After the ban of smurf accounts, pro-players encountered issues: Gaimin Gladiators revealed the consequences

Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp, captain of Gaimin Gladiators, and his teammate Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard waited for a match for over an hour but couldn't find one. This happened because they queued using their main accounts instead of smurfs, which would have made finding opponents easier.

Seleri posted the corresponding screenshot on his Twitter page.

"Trying to play some Dota with my teammate. We used to play together on smurfs – not defending smurfing, good it's banned now! Can we please play together outside of tournament games and practices? Valve, please let us play together!"

He sarcastically joked about how smurf accounts were considered evil, but previously he could comfortably play on them in Dota 2. Now, even finding a match with a friend seems difficult. He waited for more than 64 minutes for a match but couldn't play.

Ace supported him, commenting on how great it is to play Dota 2 with friends, hinting at the strange team distribution system.

"If we somehow find a game after hours of queueing, there's a 50-50 chance we're on the same team. 'Best played with friends in Dota'"

Based on their account statistics, it appears the players didn't find opponents and didn't get to play in a public match. It's possible that Valve might provide a solution to this issue soon since the smurf ban is causing difficulties for many players in their regular training routines.