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I don't know what's happened this season, but MM feels worse than it ever has. I keep getting into matches that are not fun at all because my teammates do not understand the most fundamental aspects of the game and should be queing with new players.
I've been playing Smite almost daily since Season 3. I usually queue casual CQ with 2-4 friends who are all similar levels (mid Plat - low Diamond). We're not SPL level, but we understand the most important parts of the game: how to build, how to win lane, how to play back from a loss, how to play your role in a teamfight, when/how to take an objective, positioning, how to end the game, etc.
Unfortunately, there's always at least 1 player in our games that plays like their account is under level 30. These players have level 140 accounts and Masters loading frames, but are still getting Meditation on Artemis or Bluestone Pendant on a Support.
These are players that don't do the bare minimum:
-Supports that build damage and spend the entire game trying to kill the enemy Support, while our backline gets ganked because there's no peel. They end the game 5 levels lower than everyone else because they stopped farming properly after their first rotation out of duo.
-ADCs that back after every successful team fight, so we can never take an objective. When we siege phoenix, they chase kills instead of taking the objective. Or even worse, one that kept rotating for team fights and never got lane farm, staying underleveled despite getting kills. Also they have Meditation.
-Mids that never rotate or ward. They get their farm while the rest of the team gets 4 man ganked. When the same Mid gets ganked, all they do is complain. And don't get me started on secure: we'll be trying to take FG, but instead they ult the enemy Ganesha at full health and lose the FG to an enemy Janus ult. In team fights they just run away from the tanks (who have CC and defensive relics) just to die alone in the jungle, wasting their kit on self peel.
-Solos who play perfectly fine the entire game and then decide around 15 min to bait the entire team into awful fights in the enemy jungle. We should be securing GF, but instead our team dies one by one trying to peel for the tank that wanted to steal a back camp from 4 gods. And since Solo bought Jotunn's Wrath and Heartseeker instead of a Breastplate of Valor, they became virtually useless after the 20 min mark.
-Junglers who do not clear the jungle. They spend the entire game farming mid and then rotate for a gank at awful times. They always try to gank high health targets that are near their tower with their relics up. When they don't get the gank, they blame the nearest ally (who had just used their kit to clear wave). When they do get a gank, there's no farm up or objectives up, so they walk to the other side of the map, losing farm all along the way. Our jungler will be top kills in the game, but the whole team is behind in farm because of their poor understanding of the map and spawn timers.
The matchmaking algorithms are very deeply flawed. I had a teammate with a Masters loading frame and a 147 level account that spend significant portions of the game standing still and only used his ult maybe twice. How is that possible? Account sharing?
I was in a game against 3 hunters. Our support built magical defense and Pythag's Piece. We pleaded with him to buy a Sovereignty or Midgaurdian Mail, but he wouldn't. He had an account level of 138. This was not a new player.
I understand that in casuals people are trying stuff out or just playing to have fun. I also understand that people make mistakes, have lag, or might not be playing their best. But the problems I'm running into just aren't acceptable. You can't put a 1800 chess players into a tournament with 700 chess players and expect competitive games.
I yearn to play with people who understand the most fundamental elements of the game. Miss abilities, forget to check your map, and play off role picks; just please let me play with a team that fulfills their roles.
Let me play a game of Conquest, not an Arena match on the Conquest map. Hi-rez, your longtime player base deserves so much better. Fix your matchmaking.
Edited to add: 2 of the players I play with regularly have quit or taken hiatus from the game because of bad matchmaking. Like me, they love this game but are finding it harder and harder to justify losing 5 games in a row despite playing extremely well.
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