I’m a high ranked TG player who has friends at similar rank as I am.
Every night when we que for games, it’s a dodge fest. The saddest thing is, the most frequent dodgers are Diamonds and Conqs. Yes, Conqs.
The occasional games that we don’t get dodged, it’s hardly ever competitive because it’s always against Plat/Golds that either don’t know how to dodge, or missed their chance to dodge because they were all waiting on the other person to.
So what does this do? it makes us high ranked players to want to make a new account so we don’t get dodged. We’ve actually encountered a few stack that has done this.
What kind of game makes their ranked system in a way so players can pick and choose which opponents they get to play?
This system creates an endless cycle of: creating smurfs → casual players experiences ruined → more dodging → creating smurfs
It’s pathetic and shameful that Conq players are dodging games due to opponents’ rank, but the system allows them to. Please fix this asap.
The issue is that creating new accounts is too easy and it is free. That is what needs fixed. Unfortunately most games never do fix this so my hopes are not high.
First point, nope haven’t done it and won’t be, but there are moments where I seriously consider it and also I understand why other high ranked players are doing it.
The issue you mentioned is an issue yes, but the fact that dodging is too easy AND players being able to see their opponents before loading screen is a HUGE issue. No other competitive games has this feature and it is clearly a mistake.
I don’t see what they can do about this other than punish dodgers with timeouts which they do. Man people threw the biggest fit when they added that to AoE2 ha.
Hiding opponents before the loading screen seems fine, although those people that are dodging certain opponents may just quit the moment the game loads in that case.
Yeah there will still be people doing that for sure. But at least losing ELO will discourage them much more than just a time out. Right now the penalty to dodging is way too weak hence dodging is happening way too often. Implement what DOTA does. One person in the party dodges, time out for the whole party 3mins, then 10mins, then 30mins and keep going up exponentially.
AOE2 case is different. That was due to maps and this is dodging specific players. AOE2 could’ve done a better job at it too (maybe separate ELO for different TYPES of maps, or just giving more bans for maps), but dodging specific players is way more pathetic than dodging certain maps that are poorly designed.
The only issue with losing ELO as a “punishment” is that ELO is just supposed to help create balanced matches, and that screws with matchmaking by giving those players easier opponents in the future.
Do the AoE4 timeouts not keep going up? I thought they did, but don’t actually know anyone personally who dodges.
Also, this isn’t “fine”. It’s a necessity. Can you “dodge” certain opponents in any other sports? or just competitive games? In RO16, our team is versing Brazil in the World Cups. Let’s dodge it and hope for a different opponent.
I really hope Devs realise how much of a horrible impact this system has on the community and the game.
and that can be fixed by reducing ELO range, as well as punishing instant leavers. They are all ethically wrong behaviours and the problem right now is that system allows people to do so and many people aren’t ethical…
I’m just talking about potential downsides, I don’t really see any downsides to hiding the opponents, other than what I mentioned about those dodgers quitting anyway and just wasting slightly more time, which seems minor.
Definitely agree. I always want stronger measures against dodgers and smurfs. Played too many games that are plagued by smurfing and most developers seem to never really do much about it.
In a ranked game, ELO SHOULD reflect on a players’ skill level. If people can pick and choose their opponents (which is what dodging ultimately leads to), how is that a ranked system? This is a huge downside. You WANT the ladder to be taken seriously for a game to keep producing high level players. Dodgers quitting anyway and wasting slightly more time means they’ll lose ELO, and will probably take longer to be matched with the same players again. But yes, there should also be penalties to instant leavers.
Really hope the Devs sees looks into this issue ASAP. You don’t want players getting stressed over a system when the game itself is already a “stressful” game.
as long as they sell their game, it doesn’t matter!
It is suitable for them because you bought the game to create a smurf account and they made a profit.
I would suggest you play another game if it really annoys you.
the whole team rating system is totally broken; the scoring is totally unbalanced and partly unfair - how can it be that the one with the highest rating in the team gets the most points - the one with the lowest gets the fewest?
The high Conq teams often have a booster account with them, i.e. a low account so that the others also get decent points…
you lose too many points if you lose against higher players - we are conq1 and diamond 3 lose against 2 conq3 and both lose over 30 points - that’s not very motivating…
and last but not least smurfs, smurfs, smurfs everywhere smurfs-all that smurfing will ruin the game in the long run
There was a guy who explained to me how point system works and it kind of made sense. The rank points is different to your ELO (for e.g. you have TG rank points, but separate ELO for 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4).
Regardless, yes the smurfing is a problem with a booster account for sure. If the purpose of this is to get one person to rank up as high as they can, that is pathetic and shameful. There are many others though that do it because literally everyone dodges their stack. Yes, even Conqs.
I’m not defending smurfing. I’m saying that because the system is broken, it is encouraging smurfing and it is an endless cycle of: Get dodged over and over → make a smurf to be able to play → ruin experience for others → Quit the game leading to less players
Another idea apart from an obvious hide the rank and player name until loading screen is make sure you can’t que with a player with rank points that is too far away from yours (for e.g. Conq should not be able to team up with Gold). Dota 2 does this and it fixed booster account problem right away.
agree 100% with OP points of view. Here is some suggestion to Dev:
Hide all users name and rank before assigning team;
People who dodge will lose 1/3 of the ranked points;
Taking 1v1,2v2,3v3,4v4 ranked player ELO into average. The idea is that some players might be conq level at solo but he rarely plays team game and the get matched with lower ELO players in TG;
Perhaps increase the pts the lower ELO team points they can get if they win higher ELO players
Pls do something Dev. High ELO players usually had to queue for 15-30minutes+ , awaits 5 rounds of dodges before they can enjoy a game.
Oh man really… I did assume something like that as we were getting dodged way too many times by the same stack!
I had a chat with one Conq player who kept on dodging us saying that if this gets fixed, he will stop playing.
Firstly, this is a horrible attitude of “if I can’t always play against easier opponents, I won’t play”, but the reason this attitude is developed in the first place is because they were allowed to do this for so long hence they think it’s the “norm” or their “right”.
How long are you going to take to fix this Devs? Running away from tougher opponent(s) without any consequences (time out, losing MMR/ELO etc) is NEVER a thing in any other competitive games and for a good reason. People are creating smurfs, quitting the game, some people are thinking dodging is their “right”, lower level players’ experiences are ruined due to smurfs, and this is all because dodging is way too easy and is encouraged when people can see their opponent(s) before loading screen.
I must add though, you must make sure that the ELO range is reduced as well.
If punishing dodgers is the ONLY thing that will change, then I don’t blame lower level players from quitting the game completely. Make sure that there’s less than 200 max ELO difference between teams (yes 200 is overcome-able) AND hide the name/rank of opponents before loading screen. Also introduce punishment for dodging/instant leavers. These all have to be done together!
