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Active: 1479 users

How to abuse seasons and ladders: (top 8 masters)

Forum Index > SC2 General
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PopTartSplash
Profile Joined September 2011
United States12 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-12 03:12:07
September 12 2012 01:55 GMT
#1
Hello everyone! This is xSPopTart here. This is my first post on Team Liquid so please bear with me.

To start off i would like to tell you super fast about my starcraft career. I started only playing 1v1's but two seasons ago i went heavily into team games. I finished up last season rank 3 in the world in 3v3 random with a 90 percent win loss ratio. My 4's were very similar ranking 4th world wide i think.

When you get high enough ranked you start to experience longer queue times. Some of you may have seen this before.

Here is a quick picture of one my MY queues I did with some people I met on starcraft.
+ Show Spoiler +

[image loading]

as you can see that is nearly an hour long queue. For most of the games i played before I started to smurf i would wait at least 20 minutes for a score-screen like this:

[image loading]

As you can see, i waited about 20 minutes for eight points. That's not very fun.


If your que time is so long, why don't you just Que alone?
+ Show Spoiler +

I actually tried that just to see what would happen.

[image loading]

As you can see,I got a 30 minutes queue before i canceled which i believe is way too long.


Solution to the problem:

+ Show Spoiler +
Yes! There is an answer! If I play with my high ranked friends, it's a long queue. If i play by myself, It's a long queue. So, WHAT IF I play with a low ranked player to counter out my MMR? Yes it does work. The only problem is that you have to have a good player on a bronze or silver account to "smurf" for you. Below are some pictures of doing this.

I played with one of my friends while he was on a silver account.
[image loading]

As you can tell, Everyone is still top masters, all this did was lower the queue time.

Next idea was, what if i play with a bronze player. Would that make my opponents easier?

[image loading]

For this game, no. Even with a bronze player all players were still top masters. I will admit though; sometimes players will be plat through mid masters depending on how LOW the bronze players account is, and and HIGH your account is.


What's the big deal?

The big deal is that sometimes, players who are NOT very skilled can "smurf" so that they are playing easier players while still getting very high masters.

Here is my example person:

[image loading]

Notice how he jumps from low plat to FIRST in masters. This isn't just for his league either. This is top five in the world easy. Now isnt this possible? I mean, lets assume he plays LOTS of 1v1's so he has skill, but he just started playing team games. He plays with really good players and he really really excels in it. That's fine, but that is not the case. For his case this is a combination of maphacks + abusing the ladder system. Thing are about to get pretty crazy so listen carefully.

HOW TO GET TOP 8 MASTERS IN 1'S 2'S 3'S OR 4'S:

+ Show Spoiler +
I want you to look at the next few pictures and tell me what YOU think.

1v1s:
[image loading]

2v2s:
[image loading]

notice how he jumps from plat to masters. (in 1v1's, he went from plat to low masters. either someone leveled the account or the map hacks, normal people cant get from plat to masters in just one season) Again its either low masters, or plat, to TOP eight masters? How did he do that? I'll show you. Keep paying attention. Take a closer look at his 1v1s and his 2v2s.

1v1's:
[image loading]

2v2's:
[image loading]

Get it now? He does his 1 placement match on the last day of the season to get placed into a brand new division. From there he has to win MAYBE 4 games to get top 8. This doesn't seem 100% fair to me. When you look at any normal division you should need several hundred points to get top 8, not just 2 or 3.


THE SOLUTIONS:

Yes, solutions. There are two of them. One for the outrageous queue times. The other for getting top eight masters ezpz style.

queue times:

+ Show Spoiler +
Cap off MMR. If you cap off the MMR at a certain point, (For this example I am going to be using MMR in a point scale. 0 is as low as you can be in bronze, 2000 will be as high as you can be in masters.) If you cap off at the 2000 point mark, you will still play good top masters players without a 20+ minute wait or being favored every game. Obviously it will cap off at a very high level. High enough that it is hard to reach but so you can still find other players. At its current state, your MMR gets so high you're favored every game. So when you win, you get 5 points, when you lose, you lose 20.


Top masters:

+ Show Spoiler +
My idea is to make it so you may not be placed into divisions after the leagues lock. This will make it so the last week of the new season you won't be placed into a fresh division where you can win one game and get top 8. Obviously this will only apply to random teams because blizzard has already fixed the glitch with teams. Before the patch you could get with 3 people, do 5 placements and get placed in 4v4 masters. ( same concept with fresh division.) Now the highest you can be placed is diamond so you will have to rightfully work for your top 8 masters.



Thank you for your time. Please think this over and reply with your ideas.
-xSPopTart signing out.
rauk
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States2228 Posts
September 12 2012 02:05 GMT
#2
being top 8/25/whatever is entirely meaningless and doesn't affect your mmr at all so
QzYSc2
Profile Joined June 2012
Netherlands281 Posts
September 12 2012 02:06 GMT
#3
i thought i was the only one to figure it out :D but yeah position in league says nothing, points/mmr is what matters
MicroTastiC
Profile Joined January 2011
375 Posts
September 12 2012 02:09 GMT
#4
top 8,25,50 means something. top 8 indicates that you're at least half decent relative to your location in masters. people who are mediocre wouldn;t get there in a lifetime.
Erik.TheRed
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1655 Posts
September 12 2012 02:11 GMT
#5
That's why those of us who care go by points, or use sc2ranks.com.
"See you space cowboy"
Maxd11
Profile Joined July 2011
United States680 Posts
September 12 2012 02:11 GMT
#6
You're entirely right but sadly nobody (including blizz) gives a shit since you're talking about team games.
I personally am having a really hard time getting promoted in team games despite the fact that I am vastly better than my opponents and my ally/allies. It really sucks for you though that you have those crazy que times for short games. The best way to fix that would be to have more high level team game players but it seems that most high level players prefer 1v1s.
Maybe it could also help if you got a kr server account since the players are (much) better on that server?
I looked in the mirror and saw biupilm69t
SilSol
Profile Joined April 2012
Sweden2744 Posts
September 12 2012 02:13 GMT
#7
Wait i must be dumb or something but if someone waits til the end of the season and just play 4 placement matches they get into top8 masters in a new division? Like even if u were platinum before u can get placed in masters at the end of the season doing this?
http://fragbite.se/user/117868/silsol since 2006 http://www.reddit.com/u/silsol77
triforks
Profile Joined November 2010
United States370 Posts
September 12 2012 02:25 GMT
#8
so basically ur message is that

u pay 60 dollars for sc2.

then, u dont play it except for a few games on the last day of the season.

good investment right there.

User was warned for this post
Dalguno
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States2446 Posts
September 12 2012 02:29 GMT
#9
On September 12 2012 11:25 triforks wrote:
so basically ur message is that

u pay 60 dollars for sc2.

then, u dont play it except for a few games on the last day of the season.

good investment right there.


Yes, that's the only thing he's trying to say.
"I'm gonna keep making drones cause I'm a baller, and ballers make drones." -Snute
Insomni7
Profile Joined June 2011
667 Posts
September 12 2012 02:30 GMT
#10
wow, you figured how to smurf and how to get meaningless rankings. This was one of the more obnoxious and irritating posts ive read in a very long time.
Never Forget.
PopTartSplash
Profile Joined September 2011
United States12 Posts
September 12 2012 02:31 GMT
#11
Thanks for your support guys and reading this. I really appreciate it. Thanks maxd11 as well.
@SilSol no. I am sorry. What it means is that if you get placed in MASTERS you can come into a brand new MASTERS league and be top 8. Now if your plat and wait to the very end of the season, then you could be placed in a brand new PLAT division and get top 8 plat pretty easy.

@triforks Yes, it would appear so. Many players actually spend 120 dollars on starcraft so on one account, they can have fun on, and the other account they can get top masters every season and look good.

GranDGranT
Profile Joined April 2011
Sri Lanka2141 Posts
September 12 2012 02:35 GMT
#12
I believe I went from Gold League to Masters in 1 season.
All Dota 2 casters are bad at their job
ailouros
Profile Joined August 2008
United States193 Posts
September 12 2012 02:37 GMT
#13
I did this unintentionally this last season. Started off in gold 4v4 and played a ton going in by myself out of boredom and got placed into a fresh Master division being by far #1 because I accumulated so many points. I let it go though.
O.Golden_ne
Profile Joined August 2010
Australia204 Posts
September 12 2012 02:38 GMT
#14
queue*
Like a baneling in a mineral line
Kal_rA
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2925 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-12 02:39:01
September 12 2012 02:38 GMT
#15
Hm not the kind of abuse I was expecting haha.. Interesting insight.
Jaedong.
Prplppleatr
Profile Joined May 2011
United States1518 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-12 02:40:20
September 12 2012 02:39 GMT
#16
1. this won't happen with the new ladder system they implemented this season (rank is based on actual lvl in ur skill range, ie diamond, masters, w.e...rank 1 is top 1%)

2. Rank meant (past tense) nothing...if you were top8 masters with less than 1k pts (in 1v1)..that person still isn't very good, no offense...and people can see you're points and w/l so whats the big deal here?

Welcome to TL though
🥇 Prediction Contest - Mess with the best, die like the rest.
Zanno
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
United States1484 Posts
September 12 2012 02:40 GMT
#17
okay so he maphacks

if you maphack and have modest mechanics/game sense you should be able to blind counter most builds, especially in zvz where you should be able to bat pretty close to 100% wr with maphacks

so basically you maphack your way to masters rating then don't play any games so you don't rank up or down

i hardly see how this qualifies as abuse

aaaaa
johnny123
Profile Joined February 2012
521 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-09-12 03:06:04
September 12 2012 02:48 GMT
#18
On September 12 2012 11:30 Insomni7 wrote:
wow, you figured how to smurf and how to get meaningless rankings. This was one of the more obnoxious and irritating posts ive read in a very long time.



no, i disagee. Im glad people post stuff like this, a flawed ladder system is flawed, the more people that know about the abuse, the more inclined blizzard is to act.

There is a whole bunch of different problems i have with team games as well. There are alot more abuses that just turn me off completely from the team games.


A)

Partial arrange team Queing in Random team ladders and getting ranked on random team ladder. You look at any random team ladder player that has a somewhat decent / good record at masters and you will always see them playing with the same people all the time +1 randomly given ally. All the best records is from pre-team abuse. Blizzard has stuff in to compensate for a full arrange team vs random team to even up the matchup, but with partial arrange team there is nothing in place. Random team ladder is basically a meaningless ladder right now and its better off being called an Arrange team ladder because thats what it is, if you want to get to the top of Random team ladder with a somewhat good record you gotta play with friends. Its pretty easy for 3 good players to accept 1 bad player in 4v4 rt or 3v3 rt and do strong cheeses to easily take out the 4 completely random team players. Abuse = abuse. Hate the fact random team ladder isnt a true random team ladder. It removes the whole point of playing random team ladder completely. If i wanted to play arrange team ladder i'd play arrange team ladder, you know with friends? Why must i be forced to play with friends to compete on random team ladder? LAWL stupid blizzard and their ideas..


B)

outside of 2v2, the maps are really bad. They piegon hole you into certain builds all the time, really big ramps, separated bases.... All they do is promote heavy heavy cheese, Its a dual zerg 8-10 pool playground with ramps that big. Lets say for instance you play terran in 4v4 rt, how the fuck do you defend your allys on the other side of the map against dual 10 pools? . YOu can do a fast gas to reactor hellion, but if the 10 pools hit your side instead, your dead because you wont have it out in time. So really terran is forced into 2 rax marine everygame and pulling scvs. Most of the time your ally die and your just fighting a downhill battle from the get go. Bascially the balance is so bad its pointless to even play

C) 1v1 is where its at , blizzard knows this and thats all they care about.
Favorite players,Stephano/MVP/Nestea/Gumiho/Life/Jaedong/MMA
Kashll
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
United States1117 Posts
September 12 2012 02:49 GMT
#19
You spent a long time researching things, preparing screenshots and writing. Yet you didn't look up the correct spelling of "queue". You could be saying brilliant things about starcraft, I don't know. Because i instantly started skimming your posts once you lost your credibility.

Life is in the details man.

User was warned for this post
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
Cascade
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
Australia5405 Posts
September 12 2012 02:54 GMT
#20
I don't see how the last day master is a big deal. It doesn't harm anyone, does it? I feel that it is like people finding some abuse to get the single player achievements... Are you afraid that your "true" top 8 master will have it's value inflated? Why not just brag in terms of points or sc2ranks instead, which is more accurate as pointed out earlier?

I agree that the queue time shouldn't be that long though, and I thought they already had capped it, but maybe I am wrong, or maybe that was only for 1on1... It should be easy to fix even without a cap imo, like expand the width of the players MMR range as queue time grows. Or even start with a wider range if you are far up in MMR. Or give diminishing return for very high MMR (so some kind of soft cap). But I agree that queue times that long are not really acceptable, and it shouldn't be hard to fix. Also nice little fix with adding in the silver league guy.

Thanks for writeup though.
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