26 replies to this topic

[m]

1. What are your thoughts on people/groups literally gaming the PUG system (matchmaker) by sync-dropping?

2. Does this very action create the inequality of the matchmaker that many complain about when a match result is one-sided?


My Thoughts

When groups get together and decide to game the matchmaker I feel that they do it out of greed of the Tier System, their personal gain of the Stat system, and to level their mechs in an immediate fashion.

I have noticed this to be the case mostly in online streams whereas the host would have their own private VOIP system set up exclusive to their viewership, and they would sync drop with a verbal countdown to ensure proper group syncing. It's been going on for some time and I have noticed that PGI turns a blind eye to it. The result of this action would be exclusive private communication within their sync-group, and lack of full team communication due to the snobbery of not issuing the same communication to the rest of the team either within in-game chat and in-game VOIP (ex: If 12 players try to sync drop together and only 9 succeed in doing so, and 8 end up on the same team, 4 anonymous proper PUG players are left with zero notion that 8 are privately communicating and what their communications consist of regardless of being told to go to an external link to do so).

We lobbied in these forums years ago for in-game VOIP and a separate queue for Team Drops for a reason...so people don't get "rolled" ('rolled' means a 12 - 6 or less victory or defeat). If people want to use an external VOIP service that's fine. If people want to drop in as a group using the game's internal system that's fine as well. But plain and obvious extensive abuse of the system is prevalent, is very active, and my testing of it since the start of this year proves that it's very easy to do across all Tiers (All the test streams I entered from merely viewing and doing so consisted of me turning on Night Vision and Heat Vision to screen check/blip a successful sync and striving to be the last alive to ensure the test included me within the online stream as a fact-check - Tested on Youtube, Hitbox, TwitchTV).

If PGI can't fix this problem (which I believe is a lost cause), then I suggest to solve this problem by removing the solo queue altogether, enforce private group drops with the entire existing player base, allow new players to the game to be given a dropship to drop in on private matches, and have the existing player-base that has been here longer than a year to be given the opportunity to purchase their own dropship to do the same. PGI has stated themselves there are clans/groups/guilds that are over 300 players in size that play as private groups often. Those that play within groups of less than 12 can have at least 1 player fly in and invade a match (use this as the guide to build that mode http://mwomercs.com/...asion-game-mode )

The "rolling" of teams was promised to be over by the CEO, and abuse of the player-base stats and Tier system is a problem which exists. If this can't be addressed/fixed in some way then I fear this problem will always exist.


EDIT:

Forgot to mention that gaming/fixing of the voting system in Quick Play is also a major side-effect of this.

Whether everyone here wants to accept these findings is clearly up to them. I on the other hand know exactly what I am talking about, and know that it is factual. If you don't believe me then go ahead and watch the popular Mechwarrior Twitch streams on Google Chrome with BetterTTV installed and compare the chat users with the game users and do the math yourself on any past or future broadcast. Heck, even include yourself in a live broadcasted game to see if the process is possible (which I guarantee it will be, which you and me both already know to be the case). It's a problem that needs fixing and those that want to be dismissive of this are choosing to be dismissive.

Edited by m, 09 January 2016 - 11:23 AM.

[Percimes]

Haven't seen sync drop since... I don't even remember when.

[Mystere]

Please show via math the probability of 2,3,4,5, .., N people successfully ending up on the same match and side via sync dropping on the solo queue.

Otherwise, your accusation is baseless.

Edited by Mystere, 08 January 2016 - 01:19 PM.

[jss78]

I can't recall ever seeing more than two people from a given unit in one Solo Queue team. Even that's uncommon. I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt and assume that's just a coincidence.

I'm sure there are some people out there who attempt it, and if so it's truly pathetic.

[KHETTI]

Meh theres a few units that i see doing this on a regular basis, group queue and CW is to hard for them i guess.
The reason they do it is simple, they can't compete with any competent units, but because they are a unit themselves, they figure they are more entitled than the casuals, and therefore have the right to seal club.
Yes i know.....tis sad.

[Bishop Steiner]

That it actually happens very rarely, and oftentimes you see people from the same unit solo dropping just get MM'd together.

That said, there are units, especially during events that try to sync drop, and it can be done with a moderate rate of some success (in same match, 1 in 4 or so, on same team, maybe half of that). I don't think it happens enough anymore to be a big deal, but I do believe the mindset is utter crap and that people doing are pretty pathetic.

KHETTI, on 08 January 2016 - 01:31 PM, said:

Meh theres a few units that i see doing this on a regular basis, group queue and CW is to hard for them i guess.
The reason they do it is simple, they can't compete with any competent units, but because they are a unit themselves, they figure they are more entitled than the casuals, and therefore have the right to seal club.
Yes i know.....tis sad.

Yeah, visit a few different TS and you can find it.

Although in some cases, like the old Marik Madness drops, it was not gaming the system so much as a crazy fun scramble where you got matched up with god only knows who.

I could see where even that could tip balance though, but it was a pretty cool community event.

[Bilbo]

jss78, on 08 January 2016 - 01:30 PM, said:

I can't recall ever seeing more than two people from a given unit in one Solo Queue team. Even that's uncommon. I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt and assume that's just a coincidence.

I'm sure there are some people out there who attempt it, and if so it's truly pathetic.

I saw 6 from one unit in one match last night. It was one match in 6 hours of play, so I'm not terribly concerned with it.

[Logan Pryde]

I haven't seen any sync dropping going on since the days of 4 person max groups, like, for freaking ever ago... There really is no tangible reward for attempting to sync drop nowadays...

[Cyborne Elemental]

MS fully endorses Syncdropping.

[Bishop Steiner]

Logan Pryde, on 08 January 2016 - 01:35 PM, said:

I haven't seen any sync dropping going on since the days of 4 person max groups, like, for freaking ever ago... There really is no tangible reward for attempting to sync drop nowadays...

winning, always better for XP, Cbills, and most important reason to derp the system...epeen inflation.

[Logan Pryde]

Bishop Steiner, on 08 January 2016 - 01:49 PM, said:

winning, always better for XP, Cbills, and most important reason to derp the system...epeen inflation.

Ahhh, the e-peen!

I guess I don't see how it would even be worth the effort. With our current system, let's say me and a buddy que up at the same time in an attempt to sync drop, what is the chances that we even get in the same drop? Beyond that, what is the chances we end up on the same team? Beyond that, even if we were placed on the same team, we could still lose the pug lottery and end up with 10 other noobs and get roflstomped. For the amount of effort I just don't see how there is much of a reward there.

[Revorn]

m, on 08 January 2016 - 12:53 PM, said:

1. What are your thoughts on people/groups literally gaming the PUG system (matchmaker) by sync-dropping?

[Inveramsay]

This really is a non issue. The number of times you actually manage to do it is small. I'm sure people think I've sync dropped when I've ended up in a match with two out three unit mates but hardly surpassing given I'm in the biggest unit in the game

[Bilbo]

Logan Pryde, on 08 January 2016 - 02:03 PM, said:

Ahhh, the e-peen!

I guess I don't see how it would even be worth the effort. With our current system, let's say me and a buddy que up at the same time in an attempt to sync drop, what is the chances that we even get in the same drop? Beyond that, what is the chances we end up on the same team? Beyond that, even if we were placed on the same team, we could still lose the pug lottery and end up with 10 other noobs and get roflstomped. For the amount of effort I just don't see how there is much of a reward there.

There is no real effort involved. Get in a TS channel with people you are going to be chatting with anyway and say go. At worst, you end up as a solo player on some random team.

[Deimir]

I have a local friend with whom we'll try sync dropping if we happen to see each other online. If we land in the same match, cool. If we land on the same team, great. If not, oh well, we can play a normal game and chat to each other about it afterwards. Neither of us (well me, at least. He's a little better) is skilled, coordinated, or motivated enough to consistently be effective in group queue, since our primary experience as a duo in there tends to be filler for full groups.

[TLBFestus]

It happened a lot in the past, but it's not as big a deal these days because they have a group queue that allows different sized groups now.

Back when my buds and I did it it was only to try to get in a game together regardless of if we were on the same side or not. Personally I liked it better when I had friends on the opposite side, on TS with me, and the victor got to verbally shame the loser.

While I can't think of a way to completely prevent it, as Bishop said, it's relatively rare these days. About the only thing I could see PGI doing is adding a RNG component to the launch button that invisibly delays or offsets the actual launch function for 5-30 seconds when you hit launch. That way it would be more difficult to sync with people and no one would really even notice the delay.

Edited by TLBFestus, 08 January 2016 - 02:35 PM.

[Monkey Lover]

I have yet to see a sync drop work in pugs where most get put on the same team. What ends up happening is a mix of players go to both sides.

[Col Jaime Wolf]

i have synced dropped recently, sometimes you end up on opposing teams but so long as your all the same teir you can reliably get into the same match consecutively.

[VorpalAnvil]

In other news, chem trails are real and the government is lizard men trying to control the weather with super science machines made of unobtanium. Wake up sheeple!

[Deathlike]

Ugh, a rehash of the mudhut...

The reality is that MOST of the time, many unit members solo and thus "sync dropping" occurs. The more members in the unit, the more likely it would happen.

With that said, there are "some" instances where this occurs intentionally.

If you're truly concerned about this, are you that afraid of adversity?

Let's be even more clear on this - would that actually affect the results so drastically?

In a game where teamwork is deemed OP AND where the solo queue is generally devoid of it, it would be nice if people were more willing to work together instead of being each other's antagonist.

Every time there's a roflstomp, very often a lance or a bunch of PUGs go off and do their own thing... to the detriment of the team. It won't be the first... nor the last.


As an aside, people do try to game the matchmaker and intentionally TANK to get to Tier 4 or 5. Again, these people are also not the majority... but it still happens.

TL;DR
It's only a big deal if you are totally afraid of adversity. In other words, it's not a big deal at all unless you are totally paranoid.