The last I saw on this, CG never acknowledged it's an issue. They didn't think there was an advantage to only joining with 40 players. After getting heavily sandbagged three TW in a row, I thought I'd see if we can make any progress.All of the guild who sandbagged us are top, competitive guilds. We just passed 300M GP and are getting matched with 340M GP guilds. I searched the DSR bot for the name of our most recent opponent and they always join with 40 players, dating back to last year. So the usual excuses of, "we had players out of town," or "we don't make players join if they don't want to" don't apply. It's an intentional strategy to get an easier opponent.The result in our case is they match 40 players with an average GP of 7.7M with 50 players averaging 6M GP. As a result, they have a 120-70 GL advantage. And all of their teams are high relic. There's no possible strategy to win in that scenario. It's not like it's a difficult problem to fix. Simply add average active GP to matchmaking and sandbaggers will be equally matched with other sandbaggers. And they'll quit making 10 players sit out every TW.

"StarSon;c-2183263" wrote:"Sewpot;c-2183256" wrote:I know that guild. They have 40 members and 10 alts for tickets. I’m just kidding! But anything is possibles Couldn’t see making members sit out would make your guild stronger as a whole. It doesn't always happen because a guild does it on purpose.In this case, I searched their name in the DSR bot. They've joined with 40 players in every TW matchup recorded there. Hard to see any way that's not intentional sandbagging.

"HerderOfNerf;c-2183264" wrote:They're a full guild. If I were to guess, I'd say their motivation for sandbagging is rooted in that they've collectively spent over a million dollars on this game and can't beat guilds that have done the same.Do you have proof, or just throwing salt?

How much research did you do into each TW, to show that they just dont have a full guild sign up, and random people that dont care about TW not signing up, because they dont care about TW?Funny that you call them very competitive, but they dont seem to be, since they have members who are not competitive enough to play TW.

"HerderOfNerf;c-2183294" wrote:"Waqui;c-2183292" wrote:"HerderOfNerf;d-237254" wrote:All of the guild who sandbagged us are top, competitive guilds. We just passed 300M GP and are getting matched with 340M GP guilds. I searched the DSR bot for the name of our most recent opponent and they always join with 40 players, dating back to last year. So the usual excuses of, "we had players out of town," or "we don't make players join if they don't want to" don't apply. It's an intentional strategy to get an easier opponent.We've seen evidence that some guilds do it strategically (on purpose) while many guilds don't. At lower GP, you get the casual guilds that might not require participation. I think the 340M GP guilds that promote themselves as elite competitive are doing it strategically. There are high level players who do not like TW. They prefer not to play. Then there are high end guilds, some of whom take TW very seriously and others who are less so. That second group of players is happy to find those players. It’s a great fit - those players can be in a 300M+ guild and not have to do TW. Those guilds can maintain a high GP but draw weaker opponents by allowing those players not to take part. Is it gaming the system? Those players need to be in a guild somewhere, why can’t it be a 300M (Or 320M, 340M, etc) guild if both sides are happy with it?

It's not sandbagging - just a poor matchmaking algorithm when it comes to matching guilds of different numbers of participants.

TW matchmaking | EA Forums

HerderOfNerf
4 years ago
"StarSon;c-2183263" wrote:
"Sewpot;c-2183256" wrote:
I know that guild. They have 40 members and 10 alts for tickets.
I’m just kidding! But anything is possibles
Couldn’t see making members sit out would make your guild stronger as a whole.

It doesn't always happen because a guild does it on purpose.

In this case, I searched their name in the DSR bot. They've joined with 40 players in every TW matchup recorded there. Hard to see any way that's not intentional sandbagging.
NyKynoe
4 years ago
"HerderOfNerf;c-2183264" wrote:
They're a full guild. If I were to guess, I'd say their motivation for sandbagging is rooted in that they've collectively spent over a million dollars on this game and can't beat guilds that have done the same.

Do you have proof, or just throwing salt?
NyKynoe
4 years ago
How much research did you do into each TW, to show that they just dont have a full guild sign up, and random people that dont care about TW not signing up, because they dont care about TW?

Funny that you call them very competitive, but they dont seem to be, since they have members who are not competitive enough to play TW.
kello_511
4 years ago
"HerderOfNerf;c-2183294" wrote:
"Waqui;c-2183292" wrote:
"HerderOfNerf;d-237254" wrote:

All of the guild who sandbagged us are top, competitive guilds. We just passed 300M GP and are getting matched with 340M GP guilds. I searched the DSR bot for the name of our most recent opponent and they always join with 40 players, dating back to last year. So the usual excuses of, "we had players out of town," or "we don't make players join if they don't want to" don't apply. It's an intentional strategy to get an easier opponent.

We've seen evidence that some guilds do it strategically (on purpose) while many guilds don't.

At lower GP, you get the casual guilds that might not require participation. I think the 340M GP guilds that promote themselves as elite competitive are doing it strategically.

There are high level players who do not like TW. They prefer not to play.
Then there are high end guilds, some of whom take TW very seriously and others who are less so.

That second group of players is happy to find those players. It’s a great fit - those players can be in a 300M+ guild and not have to do TW. Those guilds can maintain a high GP but draw weaker opponents by allowing those players not to take part.

Is it gaming the system?
Those players need to be in a guild somewhere, why can’t it be a 300M (Or 320M, 340M, etc) guild if both sides are happy with it?
Nikoms565
4 years ago
It's not sandbagging - just a poor matchmaking algorithm when it comes to matching guilds of different numbers of participants.
NyKynoe
4 years ago
This post will not be going down the path of any discussion about what one guild does or doesnt do.

If you 2 want to have that conversation please do it in a direct message. We are not going to have the back and forth in an thread on the open forum.

Removed a bunch of posts, please stay on topic.
Persimius
Rising Traveler
4 years ago
Simplest fix is to add number of signed up players to the MM. it still won’t be perfect, but it will be better.
Persimius
Rising Traveler
4 years ago
Even if they did realize the advantage, they don't care enough to change it. When was the last time they bothered changing anything about TW? Just another abandoned game mode.
Sewpot
4 years ago
I know that guild. They have 40 members and 10 alts for tickets.
I’m just kidding! But anything is possibles
Couldn’t see making members sit out would make your guild stronger as a whole.
Rudi_7_11
4 years ago
It’s still worth bringing up every once in a while. And I agree with the proposed solution.

Sandbagging takes the fun out of an otherwise enjoyable piece of content. We ain’t got many of those.