardell for lying so blatantly.

[@TRISTANTHEGAMER]

i think stream sniping is like worse since it is just cheating but smufing is a bigger issue as it effects everyone not just streamers

[@ravenruppie96]

@@TRISTANTHEGAMER true

[@remydamiani2272]

I think you underestimate how much better Tarik is than a platinum or ascendant player. In terms of the advantage he has, even if he's "not trying" I think it is SIGNIFICANTLY higher. The guy is a fucking ex-pro major winning MVP, and I know that's a different game and while he's technically not professional in Valorant, he is still unfathomably better than a platinum player. He may not know where they are because of a stream but he knows where they are in his brain, his aim, movement, and decision making are better, and even if he makes bad choices in a plat lobby, he will STILL win because of his aim and experience. Not only that but if he's "not trying", what about his teammates as well? I think both of these cases are really scummy, and Wardell is the worst of them all as he had absolutely no remorse and seemingly no self awareness. But smurfing SUCKS for everyone except the people doing it and queuing with it, it ruins the game just as much as stream snipping.

[@Katniss0000]

Stream sniping just affect the entitled rich guys. That is why RIot don't care and never bans them. The solution is so simple and just add DELAY. Before you get hyped up and defend that "I want to interact with chat". Big streamers rarely interact with chat and they can still do that with DELAY. It is not like they reply every to 5000 viewers. They just answer questions and it is done most of the time. They are not doing a JUST CHATTING. They literally PLAYING. and a 30 secs delay will not that hurt that much. People watch them to play and not just talk to chat.

[@nickstasiak]

I feel like both situations are not quite the same. Wardell is queuing with the guy and benefitting off an unfair advantage and lied about it to another member of the valorant community, twice. Tarik seems like he's just trying to play with his friends but they are not good enough to play in his rank and he's too good for theirs. The intentions and consequence just seem so different. Wardell can no longer cheat through proxy and Tarik cant hang with Ludwig and play their favorite game.

[@tsukki5838]

unrated isn’t real guys

[@musicaltarrasque]

@@tsukki5838It isn't!?!?!?!

[@mahshshsrklingfa7031]

​@@tsukki5838unrated where they surr after 3-1

[@mightymobthesecondchannel5017]

The guy saying it’s his fault for not having stream delay is the same thing as a robber saying it’s their fault for not carrying any protection

[@puppyfacespiderman3610]

True

[@FranklinRogerson]

Both are correct

[@willisbronze9984]

He got the audacity to say “ he should ve stream with a delay” , like lil bro is a streamer, he should be the people to understand the most that how annoying is it for your community if you put on delays

[@TheNeneco96]

Of course adding a delay does not bother Wardell, his stream is dead like his chat. With who should he interact? Unfortunately he resemble perfectly his old TSM team, really bad with really big names.

[@hana-rv6ru]

and ironically he used to rage and accuse other ppl of sniping his games (at least back when I used to watch him) + he covers his map to prevent sniping too lmao

[@matthewcoleman4283]

its sad to see how far wardell has fallen man

[@chiefy4245]

Riot: no teabagging(banned) Also Riot: yea Wardell can stream snipe for elo

[@Crucial54321]

Tarik going through the 12 stages of copium in 5 minutes was hilarious

[@Bibe35]

The "ascendant and above can't queue with lower ranks" got changed back yesterday.

[@nathannguyen5063]

Totally agree, that shit was kinda stupid on riot. Just because e-kitten(S2) can't play with e-puppy(Im 3) and they get mad or leave, riot should've stayed disciplined in their decision making, and do what was best for the community and not for their reputation. No one cares about what some catfishing lardass in his base says when he can't smurf with his high pitched chirping furry girlfriend so that he could feel some sense of accomplishment.

[@chaitanyatiwari9228]

I used to really like wardell, dude was unintentionally funny and a good player too, sad to see him fall so bad

[@fav843]

Tarik with the 5 minute character development lmfao

[@M0N5T3R_]

Might be a hot take but yeah. Smurfing sucks for all the people on the other side but at least you might still be able to learn something from that. Stream sniping on the other hand can be compared to cheatingng, gaining an advantage through external help. Both things suck but sniping is on an other level imo and for wardell to sit there, defend all that shit and even trying to shift the blame to Tarik is just....

[@jowern0224]

shouldn’t be a hot take tbh, it’s just that a lot of people like woohoojin more

[@Swix_FGC]

Compared to? It literally is cheating.

[@M0N5T3R_]

@@jowern0224 Agreed but people will jump you for statements like this. Especially the smurfing part

[@M0N5T3R_]

@@Swix_FGC Ofc it is but the idea is to say it in a somewhat diplomatic way.

[@phoenixflamegames1]

I mean yeah when it comes to ability placement and such but you don’t really learn anything from getting onetapped.

[@joekim3757]

this may be of similar line to the phone number thing, but in s.korea they link your account to your social security number. i doubt riot would ever get to that point in NA, but phone number validation could be a really great start to address that issue.

[@realspicyninja]

This is probably why Wardell keeps getting dropped by pro teams in Valorant and CS. He never admits fault because of his ego.

[@laust5868]

The thing is, if you got friends youd most likely have to smurf many times just to get to play with them, i mean people dont like playing unrated, that's why they have flex in league of legends but peole still prefers to rank up in solo duo rather than flex. Its such a dilemma.

[@sebastianridley2632]

Just pointing out that woohoojin had a "2 weeks in apac/eu" goal which im *assuming* (please correct me if im wrong) will have him on a fresh account which will also entail some form of smurfing from him during his placements and initial climb.

[@tauburn23]

Smurfing is bad but cheating with streamsnipe is a lot worse .

[@kuro6551]

I've watched Tarik queuing up with low elo like lud, poki but my man ain't sweating to win the game, he just be clowning, trolling around shooting enemies at their legs, doing 360s and shit. It's so funny. I think sometimes he just wants to play with his low elo friends and there no other option than smurfing.

[@luciole2594]

There is actually an option if you want to play with your low elo friends and it's called UNRATED

[@kuro6551]

@@luciole2594 true but unrated is boring as every second match gets surrendered becuz somebody from your team or op team has to leave because they're hungry or some shit, and if u don't surr they'll throw and sabotage for the rest of the game, hence ruining the experience and leaving you frustrated, that's just my experience tho

[@TileClicker900]

@@kuro6551same with smurfing. What even is the difference? If u kill them all round after round like in unrated ppl in ranked are gonna give up instantly too lol. Hell my radiant teammates give up after 4 rounds sometimes.

[@PeachyPoet]

2:17.... MY FAVORITE KIND OF PEOPLE TO GET MAD AT... THE ONES WHO CHOOSES NOT TO TAKE ANY FORM OF ACCOUNTABILITY WHATSOEVER SINCE THEY ARETHE BENEFACTOR 5:58.. THE PERSON WHO TOOK ACCOUNTABILITY????? TRULY THE CONTENT KING!

[@hiimmijk]

Woohijn, sorry if typed it wrong (bananaman), made a comparison between the two what's also not fully correct. Streamsniping and Smurfing are both wrong, but that doesn't make it the same thing. Being toxic, cheating, throwing are also all different categories. I do still like what he tried to achieve with his comments, cause it made Tarik realize what he did was also wrong.

[@codyews]

its not A person telling him not to do it, its the community telling him not to do it

[@1upJeCK]

No big streamer wants to use a delay... it just makes sense to not cheat and exploit...

[@Astrohhh]

The only stream snipers I'll ever hold a soft place in my heart for is Wadu, and Banana man. True legends of their craft.

[@haggis7919]

what do they do?

[@Astrohhh]

@@haggis7919 They were Shroud stream snipers during the PubG days. Just search "Shroud wadu and banana man" and you'll find some videos with a ton of views. Legendary snipers.

[@Zynsk1]

Iirc Wadu sniped Shroud in Pubg repeatedly, but he wasn't a griefer and instead became a character of the stream. Hard to describe, just look up wadu shroud clips... @@haggis7919

[@anantjain4640]

@@haggis7919 They streamsniped mainly Shroud and other streamers and created these funny interactions with them

[@Suhdude13]

Banana man will always be a legend 😂

[@Bibe35]

Depression is a hell of situation.

[@dreddsemblante8909]

Wardell acting as if he’s ever won something in his life lmao

[@known4232]

Smurfing is an interesting topic to me. So I’m dia 3 and I have a few friend who are low plat-mid gold. I am hate smurfs so I don’t que with these friends. At the same time tho, I’m intentionally limiting my contact with my close friends because of a random thing I care about in video game. I know I can just play swift or something with them, but there’s no feeling of progression or like we’re actually doing anything when we do swift/unrated. It’s like we might as well be sitting in front of a tv watching a sitcom, not talking, and call it “hanging out.” I hate smurfs but I also want to feel like I’m actually doing something with my friends. I could just play another game but that feels like it’s just dodging the question. Edit: to be clear, I don’t have any alt accounts either. Since I know that would be DEFINITELY contributing to the problem.

[@udon792]

i feel bad for tarik, always going through the useless drama ppl drag him into

[@anhun9012]

nice guitar collection fam

[@etflu]

streamsniping is way worse than smurfing to play with friends.

[@hellothere8381]

you know woohoojin made it on the val scene once his name is mentioned in this channel

[@eagle-akshay]

I am ascendant and sometimes I get 4 other good teammates while the enemy team has 5 low elo players. I would call it official match making smurf game. The thing is smurfing isn't same as stream sniping, you will always have atleast one or more players in the enemy team better than you even if you are in the same rank. But queuing with a stream sniper just to win a game in the highest ELO where low elo players get influenced by watching you and your games is just dumb

[@ruined_yuki]

forcing the use of a phone number to play ranked would literally do nothing other than stop people that either doesn't have a phone number to use or aren't old enough to have a phone number that riot deems valid from playing ranked, At the moment I have 3+ accs that has a phone number linked due to various sites that has free numbers, best way to remove smurfing is for Riot to simply use their anti Cheat as a way to log all of your accounts and place you in games based on your highest ranking account but that itself will bring issues due to the easy access to buying accounts so smurfing will prob never go away or be fixed in any way

[@ChineseProduct]

While smurfing does negatively impact the competitive integrity of the game, it is not the same as stream sniping. Smurfs don't get any unfair advantage in the game aside from a skill advantage, and it doesn't change the game that's being played. Stream sniping and knowing the precise position of the enemies fundamentally breaks a tactical fps in which info is the biggest part of the game.

[@KrisT0f.]

i think the only way you fix the streamer part or content creator smurfing is to make completely new match system special for these people so there's new rank but for content creator only or streamer that have riot buddy i think the rank its gonna be straight up number of rr and no limit so these content creator cant have excuse to use smurf acc to play with content creator friend

[@roko98332r]

​@@KrisT0f.thats why Faceit And ESEA exists. to satisfy their hunger isntead bullying low level lobbies

[@JustMatchmaking]

So it's an info canyon vs a mechanics canyon. Those two things are both still a massive unfair advantage.

[@KrisT0f.]

@@JustMatchmaking well what riot can do about stream snipe make u unable to alt tab ? Lmao

[@miyawkat8018]

@@JustMatchmaking but info is a way bigger advantage. even if you have a dogshit aim but can out smart the smurf, there is a chance of your team winning. stream snipping most of the time both are skilled. the one being snipped can't really out smart the opposite team because they basically have a wall/map hack.

[@johnbyrong.decastro2512]

A coaching system might work to help low elo player rank up like the high elo player just watches and coaches them what to do but has the skills of a low elo player

[@ayanmondal1953]

This is happening because Riot fears to punish established/popular players thinking that will kill the game popularity but they push harsh punishment to others .But they dont understand the barrier to imenter is so little people just have 5 6 10 20 accounts and it doesn't matter if they loose one

[@neo_child]

Smurfing to play with friends is fine if you at least play for fun, rather than go tryhard on some low elo players. Stream Sniping is essentially cheating, almost to the same degree as downloading wallhacks or aimbots.... almost. There is no question that Stream Sniping is bad.

[@nmj1132]

Smurfing is bad yes but it's not as bad as a streamsniper where every move/strats your team makes are known to the enemy. It's like playing against a wallhacker whereas against a smurf you're just fighting against a really good opponent and not all the time smurfs actually win because if someone in your team is having a very good game or your team is a five stack and well coordinated even a smurf can't carry that game.

[@MHTJ0001]

Riot also reverted the change that ascendants can only party with plats and higher. Riot really loves smurfs

[@RealTaIk]

This whole situation just made me think that wardell is a cheater. He was never good in lan and now he tries to gaslight everyone into thinking stream sniping isn't cheating. That's alot of copium going on

[@trx_u]

yea riot just adding phone number verification would help so much. but again if u get banned for dc'ing cuz of power cutoff or internet went down then you gotta wait literal hundreds of hrs to get unbanned.

[@bbzbabus]

so rn, stream snipe can be countered by putting delay, and what about playing with friend? back when i was silver i had to grind for 2 years to finally join in their rank(diamond), now that i have friend who just stared and hes on bronze, what should we do? let him play solo until who know how long he reach our rank or smurf? whats thesolution for it? im legit asking? ive tried smurf once last act on my other friend gold account, i does open on plat tier, but it has asc/diamond lobby...., someone plz elp me

[@vexule]

no wonder wardell already fell off lmaooo , bro into something it seems....

[@assada5297]

Wardell just mad he got called out

[@elknan69]

Riot reverted the 5 stack changes btw which in my opionion is very bad and they could and should do more against it, like heck you cant even report stream snipers or smurfs ocer their report system

[@relaxd0ntd01t]

I just don't get why lie about it to begin with. That's what solidified Wardell being in the absolute wrong.

[@lovxshua]

smurfing is smth even if we try, it's very hard to get around with multiple phone numbers and emails. but no matter what rank you are, streamers still get stream sniped. the same friends tarik smurfs with aka the otv and friends group, they get stream sniped even tho some of them are just gold or even bronze. if riot puts a hard ban on smurfs, the content made on the game will go down by a lot and that isn't really good for the game. they should instead allow players to report try hard smurfs and ban those try hard smurfs after review. banning stream sniping is good because some content creators have openly said the games are getting annoying to play because of stream snipers, and some of them don't open their game for a long time because of frustration. taking up and fixing the issue of stream sniping, will just benefit the game more with more streamers and more creators.

[@mrgrimreaper9422]

Ah yes, how dare I stream with no delay 😂😂😂😂

[@1DensuN]

Streamsniping affects a few (but its still bad and WRONG) but smurfing affects so many more and is horrendous for us who receives the punishment playing against them super players. Good thing that Tarik understood that his smurfing is bad.

[@austintgod9621]

That wardell guy really got a cocky"punch me"face. And his attitute really cements that fact.

[@cristianmunoz7002]

Tarik isn’t smurfing. He picks troll characters he’s never played, and then he goes balls to the wall. That’s why it’s fun to watch him “Smurf”

[@gladxch]

Wardell showing why he never deserved respect by Pro players, and why his farewell from the scene was well deserved.

[@sativaboy9282]

Tarik only “smurfs” when it’s with his actual lower elo friends and content creators. Wardell is washed player duoing with a known streamsniper to get free rr. Definitely not comparable imo.

[@dem0nicrelic81]

Imo smurfing is just inevitable. Because what are you to say that you can't play with a friend cuz hes not as good as you? Sure you can play unrated, so they negative effect of smurfing is lowered but it still can have an effect on the opponents regardless. Its makes the game unfun for them still. Like I've had unrated games against diamonds.. I'm silver so the unrated match finder is broken aswell imo.

[@ajrf19]

Erratum on this, Riot removed the platinum requirement for 5 stacking.

[@Magnum69]

They already reversed the "cannot queue 5-stack with low ELO" a day before the video was released, should've probably said something in the comments about it maybe because I understand re-shooting for something like it is pretty stupid if the video was done already

[@CallMeFern]

In my biased opinion, (ascendant rank so smurfing isn't as big an issue) I still pick Tarik in this instance. Wardell is in a limbo zone, not on a team but not a huge creator, so he ought to focus on one of the two at least. However, by playing with a stream sniper, he puts off other creators and devalues his rank to orgs as well. Whereas Tarik smurfing with friends, while also bad, at least falls into his primary role as a content creator. His scores might be average in their games but even his lackluster play is definitively better than most golds. (Not considering the fact that he could pop off on accident or really whenever should he decide to so you can't fully condone it). On the other hand, as Devil's advocate, do you really think Riot games would ever tell him not to collab with other streamers and get more exposure for the game? Even if they found a way to 100% prevent smurfing he would still get that pass. In the end both players have a choice but one is definitely more career oriented and backed by the company themselves.

[@superhirni6816]

I think smurfing is not nearly as bad as streamsniping. Smurfing is just one guy who is just better while not breaking the rules gaining an unfair adventage. Streamsniping however is straight cheating gaining an unfair adventage. You can eventually become a better player than a smurf if you keep grinding, you cant beat a streamsniper who can call out positions and has an adventage every round.

[@doghat1619]

Smurfing IS cheating though. If you're playing in lobbies that you wouldn't ever be in on your main, you're avoiding the system to gain an advantage. Yes, you CAN become better than smurfs, but at the time, you're going to lose a game because some higher ranked player wanted easy kills.

[@Phi24]

6:45 Note: Riot reeled back this decision two days ago.

[@Jassa3]

Bruh wtf no way

[@jowern0224]

wardell showing his true colours again

[@H3rraM4juri]

and that is a reason why some streamers have delay on their streams but then there are some who complain oh why delay bla bla bla

[@KrisT0f.]

i think the only way you fix the streamer part or content creator smurfing is to make completely new match system special for these people so there's new rank but for content creator only or streamer that have riot buddy i think the rank its gonna be straight up number of rr and no limit so these content creator cant have excuse to use smurf acc to play with content creator friend

[@ayanahmed8180]

yeah well that restriction has beem reverted soooo yeah...

[@CentsGD]

the integrity of valorant ranked has been compromised from the start, like if you smurf in bronze. they are not even surprised if there is a smurf present, they expect it.

[@djrockolo]

I saw that chainsaw man manga. A man of culture

[@ApolloWV]

Looking back on this Woohoojin commenting on anything at all seems laughable.

[@Tostky]

Oh shit hooj made it onto the score!!!! LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO!

[@alexndrtrash]

BANANA W

[@brk029]

5 stack update got reversed today (kind a late with update guys)

[@nathannguyen5063]

Totally agree, that shit was kinda stupid on riot. Just because e-kitten(S2) can't play with e-puppy(Im 3) and they get mad or leave, riot should've stayed disciplined in their decision making, and do what was best for the community and not for their reputation. No one cares about what some catfishing lardass in his base says when he can't smurf with his high pitched chirping furry girlfriend so that he could feel some sense of accomplishment.

[@rigoti]

Never understood why people watched Wardell. Even back in cs, outside of his hyped reactions to shots, dude's whole personality was dry

[@Iris-lh9cy]

Those valorant ranked changes? those got reverted yesterday

[@thehomiesrule123]

Jut to let you guys know, they rescinded the rank stack changes to do with Asc - Plat stacking etc, so you might wanna add a pinned comment or edit the video to help not give Riot credit for backpedalling a good change. It's coward behaviour because Riot want more smurfs, more hackers and more players. Bottom line is all that matters.

[@Ing1234567]

And then 6 months later we find out woohoojin was boosted to radiant lol

[@polyento3535]

Lmao beat me to it.

[@danielpsi]

Can u guys imagine Wardell doing anything besides gaming?

[@x9x9x9x9x9]

Smurfing does not equal stream sniping. Smurfing is scummy sure but not that bad. Stream sniping especially a ranked match is disgusting especially if you are a high level player. A casual player stream sniping in quick play hoping to get a single kill on a streamer is also not cool but IMO not as bad as what was happening in this.

[@desert123100]

Lardell

[@KarkySphere]

Gold is a nightmare. The smurfing is unbearable everyone 1 taps you

[@erdenebayar777]

So lets say all there pro players/streamers create a fresh account to climb to radiant. They would obviously have to play against low elo people in their first few games. Would this be considered smurfing?

[@rogerthat2k4]

a lot of those kills aswell, had nothing to do with stream sniping. he eventually just got pissed everytime he got killed, I mean sure i'd be tilted too, but add stream delay and you're done

[@acedaquioag6896]

Smurfing is bad considering that you're mechanically better than a certain tier, but STREAMSNIPING IS BASICALLY WALLHACKING. WARDELL AN INCEL MOVE.

[@LilMeatBigDreams]

wait how is he an incel?

[@ohlookitsadumbperson1169]

Wardell's brainrot probably started on ascent when he got flashed as fuck.

[@treysmith5002]

didn't val revert the rank disparity barrier?

[@TKzHYPEnotic]

imo stream sniping is worse. This is just from my perspective obviously but when I first started playing val and encountered a Smurf it’s possible to work around them (eliminating everyone else and then overwhelming the Smurf for example) it’s hard but doable. But now that I’ve gotten to an elo where there’s pros and streamers fairly consistently, playing against a stream sniper feels impossible. Essentially playing a hacker that doesn’t get banned, they know where you are/how you’re setup. A lot of the time unless the other team is just horrible it feels impossible to win. They’re both scummy no doubt but imo stream sniping completely ruins a match (not to say an imm Smurf in gold isn’t going to completely ruin the match, just you can occasionally work around a Smurf)

[@guzvar]

Is Wardell just done with being a pro? Because i'd imagine this reflect on teams decision to sign him, no ?

[@giff74]

Bro I'm like Polymer 2, I know I suck, but getting smurfed on makes me not even want to play.

[@huttonhack7024]

tbh just ban wardell for getting boosted by a cheater since streamsniping is cheating

[@middle_pickup]

Yo who is this guy? He's rocking a Gretsch, and the latest volume of Chainsaw Man? He just like me for real.

[@dorito789]

I mean theres one solution to smurfing let people play with friends of any rank and mirror that in the other team

[@wasthataspongebobreference533]

Woohoojin isn’t directly defending Wardell, but whenever the response to someone’s wrongdoings is to point out another person’s instead of addressing the initial issue, that’s just a weak argument and just deflecting the issue at hand. And just saying “well they’re both cringe” isn’t doing much of anything either. It’s as if you’re treating the first problem (stream sniping) as an afterthought, now that you’ve brought up the second (smurfing) and decided to shine the light on THAT instead of addressing both issues independently. Pretty disappointing behavior on Woohoojin’s part too imo

[@natsuru6954]

Ngl, as a veteran csgo player who was a hard stuck silver for 2-3 years and have climb to supreme, I think Smurf ain’t so bad in a way that it forces you to get better and learn. Like, i would practice and learn the game and overall improve my aim to climb. As much as Smurf is a problem, the chances of you going up against smurf for multiple games in a row is unlikely. So to blame it all on smurf is just copium. It’s rank/competitive, you are going to meet people better than you no matter what. If you want to relax or have fun then don’t queue up for rank. Though I have to admit smurfs who queue up in full party are scums because normally if you go up against 1 Smurf you can still outplay and win game but full party Smurf is just bully and torture.

[@DarkBiCin]

While the phone number thing seems good it would suck in actuality. I have 3 accounts. I have 1 phone number. I would only be able to play ranked on one. I use all three (all the same rank) to spread out my losses to help climb. Its easier to rank up when you have 4 loses across 2 accounts instead of 4 on 1. If they went with the phone number route id have to find a family members phone number who doesnt play to register so I could still play ranked on 2+ accounts.

[@roko98332r]

did you know there were one time use digital phone number services right?

[@brendanmannik9831]

Na, Tarik is playing with his friends to have fun. Wardell stream sniping because he fell and needs attention. Stream sniping is like a low blow

[@poppyharlow4448]

I will say though with smurfing (and this still doesn't really justify it), streamer gaming collabs will always be on the hottest games, whether that's League, CS, Valorant or whatever else. It's also never going to always be seamless, because not all gaming channels are god tier at every game, and variety streamers like Ludwig or Pokimane or Nadeshot (can't think of anyone else Tarik's duo'd with off the top of my head) aren't Radiants. You can't just scrap these collabs, people wanna see it, so for a couple hours, queues have to deal with a radiant running riot in a gold lobby. I can't speak to Tarik saying he doesn't try his ass off because I do still think he doesn't need to go more than 30-40% to dominate a gold lobby, and it's also probably not the best look if Tarik does a collab with a streamer (who invited him because they want to win games, let's be real) and just fucks around and goes 1 and 20. However, stream sniping is a hell of a lot more abhorrent, because it's not so much a radiant messing with golds as it is actively cheating. Also, you're queuing with more or less the same people every game in Radiant matchmaking, meaning Tarik, or any streamer really, has to deal with this guy all night. With Gold lobbies, where the player density is so much higher, they deal with a Tarik ass beating one game, they probably won't see him the rest of the night (doesn't justify losing ELO but at least you only get whooped once in a perfect world?) Sniping is fucked though because It's essentially wallhacks without the wallhacks, and Wardell using his platform to defend it over ELO is kinda shitty.