Let me just state that in ‘Quick Play’ or ‘BTB’ or any other ‘for fun’ mode, I think players should be able to queue with whomever they want. However, in ranked, there needs to be some limitations to prevent exploitation by unscrupulous players. Since multiplayer accounts are ‘free to create’ I’ve been seeing a lot of boosting going on in ranked with highly skilled players on alts (‘Silver/Gold’ throw away accounts) helping their friends (Plat/Diamond or above) by skewing the matchmaker.
‘343’ please clamp down on ‘boosters’ by only letting players queue up together in ranked that are only within 5 tiers of each other. Like If you’re rank ‘Plat I’ you can only queue with ‘Plat V.’ Or if someone is ‘Gold II’ they can only queue up with other players that are ‘Gold VI.’
Usually I’ll see a much higher ranked player queuing with a much lower ranked player that is playing better than the higher ranked one. This is because the ‘Silver/Gold’ player is more than likely a ‘Diamond/Onyx’ player on their alt account helping to artificially boost their friend’s rank.
This is bad because it really messes with the matchmaking system and creates an unbalanced game. The throw away ‘Silver/Gold’ alt account will usually play a few matches badly solo to throw off the matchmaker, and then when they queue up with their friend they’ll play at a ‘Diamond/Onyx’ level.
Really you just need a solo queue. Even a duo queue doesn’t really work because obviously players who search together have better chemistry than all solo players - so a team of 2 and 2 randoms in theory are better than 4 randoms even if csr are equal. Really I would like the option to force party size match making.
We aren’t boosters lol - some probably can do this, but not all. In this case we just want to play BR starts. But yea I do agree it creates really unbalanced games - I played with my friends - and they range from bronze to diamond. Really though only actually good players though are going to win those boosted games - good luck beating a team of 4 platinums or better with 2 bronzies on your team even if your a low onyx.
They wouldn’t be doing it in the first place if it didn’t ‘work’, it clearly works because I see people doing this a lot. I wasn’t implying everyone is doing this, but it is definitely happening (I can’t prove it definitively, but it is quite obvious if people look at the issue objectively) .
If we’re discussing ‘Onyx’ players specifically, they aren’t going to queue with a much lower ranked player because they want to ‘de-rank’ themselves by playing with their ‘irl’ best friend who isn’t any good at ‘Halo’ (maybe some do, but that would be very rare, they would probably just play ‘Quick Play’ together). It is suspected that the person the ‘Onyx’ player is queuing up with is more than likely an alt/throw away account who is much better than the rank they’re displaying. If players find a loophole in a matchmaking system, it will always be exploited.
No doubt a duo with fantastic coordination is a force to be reckoned with as well, but that is not the issue at hand. although I do agree that a true ‘solo queue’ would alleviate this problem. I don’t know why they allowed over there different ranked modes, but always seem to leave out true solo queue.
I still managed to climb from ‘Plat I’ to ‘Diamond I’ with totally random teammates, however, the issue I described is still prevalent (alongside other things not discussed here).
I mean this has existed as a problem since h2. And since infinite is f2p - people can just switch accounts whenever they want. But if you really want to boost…play with a new account in their first 4 games or so - trueskill 2.0 has no idea what to do with those accounts and you’ll play some of the worst players. Obviously could just afk for 10 placement games and get bronze 1 - then have anyone who is likely platinum or higher play on that bronze account and yes you have an unfair advantage for sure.
Not to mention the rank system cant measure anything objective related or contextual plays in game. In my mind, the only thing this system could ever do somewhat right would be solo queue and slayer game types only - that’s it. I’ve just been not trying to care too much about my rank since the system feels flawed. We do need some change though.
fr im a plat 3 and have played against like gold 1/2s and have gotten people in high plat/low diamond on the other team which is gotta be pretty “fun” for the gold guy but i mean in the end if they queue up with someone better i mean go ahead if you think your good enough
I didn’t know boosting was a thing but can’t the player being boasted just climb on their own?
Also, if that are getting boosted, and aren’t climbing naturally, won’t they just get their -Yoink!- handed to them when they reach the higher levels.
I speak from experience as I am plat 3 and occasionally get matched against high diamond players and they open several cans of whoop -Yoink!- on me. My skill level has plateaued at mid platinum and I can’t seem to get any higher which I accept.
Yeah, they do get their butt handed to them since their rank is artificially inflated, so the team has to work ‘that much harder’ to win matches when they’re playing solo and not getting boosted by their friends.
I queue in the open queue list on split screen with 3 of my children, there is a large skill spread between everyone in the group (23 ranks).
I think a solo queue would be appropriate but also feel those that want to play together as a team, regardless of relative skills, should be permitted to do so.
You’re using the system as intended, and that is fine. Yet there are players out there abusing it and causing real problems with the integrity of the matchmaker. From what I understand, it is less of a problem in open, and more of a problem in the solo/duo modes. I agree with you that a ‘true solo mode’ would alleviate this problem. However, ‘343’ would need to make both an m/k and controller version of it.
I would have thought a simple solution to this is that you need to have maybe 50 games of free play under your belt before being able to play the account in ranked.
This would surely stop the throwaway account issue?
No worries! The way the forums work, it can sometimes be hard to keep track of other threads given that there are multiple sub-forums; general discussion/community/games/topic, ect.
The true skill system catches up to someone’s real skill very fast. They may be able to throw the first few games and then have a few easy games after that, but once they start playing ‘for real’ trying to win, their true skill rating will catch up to them very fast. My fiance makes alt accounts to play with various friends of lower skill - not to boost them, but because he only wants to play BR starts with friends and playing ranked is the only option if you want BR starts currently. Because many of our friends are lower skill, the sbmm means the lobbies are a super bad time for them when he pulls in onyx players, so he makes new accounts just so he can play with them and not ruin games for them. Having a social NON-SBMM BR slayer playlist would alleviate a lot of this. And no, we don’t consider SWAT as the answer to that. Needs to be full-on regular slayer.
Having said that, his skill catches up to him incredibly fast and he’s pulling in onyx players again usually before his palcements are even done. So while boosting may work for a little while, it definitely is not something they can just do indefinitely unless they’re making new accounts every 10 games.
I think people will keep creating accounts for sure. It’s a lot easier than having to win 10 games or play 50 on a new account first.
Whilst he may be making it easier for his friends and certainly a lot easier for himself it feels unfair to the opposing lower skill players giving them a real nasty Halo experience.
I’ve been the gold person in that situation. I’ve also been a gold person playing against silver and bronze people primarily. It really makes me feel the game is picking winners and losers.
The unbalanced teams makes going into ranked alone an absolute nightmare and way too unpredictable to consistently win. It’s obviously better to go in with friends, but of course there are times when you want to play ranked and there’s no one online. This really needs to be fixed, along with an overhaul of how the system measures ranked progression.
I have no clue how it works, but there is a ban system in effect here as well. I read somewhere a story about a guy who threw his placement games and ranked in Bronze. He then partied up with some guys to help boost them. The bronze player in question did really well in a Plat/Diamond lobby (essentially carried the team) and was hit with a 2 week ban.
Obviously, the ban does absolutely nothing to deter these folks, as the free to play model just allows them to create another account with no consequence.
I’m thoroughly convinced the boosting problem is worse than most of us even realize. This supposedly ‘Diamond II’ player (probably boosted) on my team betrayed me three times in a row in ‘Ranked Arena: Strongholds.’ His aim was so poor it took him forever to even betray me. He sabotaged my game (by lobbing grenades and firing at me) to such a degree that I was given an option to boot him from the match (which I did). There was an ‘Onyx’ player on the enemy team, and I’m only ‘Plat V’ in ‘Crossplay.’ I did nothing to my teammate to provoke his incredibly infantile reaction, as I was playing the objectives and doing my best to win.
I appreciate your honesty and candor in regards to giving an actual example of what is being discussed here (although as you stated, he is not intentionally trying to boost his friends). However, If your fiance is skilled enough to able to pull in ‘Onyx’ level players before his placements are even finished, it could be potentially devastating for those players who are less skilled on the opposite team trying to win (when they don’t have an ‘Onyx’ level player on their team). When your fiance makes a fresh account to ‘reset’ the matchmaker’s evaluation of his skill level, it creates an unbalance in the system that has a ‘ripple effect’ on everyone else.
If a ‘BR’ start in reg non-ranked ‘Team Slayer’ would slow the amount of people making throwaway accounts to play with their friends, I’d be all for it. I do believe ‘343’ needs to go back to the drawing board and offer more ‘solid choices’ outside of ranked that would discourage people from making throwaway accounts, as it seems to be a symptom of a larger problem that they’ve yet to address.
I also believe giving players a m/k and controller only version of a ‘true’ solo queue would be the end of this discussion entirely (at least in my case, as I generally play ranked solo).