If we blatantly get destroyed by a smurf Hanzo in one match, don’t group us against the same exact Hanzo 1 match later.
Thanks
Yeah, I think there should be an ‘avoid as opponent’ slot for when you have an opponent who is blatantly smurfing or hacking.
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They used to have avoid player, but then some of the top people had long queue times
How about you don’t get to use it if you’re in the top 500.
I have been asking for “avoid as opponent” for so long.
Make it so you can select one person and you can’t undo it for a specific period of time (as a means of keeping the feature from being abused).
You have to understand that the old Avoid this player tool was disabled (and eventually removed) before even Competitive Season 1 came online. Jeff Kaplan explains in a very long post about this at the time it happened:
See the full post here: Overwatch Forums (Warning! Long read!)
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Maybe it would be better now with more limitations (like only a few avoid slots) and a larger playerbase.
For that look at the fact we only have 3 Avoid as Teammate slots (for well over a year now). I would speculate that they are not willing to increase that or try to add other specialized restrictions when searching for a game. When it comes right down to it, I think it is very easy to avoid the same player (as ally or opponent) again if you simply took a very small break (like a minute) and then started a new search queue.
But, they should have replaced it for these kind of problems.
Like, smurfing is an issue - but it is ENTIRELY out of the people being smurfed ons control.
So, it is get used to the smurfs, or quit the game.
I know a lot of people who choose the latter.
Blizzard doesn’t seem to even care.
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It doesn’t work. I’ve come back in 10 minutes and been back up against the same aimbotter or ridiculously out of rank opponent.
They will, of course, NEVER end up on your team.
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I agree that alternate accounts may be getting out of control (this is a personal opinion by the ways) and is leading to disruptive behaviors like playing below one’s true skill level. However I also know this is not a problem that is easily solved. I am a XP level 1848 (platinum border), Damage 2600~ SR player with over 1,800 hours of game time and I am accused of being a “smurf”. The point is, players don’t like facing against an opponent they perceive to be extremely better than them. I think the issues at hand need to focus on is Blizzard finding more effective ways to quickly identify certain disruptive behaviors (such as those causing skill rating manipulation, i.e. boosting/tanking). Maybe that means finding ways to limit players to one account, but solutions are not easy.
It isn’t that they are not dealing with the cases which are borderline.
It is that we literally had groups call “Road to bronze” since LFG started, and the devs haven’t taken the hint that MAYBE people are throwing down with them.
People are annoyed because even the most basic changes haven’t been done.
We still have comp capped at what rank it is willing to put you in, even though they have been killing it in QP all the way up to that point.
We still have people creating new accounts over and over again on the same machine and they all end up in high ranks from low ones, without Blizzard even thinking, you know, that IS detectable.
Like, their silence and total lack of even taking on the most basic stuff is madness.
I GET that they are busy on overwatch 2, but, this isn’t exactly a new problem here.
They are not willing to do anything about the most obvious cases.
Maybe start banning accounts in the “road to bronze” LFGs may be good start.
It isn’t like it isn’t obvious…
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The “Bronze to GM” challenges have stopped for the most part (especially around the streaming community). Its the “Unranked to GM challenges” (where they play their best throughout all matches) that I think is still a persistent problem though. Back during the days of the old matchmaking system (before Role Queue), Jeff Kaplan did reveal it took as little as 15 games for a player’s hidden MMR to align to their main account.
Source: Overwatch Forums
Here is a record of all instances of Jeff Kaplan addressing about alternate accounts:
- Jeff Kaplan again addresses that is not wrong to have an alternate account but to attempt to tank or boost your skill rating is - Jeff Kaplan - 9/13/2018 - Official Forums
- Jeff Kaplan reminds the community the difference between owning an alternate account, throwing and boosting - Jeff Kaplan - 6/14/2017 - Old Official Forums
- Jeff Kaplan gives a detailed explanation of the difference between owning an alternate account, throwing and boosting - 4/21/2017 - Old Official Forums
- Jeff Kaplan confirms intentionally de-ranking (even in a full group) is unacceptable and subject to action - Jeff Kaplan - 2/3/2017 - Old Official Forums
Now things have become different since the introduction of Role Queue unfortunately. Players at higher ranks are starting alternate accounts do to Unranked to GM as it is a way for them to get into games faster.
I personally wish there was a way to stop that behavior despite the fact they are not technically breaking any rules. There have been some cases where streamers attempt to handicap or impair their ability to play (a notable streamer recently did a “Drunk Unranked to GM Challenge” and I think that is very wrong).
It’s pretty much needed at this point with the overly large amount of smurfs and cheaters there are now.
If they made it so you can’t undo it until after a certain amount of time, then no one would really have longer queue times by THAT much and people using the feature can’t just go spam it on whoever whenever they please.
Yes, but it didn’t stop people throwing down.
Given the size of the rest of the problem that I think that is a drop in the bucket.
People who are going against people who are obviously smurfing SHOULD have a way to say “lets not do this again tonight” that isn’t just quiting for the evening.
You can report someone, and be against them next match.
The matchmaker is like “hey, we know you think the are cheating, but for your gaming enjoyment, lets put you against them again”
In the low ranks in the OCE, you could tell how bad the smurfing was by the queue lengths, because everyone would quit out, because you would face the same people all night otherwise.
Long queue = “time to quit for the evening, because you KNOW it will be smurf central”
Like, who wants that?
This can be frustrating when this happens. But they don’t allow reports to affect your matchmaking for the same reason (otherwise false reporting would become rampant).
Because being matched with someone you have reported is a better choice?
I get it, I wrote matchmakers for other games as a job 
But this is not the way.
In order to make sure the community overall does not false report other players and cause problems for matchmaking and for Blizzard Customer Service, logically yes, it is the better option in the larger scheme of how Overwatch (or any team-based game) works.
We used a reputation system for our reporting. If someone reported someone which everyone else was ALSO reporting, we assumed they were more likely to be right in the future.
There is a lot of signal in the noise.
Currently, someone who only reports once a month, is STILL put in the same game with the other person.
It isn’t like they are just spamming reports for their own matchmaking benefit.
Just assuming that everyone is lieing, and matchmaking based on that isn’t a good answer.
Most people will report for good reason.
I don’t think that “put up with this, or quit the game” is a ultimatum you want to give your players too often.
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