Horrible teammates

@r1ggedgame In that case level is sufficient no need for time to loot since it tells the number of hours played to some extent. And it doesnt tell skill at all.

@reconzero If we play the game long enough, we start to understand what is fundamentally possible and not possible. I will be the first to admit that when I try to do something in the game - wallbounce, hit a skill shot, position myself effectively, etc. and I cannot do it then it's my fault. There is no other conclusion to come to rather than it was your own inadequacy. What starts to make people feel like conspiracy theorists is when - time and time again - things happen that you cannot explain. Why other people are able to do things that you are simply not able to replicate. I don't think there is a single "look here's the cheating" scenario we can point to. As well, it gets muddied by the other nonsense (such as getting shot around corners because the game has 20hz tick rate servers). I think it's a combination of a bunch of small factors and cheaters who aren't obvious - like wallhackers and soft aim botters - are able to snuggle themselves in between those other factors such that the cheating can be explained away by something else.

Here's another occams razor moment - the cheats are incredibly accessible. If you do a Google search, you'll find subscription based cheat models which TELL you whether the cheat has been detected that day or for that most recent patch. You log in, check the status, and then cheat away. They design the cheats to get around easy anti cheat - and as we all know that protection isn't 100% foolproof.

Second occam's razor moment. Pros and high level players have every motivation to cheat. It's a moneymaking system. I am personally acquainted with individuals who have achieved predator status / played in the ALGS and have NEVER been able to reach Predator again it since the early seasons of this game no matter how hard they play or who they team up with. I just watched my guy drop a 17 game solo in a pub the other day, so it's not like he "got old" or anything. There is something preventing him from being successful at the high levels that wasn't there before. Either the quality of the playerbase has gotten so intensely good that even average players now are predators compared to the players in Season 1 or there is something else going on. Yes, it sounds like a "conspiracy" when you can't point to any specific evidence and can only rely on looking at effects to draw conclusions. This is how we find black holes anyways. We can't see them, we can only measure their effects on things around them, so I don't find this method of drawing conclusions totally erroneous or without merit.

If you were to dive into my profile, you would see a 0.25 k/d coming out of Season 3. I was terrible. I just played the game in my spare time after work for a couple of rounds and stopped. I really started taking the game seriously in Season 5, and since then my K/D has gone up to 1.48

Obviously that's not going to make me a pro or anything, but that basically means I kill more people than I get killed which would mean having me on a team will mean we statistically win more than we lose. I could never get out of gold before. Now I can get to Diamond without trying. I cannot get out of Diamond to save my life. If you paid me a million dollars and put a gun to my head and gave me all the caffeine in the world I would not be able to solo to Master's. I have tried it. My wife hates me for it. I get very angry.

I recognize that the opportunity for me to do this exists, and that many factors such as three-stacking, the way the RP system works, and the random teammate matchmaking are large factors. Since we are talking about matchmaking in this post - I think that's the number one reason I can't do it. Both the teammates I get are almost never able to keep up - even in Diamond. It's strange. If I get RP one game, I will lose RP nine games because of the matchmaking. It gets worse as the tiers go higher because of how the system operates. Either a confluence of extreme luck has to happen, or I have to grease the wheel somehow (start stacking / cheat / etc.).

So what are we talking about then? I've watched many streamers simply giggle and bounce their way through diamond as if it were nothing. This inherently makes no sense. Not because I'm the best player and I set the standard for how difficult diamond is, but because they are subject to the SAME issues I am. Same quality teammates, same lack of communication, same game problems, same opponents. So what's different? They can shoot better than me and that's the literal only difference? They somehow ALWAYS find themselves in good positions when a fight breaks out? When you solo there are just too many factors you can't control for a person - even one who is very good - to always come out on top consistently as I have observed some of these players do. This is my ultimate point. This is where I say I'm just using my brain and something doesn't make sense here.

@Str8UpD0gwater

Loved the whole post, but this:

"Yes, it sounds like a "conspiracy" when you can't point to any specific evidence and can only rely on looking at effects to draw conclusions. This is how we find black holes anyways. We can't see them, we can only measure their effects on things around them, so I don't find this method of drawing conclusions totally erroneous or without merit."

...has given me the license I needed to not feel like a tinfoil hat wearing idiot every time I see something happening that I know is unlikely in the extreme. Thank you for that.