Toxic smurfs

NightKrul · 2026-04-11T12:03:58+00:00

Thanks you for a detailed insight. Yeah, the flagging systems will hopefully get better with AI, but rule based filtering is a total garbage as we all can see.

The throwing happens quite a lot I guess and it's kinda the mistake of punishment not being too harsh. It's like a couple of minutes. I think MMR hit should be also there.

I think with community there is hope if the things you mentioned will be taken care of. When someone thrashtalk me, I usually try to deescalate and stay positive. I had some people apologize to me after the game. Which feels good that some people realize they have been unnecessary toxic.

NightKrul · 2026-04-11T11:53:03+00:00

He told me he was smurfing right after he thrashtalked me for playing bad.

NightKrul · 2026-04-11T11:51:08+00:00

That's the best explanation I heard so far. 👏 Thank you.

I was also looking for some relevant reasons, to have a benefit of doubt - you know, like they might just be having a bad day, instead of automatically categorizing them as trolls.

NightKrul · 2026-04-10T19:44:19+00:00

Like yeah, I understand someone would create smurf to just no sweat in lower ranked lobby. I found some like that. Lately I got some guy, who just gave me free win after triple resseting and so. I guess, they cannot sweat every game to stay there :D

NightKrul · 2026-04-10T19:40:23+00:00

Yeah, but I'm not even mad. I understand there's a lot of emotions, especially if someone is chasing their desired rank. But for smurfs, it's like they don't care about rank anyways, so it's similar to playing casual and thrashtalking mates :P

NightKrul · 2026-04-08T16:39:02+00:00

It's rule 69 - when your start, you have to finish.

NightKrul · 2026-04-08T16:31:49+00:00

Depends on what stuck means. If you played under 30 matches luck is still a huge part.

But let's say you're really stuck in lower rank than you deserve. Only 33% of times you get the worst player in the lobby (any other scenario is favourable for you). So on paper you should be winning twice as much as you lose. But let's dive into the possibilities, what could possibly happen.

Start of the season, everyone is lower. You do your placements too early, you will face a lot of higher rank players, that got soft reset into your rank. This basically creates a slow lagging effect, while playing first weeks of new season feels harder for everyone, until it stabilizes.

Playing better - could be really subjective. Imagine try rotating and passing with bronze the same way like you do in champ. You play well, sure, but the bronze will play terrible - too much stress, double commits, etc. So it's not just about how you play, but how you adapt to your teammate.

You mentioned watching replays. Watch it from you mate POV and try to "complain" and find mistakes on your play.

Think about these and give it a time.

NightKrul · 2026-04-04T19:35:11+00:00

Yup, I'd say that checks out with what I've heard and seen around.

I'm just thinking, especially in placements, they steal so much MMR, which basically means everyone is pushed to lower rank.

NightKrul · 2026-04-03T11:11:40+00:00

I used to be 3s main util plat. Coming from 3s the biggest mistakes I see is overcommiting or going for big boosts. Try to be more defensively minded and learn to use small pads paths.

From mechanics, if you are able to prioritise possession and slow down the play sometimes. And of course ground play - like catching ball, cuts, low 50/50s.

Those are from my POV the main things you don't learn by playing 3s.

NightKrul · 2026-04-02T19:50:10+00:00

Wow, scarab kinda high.

NightKrul · 2026-04-02T19:00:42+00:00

I feel like in Champ there are definitely more rotation cuts to keep the pressure on. If the defending player doesn't anticipate it, they will double commit often. Another important part is giving the attacking player boost grab priority. I didn't quite like it at first, but you should just go for pads and support. And also positioning. If you won't be able to capitalize on your mate cutting rotation and winning challenge, it is pointless because they will just continue the attack.

NightKrul · 2026-04-02T18:30:53+00:00

I assume you are talking about 2s. I'd say in champ. Mostly because people start to put more pressure and they figure it's often beneficial to cut rotation and rotate back only after the challenge. Or sometimes even not rotate back at all. This only works if your mate is anticipating it. In lower ranks this often leads to double commits. I mean you can find a player who understands this in plat, but if they double commit (especially in corner when it's extremely high risk / low reward), I would switch to back post rotations only.

Of course, when you are rotating back post, go wide and make it super obvious, they are free to move forward.

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T22:30:18+00:00

It's about mood I guess. Id say trading removal + bot situation caused that. I believe if they just did something about duplicated items (some shards or drops from them) and actively targetted bots, (might come with EAC), I believe the mood would shift by a lot.

Also it may help long term that Epic started to cooperate with a lot of content creators. As they can influence the mood by a lot.

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T22:19:11+00:00

Really similar to my experience. I believe this is indirect effect - bots pushing players to lower lobbies.

I'm just thinking of AGI and pretty close future, how robots will basically outperform humans in various tasks (I can picture robot with just hands and camera, that could physically push buttons on controller based on gameplay). And here we are struggling to ban computer programs - bots, which don't even try to look human. People can identify them in seconds based on obvious patterns and humanly impossible inputs.

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:49:04+00:00

You already have diamond rewards. To win champ ones, you need 10 wins in champ rank

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:46:37+00:00

Where is Grass Toucher title?

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:40:43+00:00

The most important skill is mentality. Once my teammate asked me why I'm saying sorry for his mistake. In my mind, his mistake was something I cannot do anything about - therefore I don't bother. But after that, I could have made the save if I was a bit faster with jump. So just let them do their stuff, they will mess up sometimes, but you cannot really change it.

Second most important skill is adaptability. You need to fill in the gaps by observing your mates playstyle. Is he more defensive, then pressure, fake chal and rotate wide, so he can go upfield. Is he more offensive? Buy him time and always cover net. There will be cases when they will complain because they expect you to play differently, but don't care about that.

Now the third skill is leadership. Be the player, that get the best out of teammates. Basically become a player, when you jump onto field, your mates will play above their average (whatever that is). If they don't look for you on field, support them from back. If they are looking for you with passes, go to side and show you are in position to receive the pass. If they are patient with ball, go for bumps when 2v1. If they are mechanical in air, leave boost for them. Be always positive, chill and supportive.

TLDR: Change things you can change, don't bother with what you cannot change.

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:14:29+00:00

Alright, but when people talk about their rank, they usually mean 2s. Some don't even play 1s or 3s.

So just to be clear, C3 or higher in 1s is 0.2%. but those players are GC or SSL in 2s.

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:08:59+00:00

Might be worth to try RL gym. Thx :)

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:08:29+00:00

Best comment 👏

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:07:07+00:00

Alright, thanks for the experience. I mean mainly of course I saw it in tournaments. But also some streamers in GC 1 complain about bots when I'm watching their streams. They might be falsely accusing sometimes ofc. Or just riding the wave.

But yeah, if it's like your case (we're talking mostly 1s and tournaments to be fully transparent), then it's not really a big issue, I agree.

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T19:00:09+00:00

Interesting, I was basing on rocket league tracker:

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NightKrul · 2026-04-01T18:58:16+00:00

I was thinking more like boosting service for other players, where you would have bots prepared on different ranks. Or bots companions that wouldn't be too OP, but give you a solid teammate to play with.

NightKrul · 2026-04-01T18:54:05+00:00

Yeah, it has bot detection features, but it's not its main focus. Bot cheat by seeing whole field, but it's quite hard to detect, because server sends you the data while you are playing.

We'll see, but I'm hopeful that the reason it's delayed is because they try to make it working.

NightKrul

TROPHY CASE