@AymCTLI've been observing a lot of smurfs lately. They're aggravating, but it's the developer collusion that I really object to.
Then I did something I haven't done in a while. Last night I entered a lobby with a friend. That was a reminder of how easy I really have it in my solo lobbies. I might complain about the incompetent randoms I get teamed with, but that is nothing compared to the enemies we faced as a two stack. I expect tougher enemies when stacked, but this was off the chart. Couldn't tell if they were just good or cheaters - always the problem in games with bad matchmaking. They ran toward enemies without hesitation and fired whatever gun they had as if it was a one-shot-one-kill weapon. Because it was.
I can understand the logic behind the harder lobby when stacked, but the logic has two flaws. First, a lot of friends just like to play together and until they've done so for hundreds of matches you might not see any appreciable synergy that results in better team performance. Second, because the algorithm provides brutal matches (instead of just "harder" matches) it will, I'm sure, have the net effect of either discouraging friends from playing together (bad for fun, bad for retention) or driving them out of the game completely to go find a game they can play together without being punished. And I don't use the word "punished" lightly. That was what it was. Swing and miss, Respawn. Do better.
