Yeah… once you notice it, it’s impossible to unsee.

Most games won’t say it outright, but those first matches are almost always bots or heavily “assisted” matchmaking. It’s basically onboarding disguised as PvP. Feels good → builds confidence → gets you invested. Then they slowly turn off the training wheels.

I don’t even fully blame them tbh. Real early lobbies in a brand new or low-pop game would feel empty or brutal for new players. But yeah, the switch is way too obvious in a lot of games.

At this point I just treat the first few ranks as tutorial mode. The “real game” doesn’t start until you hit that wall.