BSJ Apologizes for ‘Educational Smurfing’ on His Livestreams

Brian "BSJ" Canavan, a Dota 2 analyst and content creator for Team Liquid, has apologized for the ‘educational smurfing’ he has done on his livestreams in the past. BSJ, a 9K MMR player, used low-ranking accounts around 3K MMR in his educational smurfing to demonstrate how top-level techniques should be applied to such games. This was not well received by a part of the community and now BSJ, in a YouTube video, apologized for not hearing their concerns earlier, admitting that his educational smurfing was also against the rules. Although he thought his content was valuable, he recognized that there were better alternatives than smurfing for providing this education.

BSJ apologizes for educational smurfing, promising to do better in the future

BSJ had held some episodes of educational smurfing a year ago, playing various roles in low-ranking games to demonstrate their nuances to the audience. Throughout the game, he discussed the rationale behind various actions and also the mistakes and behaviors common to such games.

BSJ restarted this series a few days ago. He was playing on a Crusader Medal holder’s account and he encountered something strange as just a few minutes into a game he was removed from the match. After several unsuccessful attempts to reconnect to the game, BSJ discovered that the account had been banned by the game's developers.

Now, BSJ apologized for educational smurfing in an unlisted YouTube video on his channel titled 'My statement going forward.' “Hey guys, as you may know, last week I attempted to reboot the educational smurf series, and the way I went about it, it was incredibly impulsive and honestly just blatant ignorance of the rules. I am not proud of that,” said BSJ. Though he intended to provide valuable content, it did not pan out that way.

The community opposed to BSJ smurfing on low-ranking accounts in order to provide education and said that he should do so in a private lobby. By doing so, they stated that normal players will not have to suffer from the smurf, and players who wish to learn can also become a part of the game. BSJ apologized for ignoring this option earlier but said that going forward, he would impart education in the right manner, through private lobbies.

“I’ll be doing it the right way. I’ll be doing it in private lobbies with willing volunteers, people who want to be a part of the experience and don’t mind having one game where they kind of expect to have a little bit of a rough time against a smurf. So, I want you guys to know that I will do better,” BSJ said at the end of his video.

It is important to note that smurfing in Dota 2 is forbidden by Valve. In the new player experience update that went live on 25th March 2021, Valve made smurfing a “bannable offense.”