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I personally love it when a mid+ team skillfakes as a mid-, then they get stomped and they all act like little kids. fun.

cant be helped…look into the recruitment forum…skillfake everywhere..

Here’s how I look for games –

Depending on how I think our clan is doing, I’ll advertise for different things. Often, if it’s the first game of the evening (or after a long break), I’ll ask for a div5 game. This is because we’re a div5 team and our first game of the evening is going to involve some warming up.

If we’ve been doing well recently, then I’ll ask for a div4/5 game, because I want to push the team by playing better teams. This means however, that we will lose some games against teams. Playing teams better than you also inversely means that the other team has to play a team that is worse than them. If you want to play better teams, you need to accept you have to give other teams a chance to do likewise, it’s all about give and take. Be honest with them, if necessary these matches might only last one map, depending on how it goes.

When I actually get a response, I ask the person what clan they’re in and check them out on etf2l. If they’re in a mix, I’ll try and ask what the mix is mostly made up of, as most mixes I’ve played against have had at least 3 people from the same clan in them. Similarly, if I’ve got a few mercs playing for me, I’ll still say it’s 9 Men from div5b if people ask, unless the majority of our teams is made up of mercs. Generally the mercs I use are around my skill level, there’s only one or two higher skilled people I’ve used so it’s never made much of a difference.

Finally, if they say they’re just a random mix and we’re desperate for a game then I’ll get them on the server and then if I actually recognise a lot of the names as higher division players then I’ll check them on etf2l and if it really does look like it won’t be much of a contest, I’ll ask them politely to leave and find another clan. If that doesn’t work then I’ll just kick them :)

Edit – Orange that’s the problem with the skill names. No one wants to be called a ‘low’ skilled clan, it implies we don’t know what we’re doing. I’ve always advertised 9 Men as low+, we’re not new and we take things reasonably seriously, but we’re certainly not as good as most clans in TF2. There seems like an almost desperate need to break into the ‘mid’ skill bracket that damages the perception of clan ability. Another thing that happens (that loosely relates to something I touched on above) is that often the teams responding to div4 requests are the lower skilled div4 teams, where as the teams doing well in div4 are obviously out looking for games against div3 teams. Hence why people’s perceptions are often shattered when they do well in lots of friendlies then when it comes to league games they underperform :)

Nothing wrong with giving feedback, is there? :)

Nope

Having a think after what Bill and Snowie said, I’ve come up with a revised idea…

Since nobody likes being called “low”, doing it on a division basis is probably the best way to go, now divisions from different leagues may not correspond, but just as equally people’s ideas of “low” wont correspond, divisions are by far the method where skill levels overlap more if coming from a different league, rather than the mind of some random who under/over rates themselves. Besides, afaik, most people play ETF2L anyway do they not? :P

Also is the fact with people playing offclass, not taking it seriously, whatever, the average skill level of a team is going to change, so the whole “estimating your ability” thing is still an issue. As such, when you search, just stick in a division (perhaps adding a +/- for either end of the division), and say whether it’s a team/mix (including an offclass team there), if they wan’t any more info, they can ask, but that should tell them all they need to know, what to expect, etc.

For instance, if somebody searches:

6v6 Div5+ Mix ServOn

You know you’re looking at a team playing offclass, a mix, whatever, who’ve estimated their average skill as the top end of D5, they may have some D4 guys in there, but playing offclass, it brings them down

Simple?

You’ll never get rid of “skill fakers” completely, there’ll always be arses looking to roll a few teams, but equally there’ll be people who simply underestimate their skill. If it’s a true roll just play it through, ask them to leave, find another, then kick if they don’t go, basically, what Snowie does, nothing wrong with that!

I searched with this:

6v6 | ETF2L Div5 | your server | now

I think it makes it clear which level I’m looking for. Yes, I know you’ll never get rid of skillfakers for good but every little bit helps. I don’t mind playing stronger opponents but not when it’s 3 Divs difference.

I searched with this:

6v6 | ETF2L Div5 | your server | now

I think it makes it clear which level I’m looking for. Yes, I know you’ll never get rid of skillfakers for good but every little bit helps. I don’t mind playing stronger opponents but not when it’s 3 Divs difference.

The problem searching for DIV 5, is there is a big difference between the top of Div 5 and bottom, the 200 teams in etf2l Div 5/6, should really be spread out over at least 4 divisions

However it must just be me that never has a problem with getting games, depending on whether it is my team or a mix withing the clan, dictates what i advertise for, be it low-, low, or low+, as we pretty much cover all those levels depending on the 6 involved

Occasionally we’ll roll someone, and then on others we’ll get rolled, no great loss, 15/20 min later we’re back on irc looking for our next game, and more oftern than not we get a good competitive game.

If people are going to advertise by the division (a system probably equaly as flawed as the low/mid/high system), please do it div 6 low, div 6 high etc

Yesterday just showed off how division3+ players are searching for low games. Getting beaten in a fight with equal enemy or at least a BIT higher oponent makes some sense – you can’t beat them all, you’ll get beaten sooner or later. BUT playing against players who have the individual skill level MUCH higher then yours isn’t fun and you can’t learn from that. For example – demoman who reaches middle like 4 seconds faster on badlands, putting 4 stickies on the exit and already launching 3 pipes in house dirrection OR a sniper who point-blanks scouts and equals the medic with one shot each, now combine that with scout duo who could rape a combo in 2 seconds and try to call that a low+. I really enjoy playing against people slightly better than I or my team could be, but reach the difference in 2 divisions and it’s almost always pointles to even play to the end.

It’s not like you should make a rule forbiding that or make that a bannable offence or smthn, it’s just the way comunity has grown. It’s just slight or more like no respect to lower level players trying to push on, ‘Rick-Rolling’ them out. Don’t see the fun in acting like a dick and playing a game, which result is known long before.

thing is, a low+ demo SHOULD be getting to middle 4 seconds faster than a random pub player… any demo with at least a season’s experience should be, since the route to middle is basically a matter of looking at a youtube of how to do the jumps… sure a highly skilled demo can do better, but the difference in time-to-middle between a div6 player jumping in and a pub player should be MUCH more than that between a div1 and a div6