To me smurfing is only an issue when a player games the system in order to stay in relatively low ELO for a while and use the account as their outlet to let off steam after getting railed in their actual ranks.
Some people smurf because their real account was banned and they're climbing back up. Some people smurf because they want to see how quick they get reach X rank on Y role. Some people smurf because they're hard stuck in their ranks and don,t have what it takes to improve, so they want to feel better about themselves.
The reality, however, is that most games pretty much put smurfs where they belong unless they find a way to play the system. That Genji player that clearly stomped you in OW that one time will most likely climb extremely fast and be matched with players of their caliber soon enough. That smurf you faced in League will have such an inflated MMR that they will be out of your hair soon.
But here's the kicker, a lot of time people scream at SMURF any time they get owned in a game. Players playing Overwatch for years, sucking at the game, being matched all the time with low level players thinking it surely is a Smurf, because I'm high level I shouldn't be matched with them! Everytime I get rolled over by a player in League and I assume they're a smurf I look at their OP.gg, 99% of the time it's just some random scrub that got fed in my particular game and has a shitty winrate.
The higher the ranking you are, the more important the mental fortitude is, low level players don't have that, it is not all about the mechanical skill. I've played thousand of games in low ELO in League and maybe 1 in 100 players notice you are clearly better than them, the rest will just get mad, told you you got matched against a troll, blame their team, don't listen to any advice you give them and so on.
Low ELO is the land of people reporting others for being toxic when they're given advice, or told what they did was bad and cost you the game. In any game. It's also Dunning-Kruger land, no matter what happens it's never their fault. You,re right on the money too about mechanical skill, just in League alone there's lots of Gold players that are very good mechanically, but have no idea how to win and what to do.
Me? I'm both bad mechanically and don't know how the fuck to play :D
