devtrackers.gg
I'd ask that you take the time to read this and leave your opinion and an upvote for the sake of having a serious discussion.
Preface: As somebody who has grinded through GC 1-3 in the new Free to Play (F2P) season 1 and 2, it has been a really fun season for solo Q for me because I have gotten the chance to improve and refine my skills as a player. I personally don't really grind my rank with friends besides a few games once a month. I do, however, offer coaching to a discord league and I get a range of players from diamond 1-SSL and I do a wide range of training with them. My focus is on players under Grandchamp 3, the state of Epics take over into the free to play model and the reddit approach to dealing with a serious problem that is going to kill the growth of the game.
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The Problem
While the league that I work for takes competitive integrity very seriously and I've had changes with how I interact with Rocket League, I have offered my coaching to these players to help them improve as teams and within solo Q, giving them tips for climbing, mechanics etc. Before F2P I was able to help most diamonds climb to mid champ, Champs into GC and GC reach new peaks they never thought they could hit before. Since F2P, my (newer) diamond - champ players have become hardstuck, to the point where it is impossible for them to climb with good game sense and consistent mechanics.
For a while I had the "get gud mentality" but this changed as they kept coming back frustrated.
With the introduction of F2P the largest issue that I've consistently found in players under plat play the game for 30-100 hours and put the game down due to an inability to climb. Some people do not want to grind to become better, it is a casual video game for them and I always make sure to explain that hours are needed to become better are exponential. However, plat-Champ is littered with smurfs and it is getting to a point that I see it bleeding into my GC 2 - GC 3 games. Seeing a party of players (Fresh Epic Users) with one or more on a epic account with mmr under 1200 in 1700+ (but less than 100 games) lobbies sucks. These new accounts can gain anywhere from 9-28 MMR per win at that MMR and they consistently lose 8-12 once these players stop playing with their friends. Their MMR is inflated due to the average MMR of players they were beating and typically struggle to play at their own MMR due to changes of speed, mechanics , positioning all the good stuff.
So why does this matter?
These players pollute the quality of the matchmaking due to being inconsistent in that specific rank. It becomes almost impossible to climb through these ranks due to inconsistent matchmaking, which these inconsistent players cannot figure out why their teammates cannot react to backboard passes, shadow defense or even fast aerials. In the retro-perspective, players who are consistent with their rank see their teammates as the classic ballchasers. Due to the current structure of the party system, climbing is not designed for solo Q unless you are consistently able to carry above your rank (aka... Smurfing)
With the start of season 1 "Players will have to be Level 10 in order to play Ranked." and this can be bypassed by playing with somebody over level 10 and just entering the ranked queue. lol... this takes from what I could find, 4-10 hours to achieve which is an absolute joke of requirement. Shame on Psyonix and Epic for not using their heads. League of Legends which takes around 200 games to reach level 30 (the level required for ranked) is generally around 50-70 hours to achieve. Nothing feels worse than when you're starting a new game to get absolutely outskilled and outplayed. It is not enjoyable and if you defend that newcomers need to experience smurfing, you are part of the problem. Seeing Champs+ with Bronze tournament winner badges is the most demeaning thing you could wear on your title and I argue it should be grounds for a perma- ban on the account.
Psyonix and Epic need to start punishing new accounts that climb or deter players from making new accounts off cooldown. I've met a great number (30+) of players that will make fresh accounts almost every month to create clips in champ lobbies or lower for "content". There needs to be punishment for boosting accounts, smurfing and de-ranking but I've never met a player that has been punished for these actions, it took years before "bad" words were even auto flagged. It stops player from wanting to climb in ranked and isn't appealing for new players to casual play if they are always going to get destroyed in competitive matches. This will be the downfall of Rocket league growth.
Just as a side note, I have personally reported accounts that I see deranking, smurfing (less than 100 games in GC MMR) and Psyonix supports normally hits me with (Use the in game report feature *insert clown emoji) so that's a big **** You, when you try to take a stand for a serious problem.
Lastly, reddit is a cesspool for dealing with complaints about smurfing. Often the post I read just says "If they are better than you they are smurfs and if they are worse they are nubz" and this is the wrong approach to helping new players deal with frustrating losses. The number of vods I see of plat and diamond players getting outplayed so hard to the point that the game was unplayable for them is about 1/4 from about 200 vods over 4 months. I never set the expectation for my players to do advanced mechanics for their rank (you don't ask plat players to challenge on the roof, air dribble ect.) but I make sure to inform them of the importance of playing important positions like backboard or fast aerials in the midfield to combat these players, half the time it feels like I'm trying to teach my players how to counter players way above their rank and I feel sad for the players that might not have access to professional coaches because nobody taught me how to defend the backboard in 2015.
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Conclusion -TLDR
I think that smurfing needs to be curbed coming into season 3 by restricting how easy it is to make fresh accounts, and that fresh accounts that rapidly climb need to be banned or the TOS needs to be updated. (for reference here is the TOS )
"Smurfing is not allowed. We define a smurf account as an account that is intentionally abusing the matchmaking system for the player’s gain, or the gains of others.
- Example of a Smurf Account: Intentionally keeping an account at a lower rank than where you normally play; starting an alternate account to harass others."
Secondly, Psyonix and Epic need to step up and start perma-banning people for toxic behaviour. Nobody is scared of punishment in this game and as a streamer it sucks having to keep my chat covered/muted because 2/10 games normally have somebody typing a homophobic or racial slur, and then switching to an alternative account because their main got a suspension...lol
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Edit: I just wanted to thank the people the took the time to upvote and comment their opinion, I love this game and want to see it grow! I hope that this post will show the developers our frustrations. Not everything went well after F2P and that's okay, there is still time to salvage the game before players start quitting permanently.