Win Trading: Cheating for the top Arena spots
by Robin Torres 
Nov 27th 2007 at 8:30AM
Not only am I gullible, but I always seem to be the last to find out about the latest cheats. Here I am thinking that top Arena teams are there because of skill and teamwork, but it turns out that some of them are there because of a little thing called "Win Trading". I mean, I did know that there was some cheating going on, but that was legitimately high ranked teams selling spots for titles. It seems that now, top teams in certain Battlegroups are ranked so high solely because of Win Trading.
What is Win Trading? It is when a team raises its ranking by only playing a farm team that agrees to lose. The most common "trade" is for the farm team to be made up of alts of another highly ranked team and they switch. So for example, Cheating Ranked Team A will play Loser Farm Team A for 10 games. Then Cheating Ranked Team A will get on their alts and be Loser Farm Team B, losing to the mains from Loser Farm Team A (which are now Cheating Ranked Team B) for 10 games.
What is Win Trading? It is when a team raises its ranking by only playing a farm team that agrees to lose. The most common "trade" is for the farm team to be made up of alts of another highly ranked team and they switch. So for example, Cheating Ranked Team A will play Loser Farm Team A for 10 games. Then Cheating Ranked Team A will get on their alts and be Loser Farm Team B, losing to the mains from Loser Farm Team A (which are now Cheating Ranked Team B) for 10 games.
Another way to Win Trade is for Cheating Ranked Teams to pay people to form pickup Loser Farm Teams in order to get their 10 easy wins for the week. I've actually seen people recruit for this. I was rather confused as to why it would be fun or profitable to join an Arena team only to lose on purpose for 10 games, but I didn't think about it much because I was busy attempting to complete a BG Daily Quest.
The Blizzard party line has been that there was nothing they could do for the current season and that the new Personal Rating System was being put in place for Arena Season 3 to help counteract the problem. But as of yesterday, Drysc has announced the support team is reading and investigating all reports and that action is being taken. Drysc agrees that this contradicts previous posts on the same subject and has apologized for the confusion. Blizzard will not be making the details of the investigation public, but they do "hope to be able to get all" of the Win Traders.
As usual with cheats and exploits, I just don't see the fun of Win Trading. A real win is a sense of accomplishment. Coordinated teamwork is a joy. Playing teams that purposely lose just seems boring. But my play time is limited, so I try to milk as much fun out of every moment that I can. And I'm obviously a bit of a Goodie Two-Shoes.
Are you happy that Blizzard is cracking down on Win Trading? Or do you think this is just a creative use of game mechanics? Do people even use the phrase "Goodie Two-Shoes" anymore? (Or did I just show my age... again.)
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, PvP, Forums, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Blorg Nov 27th 2007 8:39AM
Surely as the "loser farm teams" continue to lose ten matches every week they will slip down the rankings, and the high ranked teams won't get matched up against them? Wouldn't that mean you'd have to play lots of games on your loser farm team in order to stay competitive and have a chance at matchups with the "winning team", especially as by definition your loser team is deliberately throwing ten matches a week?
Wouldn't it be just as much trouble to get your loser team enough ranking to play against your winner team as it would to just do well on your winning team without cheating in the first place?
Also how do you ensure you meet only your loser team?
Asmoth Nov 27th 2007 8:49AM
To #1
On our server there was a bit of drama regarding teams playing against 'farm teams' the way they ensured they played against them was to only queue for matches in the early morning, when most people were asleep.
Richard Nov 27th 2007 9:59AM
They take their alt teams and get them a decently high ranking (let's not forget, these teams are actually pretty good in Arena).
They then queue up at really odd times (like 4am when no one else is on and queuing) so that the only matchup they get is their alt team.
There's been all sorts of misbehavior this season: go lookup "queue dodging", "ignore macros" and "win trading" on the general forums to read all the drama.
(Personally, I'll earn Rival today. I didn't start arena until 6 weeks ago (2v2 only), and did it in PvE gear, save for the Veteran's Boots/Neck/Ring... I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment. I've banked all my points, and will start S3 with 2 pieces of S3 gear, and enough honor for the second S3 ring, 3 pieces of S1, and something else I haven't decided on yet.)
Nijle Nov 27th 2007 8:41AM
I thought the matching system was gear based? My thoughts exactly, how do you match up against a farm team? Must be playing at odd hours to even have a chance at this.
Duncan Nov 27th 2007 8:44AM
"A real win is a sense of accomplishment" Agree with you 100% And if Blizz is crackng down on this I'm all for it.
"do you think this is just a creative use of game mechanics? " Nothing creative about this. Takes NO skill to lose on purpose. Players that do these things should be banned
dpoyesac Nov 27th 2007 8:44AM
Solution? Diminishing returns on wins -- you get more points for defeating teams that you have never played than you do for defeating teams you have played many times before. Sound familiar? It's the solution to honor farming in Arathi Basin and other BGs, although BG diminishing returns are limited to single games, and not a season.
There might not be enough different teams to make this feasible -- the diminishing returns might be inevitable for some and not others, simply because teams with a particular schedule might keep fighting the same other teams, over and over.
It might not be enough to solve the problem, either. For some, guaranteed small gains outweigh the risk of larger gains. But at least Blizz could keep these farmers from having ALL the phat PvP epicks.
Dan Nov 27th 2007 12:33PM
> It's the solution to honor farming in Arathi Basin and other BGs, although
> BG diminishing returns are limited to single games, and not a season.
diminishing returns are calculated daily, not per single game/battleground.
Thepitt Nov 27th 2007 8:58AM
Screw the cheaters!
Makes me get tickled in my pants to think that the cheaters will get screwed out of their farmed stuff when they thought they would at least get away with it this season.
The arenas are supposed to be based on skill, not farming. If they want farmed stuff, go raid with a big guild that has Kara or ZM on farmed status.
This kind of stuff is cheating, PERIOD. If they want to cheat, let them play a console game (left, right, left, right, up, down, start, select).
In the world of MMO's, cheating should equal Perma Ban!
onetrueping Nov 27th 2007 9:10AM
Um, that's Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Start, thank you.
Tim Nov 27th 2007 9:09AM
Very reminiscent of the sumo wrestling chapter in Freakonomics. Here's a Wikipedia summary:
"One striking example of the authors' creative use of economic theory involves demonstrating the existence of cheating among Sumo wrestlers. In a Sumo tournament, all wrestlers compete in 15 matches and stay in the top league if they win at least 8 of them. The Sumo community is very close-knit, and all of the wrestlers at the top levels tend to know each other well. The authors looked at the final match, and considered the case of a wrestler with seven wins, seven losses, and one fight to go, fighting against an 8-6 wrestler. Statistically, the 7-7 wrestler should have a slightly below even chance, since the 8-6 wrestler is slightly better. However, the 7-7 wrestler actually wins around 80% of the time. Levitt uses this statistic and other data gleaned from Sumo wrestling matches and the effect allegations of corruption have on match results, to conclude that those who already have 8 wins collude with those who are 7-7 and let them win, since they have already secured their place in the league."
George Nov 27th 2007 9:11AM
Wait, let me get this straight. You mean to say that if given a means and ample chance, people would work together to steal something when there are seemingly no repercussions and no substantive real-world value to hound their morality about it?
Bizarro world.
Scott Nov 27th 2007 10:36AM
You said: "Are you happy that Blizzard is cracking down on Win Trading? Or do you think this is just a creative use of game mechanics?"
I don't see why there has to be an "or" there. Yes, I think it's a creative use of game mechanics. And yes, I'm glad Blizz is cracking down.
I used to be a science teacher (how's that for old and goody two shoes). As a scientist, I was amazed and intrigued by the ways kids would use problem-solving skills to cheat on tests. As a teacher, I gave them a 0 on the test. The two are not mutually exclusive.
ThorinII Nov 27th 2007 9:20AM
Cheaters should be banned. No matter if you are the constant losers or the constant winners, all should be banned.
And yes, you are showing your age. :0p
WARNING: History lesson to follow. Those who hate learning need not click this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Little_Goody_Two-Shoes
slunk Nov 27th 2007 9:22AM
This has been around since season one. I've never played on any arena team and I've known about this going on since then.
It amazes me how little blizzard knows about what is going on in their game. If they were to pay one person to browse the web 40 hours a week, they would know about these exploits as they happen, not months later.
Alexisonfire Nov 27th 2007 9:26AM
Isn't this a simple fix? Can't you just like make beating the same team/people multiple times have diminishing results? It would be kind of like mobs, where you get less experience when you are a few levels higher than them.
Or you could just limit the amount of times you can play a certain team/players during a season.
JPN Nov 27th 2007 9:27AM
Ummmm...duh?
Cross-server arena battles would solve this. Would be tough to figure rankings but it would stop these kind of controlled pairings.
Richard Nov 27th 2007 10:05AM
Uhh, do you arena?
Arena is Battlegroup-based, not server-based.
They do this by queuing up at really odd times when it's just their teams in the queue.
GM Bekyn Nov 27th 2007 9:30AM
in my realm there is a dou of druid/lock that they make 10k gold each per week because of people hire them just to play 10 games (300g each for lock and druid = 600g) and i know more than a dozen 2v2 teams hire them, they also make teams and make its ratings to 2.3 and sell it for 1.5kgold, and sell armored netherdrake spot for 3.5kgold, easilly done just by playing atleast 20games on their team regardless if you loose they just hover back on the highest rating they can get.
now i know they will be included in the 0.5 top team pool
Manasseh Nov 27th 2007 9:32AM
I find this practice reprehensible. I have no issue with good players "team hopping" to help out lesser-geared or lesser-skilled players, but those lesser-geared players should PLAY and actually EARN their wins and their rating alongside the better player(s), not BUY it. Even without the exchange of monies, the idea of having 3 players play a quota of games only to have a high-ranked team take over and push on to 2400+ rating is dishonest and cheats skilled, honest, hard-working players out of their deserved rewards. I watched a warlock PvP video recently of a "Gladiator" who almost lost to a fellow warlock in leveling greens/blues. It was purely pitiful and almost certainly a result of this sort of despicable, underhanded cheating. (Note to These People: Don't buy your title and then make a PvP video showing your ignorance.)
Brian Carnell Nov 27th 2007 9:39AM
"As usual with cheats and exploits, I just don't see the fun of Win Trading. A real win is a sense of accomplishment."
Huh? Just like most things in WoW, Arenas for just yet another grind. Not surprising that people find creative ways to reduce the annoyance of that grind.