There is no smurfing.

When two players of equal rating face off, but one is clearly more skilled than the other, the go-to accusation is "smurf". It's assumed that the winning player is naturally higher rated, but lost many games on purpose to reach his current rating.

I believe this is a fallacy. The true cause of the "smurfing" epidemic is skill inflation caused by the shortage of new or casual players. Let's acknowledge a few intertwining facts:

- AoE2 is an ancient game, with a small niche playerbase. It has never reached the mainstream market. The average player started this game at least 10 yrs ago, and plays many hours a day.

- The average player is 1000 rating.

- New players start at 1000 rating.

- Therefore, new players are matched against veterans with hundreds of ranked games on their belt. Of course the mismatch is jarring.

1k rating has a HUGE skill variance, from total newb to demigod. People aren't smurfing on purpose... there are some very skilled players who just can't climb rating.

The problem with AoE2 is the shortage of new and casual players. The shortage of low-skill players to fill the lower ratings. So you have a bunch of super-sweaty veterans competing for "average" rank.