There's different ways to recognize those guys, i'll list the most important ones i can think of at this moment;

• During a ranked match, your opponent says he's going to let you win, even when you notice he's a lot better then you...
  
• User is unranked or bronze/silver level but manages to play against gold/platinum or higher level players and wins obviously (1v1)
  
• User first lets you make a few goals, then suddenly makes a comeback out of nothing and makes 6 goals in a row with utter perfection/timing (1v1)
  
• As a gold/plat you get totally rekked by this guy (1v1) although he is significally lower in level
  
• In Doubles match (2v2 that is) the other team has 1 player with unranked or lower level but a hell of a lot of points + a ranked player (at the same level as you) which has almost no points
  
• In a doubles match there is this unranked or low level player who is playing 'solo' and making tons of goals; your team can't keep up and even his teammate rarely touches the ball.
  
• you can replace 'unranked" with gold, silver or bronze
  
• check the player you're suspecting his profile; does he have only very few games or small gametime; then it's probably a second accout used for cheating
  
• check the profile, is it a level 0 then it's probably a cheat/2nd account (all real players i know have at least a lvl 3 steam account), with the move to epic i cannot yet update on this...
  
• and many other ways to detect (see comments / give comments if you have your way of detecting them; i'll update and give you credits for the info)
  

Well, actually, Psyonix (now under the wings of EPIC) made it clear in a statement in one of the earlier seasons that they'd be monitoring the reports better from then on and they specifically asked to report people who are cheating as smurfers so they can get a weeklong ban (first time caught, dunno what they do the second time).

Now we all know that psyonix won't move if only 1 or 2 reports about a user appear in their monitoring system. And that's currently the problem; people get upset about those cheaters but they don't react properly and because of that those nasty smurfing cheaters walk free amongst their victims.

So, it's very important to report them every time you notice something's wrong with the game you're playing. It's not my intention to get you reporting on every game you lose because it's naturally that you'll lose some games and you'll win some. And especially in doubles; if you're playing with random teammates you'll probably be losing more games than when you're teaming up with a fixed player. It's just the problem with matchmaking setting you up with ragequitters, utter newbies and whatnot versus playing with someone who will endure a loss at the start of the game and with who'm you've got build up certain tactics you use in the game. (I don't play random 2v2 ranked anymore; without a friend i only play solo standard or doubles unranked)

Again; REPORT people of which you think they're not playing it fair as CHEATERS, and do this every time you encounter them; when enough people do this they will start disappearing fast enough (if they get like 3 games in a row people reporting them; the ban is already waiting for them)

Also, and this is VERY IMPORTANT; when you start a match, and the opponent obviously is letting you win, or tells you that they'll let you win, immediately report them for cheating! (if they're saying they'll let you win, don't wait until after the match, do it immediately because then that piece of chatlog will be attached, it'll make it much more clear for the devs that they're actually cheating! If you report them when the match is over then that piece of chatlog will not be reported and the devs will only see the last piece of chatlog which will probably be a few GG's and maybe some 'EZ win' from your teammate or so...)
When people let you win on purpose, it's obviously they're cheating, because at that moment they're on their way to smurftown... what they're doing is deranking as much as possible to end up with very easy targets against which they can smurfplay.
Also when you're playing a team vs team match, and the whole other team is playing the AFK game, then you can be sure of it they're trying to derank (except if their game is getting timed out/they disconnect

So we can only conclude this guide with a few guidelines, otherwise it wouldn't be a true guide, isn't it?

- Please don't forget to report (i cannot say this enough, it betters your ingame Quality of Life and presents players that are better fit for your MMR (rank))
- If you have extra ways of detecting those smurfs / cheaters, don't hesitate to add a comment and tell us, I'll add it to the guide (with credits) if it's feasable.
- If you are aware of other methods of cheating in the game and how to detect them so we can start reporting them; please add a message / reply to this guide. I'll add it to the guide and credit your name.
- Tell your friends about this guide or at least ask them to do the same; the more people that know they should report, the more effective it becomes and the smaller the amount of cheaters becomes. (this is the "TAF" part btw)
- Although Demo-raiding is not "Fair Play", it's not cheating, so please don't report unfair or dirty playstyles. Please don't adhere to using such style yourself though ...
- Keep it real; not every decent player is a cheater, if they have the same rank as you and are the same level as you it's not abnormal you get rekked; Everybody has a 'fantastic day' sometimes where everything falls in place just like you want it to while other days your game is total misery. So keep in mind that players who had a great match not always are cheaters.

For the other ones; report them asap...


Keep having lots of fun and bump that ball into the corner of the goal when you see it!