How common are smurf accounts?

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klvbass
Im a low elo player and i recently joined a small tournament to see if the more competitive environment would improve my play. The problem is it was a <999 rated tournament so i would play against people with similar ratings to me, but there was a brand new account with 400 daily elo and almost no games played. The account was made 3 days before the tournament started and within a day of the tournament starting he rose up to 1400 elo. Does this happen often in low elo tournaments or was i just really unlucky?
Avii0034

It might be common in low rated tournaments  but the director of tournament can set the criteria like minimum 100 games played to avoid smurfs from joining.