Smurfs and sandbaggers are synonyms. Is it possible to sandbag in a game that doesn’t have a handicap mechanic? I would say no.
To make competitive without a handicap mechanic, you could just match the first 12 people in queue. You could still tally SR if you want, but if you don’t place a 3500sr person with a 900sr in the same match, technically…that’s handicapping.
I agree
“Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which the advantage is calculated.”
The game can and will allow you to match up with anyone ad long as you are in the bottom 4 tiers, in this way it’s handicapped because it balances teams around weak links instead of who’s strong on the team.
This is why this game fails.
It’s not taking the best vs the best of each rank. It just grabs people and throws them in the a game and if your the top dawg on the team, well you better keep eyes on every person on your team with private stats or a kd under 3 if you want to win.
It’s sad it puts so much pressure on those people.
In no sport do they just say "to hell with previous stats and experience, just play what makes you feel special; babe ruth will carry you regardless.
why do you focus only on the difficulties of being the top SR person on your team?
Should not equal weight be given to the easiness of being the lowest SR person on a team?
this is not true. if you are plat, you will never find a random bronze in your game and visa versa. generally ppl in your random match are withing 250SR of you.
I think grouping should be done as a percentage of your SR, but an even thousand is probably good enough
You play on PC or Console?
It’s a frequent occurrence on console.
Elaborate on your last paragraph.
The idea of handicapping isn’t a good thing for the long term of the game and longer term players.
This isn’t a game where older players dont have the time or willingness to teach newer players, that’s what the Internet is for.
It make no sense to put newbies with vets or to make a matchmaking system that ignores stats all together.
There’s a noticeable difference in player ability with just +100/-100sr of your rank.
Cross tier grouping is extremely ineffective for skill vs skill which is what this game is marketed as.
In a match when a platime and bronze show up a gold game, everyone posses they have to carry bronze.
Especially since the enemy match up to this is often 5 golds and a silver.
The veterens have right to be pissed, the match at the point is officially a 5v6 especially if the bronze is a constantly feeding.
Games should never allow extremely different ratios to compete against each other, no one benefits in any way.
I’m not sure you know what handicap means.
An example of handicapping would be if you put a 3500SR player against a 900SR player but gave the 900SR player 3000 HP.
PC
are you saying in the random Comp matchmaker on Console, plats will see bronzes in their games?
last paragraph, so instead of a nice round number like 1000 500 or 250 for the cutoff in grouping, it should be done as a percentage of your current SR. example a Master is 3500, he can’t group outside of 500sr so it’s actually 14% up or down from his current SR. it would have to be reworked and super wordy, so what I’m getting at is, the grouping limits they have set now are probably pretty close to perfect.
don’t confuse experience with skill
no, an example of handicapping is not allowing them to play together in the random matchmaker
Furthermore, if the team with the lower SR stands to gain more for a win than the team with the higher SR, this is handicapping. Just like in chess, the worse rated player will gain more points, this is handicapping. If we played chess and overwatch without handicapping, all victories would yield the same prize, regardless of past performance.
Again, that’s not handicapping, that’s an Elo-based ranking system.
I understand the point you’re trying to make, but you’re using the word ‘handicapping’ incorrectly. Try using words like ‘ranking’ or ‘rating’ or ‘comparison’ etc.
The English Korfball Association rated teams based on Elo ratings, to determine handicaps for their cup competition for the 2011/12 season.
do a word search for handicap on the wiki page for the elo system. I understand this is not how ppl use the word handicapping. without handicapping we would come up with the same results except it would take more games, so while they are committing the act of handicapping, but in the grand scheme of things, if you say “ladder” you can bet a handicap mechanic is used. That is to say the underdog stands to gain more than the favorite.
That may, indeed, be what the Wiki page you refer to says and I still disagree that it’s a handicap. Handicapping does not change the stakes. I.e. the reward is constant no matter who wins.
In your korfball example, the Elo rating system is used to determine handicaps. It is not in itself a method of handicapping.
In a horse race not all the horses have been performing to the same level over recent races. The faster ones have to carry more weight than the slower ones. But the prize money at the end is the same no matter who wins.
In amateur athletics some events are handicapped. Runners who have been performing better recently have to start further back than runners who have been performing worse. Again, the prize is the same no matter who wins.
correct and horseracing is not handicapped. it’s only handicapped for the gamblers. side note, I think the fastest horse gets the outside lane, so it actually is handicapped, but anyway…
in your amateur athletics analogy you have missed part of the equation. yes the prize money may be the same, but the contest is not. One contestant has to run farther.
If there is a competition, where the victory goal and the prize are equally the same to all partcipants, this is not a handicapped competition. Anything short of what I have just said is in fact, handicapped.
Ahhh, horse racing absolutely is handicapped. The unequal weights that they have to carry is the method of handicapping them.
And in the athletics scenario, yes, the contest is not “equal”. That is exactly what handicapping is.
Let’s add golf to the mix. A player with a handicap of 0 (scratch) has to finish the course with 5 fewer strokes than a player with a handicap of 5 to achieve the same score.
Handicapping is essentially making a contest “unfair” so as to give all contestants a “fair” chance of winning, regardless of their individual abilities.
There are many ways you could use handicapping in Overwatch. E.g. you may have one team which is expected to win easily. So on a payload match you make it so the underdog only has to push the payload, say, 75% of the distance the favourites push. That is handicapping.
My response from another thread:
‘Handicapping’ is just the natural cycle that occurs with matchmaker. Think about it. MMR is used to balance out teams into, hopefully, fair matches based upon collective MMR. If your MMR climbs high enough, eventually you will be the highest MMR on your team. It’s simple math bro.
As a player climbs to their appropriate SR games get tougher, MMR starts to fall and that player is eventually being carried themselves by higher MMR players. It’s a simple cycle that is just a byproduct of trying to fairly group teams from a diverse player base.
There is no conspiracy here, just simple math and a basic understanding of match maker. Sometimes you are the carrier, sometimes you are the carried.
What I wish was that the whole hidden MMR mechanic was done away with in favor SR ONLY and that SR rises or falls equally, for everyone, for every win or loss. Then NO ONE can claim any bull conspiracy. Unfair handicapping, forced 50/50, gatekeeper matches, etc, etc… all gone. Just a simple organic SR value that players can understand and trust.
cool, did not know that.
it’s funny to compare overwatch to traditional sports, because in some aspects it’s the same, in others it’s widely different.
let’s go back to my original argument. When a plat or gold starts loosing games intentionally to derank to 600 SR, would you not call this sandbagging? If you would define this action as sandbagging, the next question is: “can you sandbag in a non-handicap contest?” 
i guess you can do it in billards to hustle money, so maybe mmr isn’t handicap.
Oh, that absoultely is sandbagging. No argument from me about that. However I think you can sandbag in something that isn’t handicapped so long as there is a ranking system which you are gaming. Note that my whole gripe was that handicapping and ranking systems are separate.
I think it’s really important that all contestants be made aware of the contest. lol
oorrrrr…. you could give them more SR for doing the same thing as the favorite…eh? eh?? eh?? 
Hahaha, yes you could. However that is affecting the rankings and not making it an intentionally “unfair” match so that each team has an equal chance of winning.
The fact that the matchmaker tries to make two teams with equal chance of winning should be enough evidence that handicapping isn’t used. If handicapping was used then the matchmaker wouldn’t need to make even teams.