So yesterday I was playing ranked matches with a group of friends (we are all between 1700 and 1850 team game ELO) and sudenly we got to a game where we were against one of the top 10 players of the World, both in TG and 1v1. I won’t say his name, but he is one of these guys who we see play big tournments like the Hidden Cup and match up against people like TheViper and so.
At first we couldn’t believe it, we even made jokes, our ELOs are “too low” to go against him, must be only someone with the same name on steam just for the lulz. But no. We got beaten fairly easy on the game, as expected. Then we went to look for another game and guess what? The same team, with the same pro player.
So then we noticed another thing: on his party there was an unranked player. It was literally his first/second ranked game. It was all made clear: the matchmaking system makes an average ELO count and then throw them against a team with another average ELO. But this is a problem, right? I mean, a player like TheViper can team up with a smurf (and there are lots of them out there) and go all about kicking middle ELO players like us yesterday. I am not saying that TheViper would do that, just drawing up an example.
Shouldn’t AoE have an ELO system just like Counter Strike or League of Legends? One with subgroups of ELO like Bronze/Silver/Gold/Diamond/Platin/Challenger, so then Bronze players couldn’t team up with Diamond players, for example. I know the game actually has a Bronze/Silver/Gold rating but as it is now, it only serves for aestetical value.
I am not complaining about playing against such a high skilled player, it was actually an honor for me and my friends, but it made me think that the system is really broken right now and can be easily exploited by people. I am also not saying that this player had bad intentions, he was just playing with his friends.
Say if me and my 1700~1800 friends put an unranked smurf on our team, we might easily earn some free ELO or at least change our ranked win/rate.
In my opinion, this should be looked upon with care and we could even have a season system, where the ELO resets like every 6 months/year.
What you guys think?