Smurfing is creating a second account to play League of Legends. We don’t endorse it because it can ruin the game for other players, like getting stomped by a smurfing player in Bronze. Tackling it on a massive scale is difficult due to the number of players in League and the ease of account creation—in most cases we won’t proactively remove smurfs from the game.
We’re actively looking into how to relieve specific issues in competitive modes. In proven cases of smurfing, we’ll take direct action against the account, and in some cases their main account as well.
Smurfing in Clash
Clash has a very specific definition of “smurfing”:
You are smurfing in Clash if you are playing on an account that is ranked more than 2 divisions lower than your highest-ranked account
This means that if you want to play Clash on an alternate account, you will need to ensure that it is of roughly the same rank as your highest. Remember, we don't encourage playing Clash across multiple accounts. We want to discourage high level players from joining Clash in lower tiers as they undermine the experience for all participants of the tournament.
Playing on your main account also comes with the benefit of collecting Clash-exclusive rewards where you can more easily show them off.
We’re taking new measures to shield Clash from smurfs so teams in lower tiers don’t face opponents trying to game the system. Along with SMS verification, our systems are built to keep tournaments competitive and fair. Even though we won’t catch every smurf that gets by, we’re serious about protecting Clash. Players who slip through anti-smurf measures face penalties for their whole team. They can get banned from competing again and their team can lose any Clash rewards gained.