Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsWin 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 2 of 2)
Memzer Nov 27th 2007 9:49AM
This has allegedly happened on my main server as well [Frostmourne; US; PvP]. Essentially each player in your team requires two accounts, one Alliance and one Horde. Once each player has gone through the Hassle of grinding their characters on both accounts to 70 [this can easily be done in under a week with a group of five people] you then pick an off-peak time [wowcensus can help you here] for arena for your battle group and queue up at the same time. With some luck and a bit of clever checking [queued time for each side, etc] you can marginalise the chance of fighting a real team allowing you to kill your own alternate team and boost your main teams rating a little.
What people need to remember is that most of the time the main team are actually decent players. They typically start by playing their alternate team in the 2000+ bracket up until they reach around a 2200-2400 range. They then switch to their main team and begin the queue process, if they come up against their alternate team it's easy points, if they come up against a real team then they just play like they would play against any other team. After a while from the losses their alternate team drops back down to the 2000 range and they just switch back to this team and farm back their 2200-2400 rating allowing them to repeat the process. In the mean time their main teams points steadily increase and this is why people are complaining.
One possible solution would be to simply put daily/weekly/seasonal diminishing returns on arena ranking gain from opposing teams. Blizzard would need to be very careful about implementing something like this however as legitimate teams who play at off peak times are forced to play in a diminished team pool and would unfairly suffer from any form of diminished rank gain.
Another possible solution might be to simply track the number of times an arena team has fought each other arena team; then when selecting an opposing team make the selection not only based upon the opposing teams rank, but favour the selection of:
i) previously uncontested teams;
ii) teams against which the fewest matches have been played; or
iii) teams which have not recently been challenged.
The exact matching algorithm used would obviously need to be carefully tested. A simple round robin or aging [least frequently fought] based solution would by themselves be exploitable however if combined and balanced with current ladder ranking system a balance could be reached where the probability of fighting a team you've previously killed 300 times this season compared to any other online team would approach zero.
In the end I would have to say that while creative [well, really it's not really that creative, many online games suffer from this problem] and not really cheating [there are no rules saying that I can't buy and play two separate accounts] it is definitely not in the 'spirit' of the arena system and should definitely be fixed.
Duncan Nov 27th 2007 11:30AM
You said "not really cheating"
Sorry anytime you lose on purpose it's cheating.
idburns Nov 27th 2007 9:50AM
This is happening on Skullcrusher...
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2969687315&sid=1
The "winning team" - http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Skullcrusher&ts=3&t=Team%20TEI
and the two "farm teams" - http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Skullcrusher&ts=3&t=Leftovers&select=Leftovers&fl=1
http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Skullcrusher&ts=3&t=Team+XTS&select=Team+XTS&fl=1
It's despicable...and rather shameful that it's happening on our server.
Mike Nov 27th 2007 9:55AM
This game is getting worse and worse. On the EU boards, the GM threatens to ban the people petitioning about cheaters and deletes the proof of the Win Trading posts.
On the US boards, the GMs opt to say nothing at all and the cheaters take that as their cue to rub it in the noses of non-cheaters.
It started with the afkers in the BGs. When the cheaters saw nothing being done about that, it was only a matter of time until they carried over their habits in big numbers to the arenas.
Seems the players care more about the game then the people who own it do. But for how long is the question? How long do people actually put up with it before they resign themselves to spare themselves the frustration and quit for a game that holds itself to higher standards?
Kasika Nov 27th 2007 4:46PM
I dont get how this is even feasible... i thought matchups were random?
How can you even set this up if you're not sure you're actually going to be going up against them?
Hawk Nov 27th 2007 10:58AM
There will always be a way around the system. No system is fool proof... personally I don't have the time to organize and contruct such a scheme as this.
My small guild has 2 arena teams a 3v3 and a 5v5 we get together on Sat or Sun morning and play our minimum 10 games its really all we have tme for.
Maybe they will devise a better system once WotLK releases... who knows.. if the pattern remains the same the greens from the next expansion you get 71-75 will out rank anything these people are cheating to get now lol
wowtard Nov 27th 2007 11:12AM
There are several PvP games that have much more highly regulated competitive ladders. Fury, Guild Wars, and the upcoming Warhammer and Age of Conan all offer more pvp situations, regulated ladders, and better game balance.
For WoW, PvP has always been an afterthought that comes second (or third) to more 25 man raids.
Good_Idea Nov 27th 2007 11:11AM
Cheating in this way looks like a good way to raise your rating 200-400 beyond what it would normally be.
This would involve having two teams at whatever you feel is your "peak" rating, pushing teams below you down even further. Glad they're cracking down.
andrea Nov 27th 2007 11:37AM
whats the point of this? at what time do you stop cheating and actually just play and try to accomplish something? it's "another grind"? what exactly do you do in this game that you consider fun then?
if your only interest is ganking lowbies in southshore, you don't really need super gear for it.
Basic Nov 27th 2007 1:08PM
Bloodlust is full of Counter Strike kiddies who think "player vs player" means 1) doing everything you can to get ahead (cheating), 2) letting everyone else know you're better than them (trash talk), and 3) rubbing their noses in the dirt (griefing)
I'm not at all surprised, but it would be news to me if anyone's battlegroup is actually better than this.
Angus Nov 27th 2007 2:49PM
"For WoW, PvP has always been an afterthought that comes second (or third) to more 25 man raids."
I would agree to this if it wasn't for the fact that half the nerfs classes are getting are HORRIBLE for raids and are just there for "balance" in PVP.
Windfury totem working on yellow hits was an awesome boost in a raid. Generating more threat for tanks, more rage for warriors and more DPS for rogues, it was a big help. MS working on it meant it got nerfed in a hotfix.
BoF getting nerfed. Fear ward being worthless now. BoSacrfice nerfed. The list goes on.
Most were done for Arena Balance and it has negatively impacted raiding with no positive buff done as a counter.
As for the Arena crud, it is insane that I am a PVE spec forced to PVP for gear that is actually designed for me. If the gear existed outside of PVP rewards, I could never see doing this. I won't ever see these ratings with an Arean team anytime soon. I could see people cheating when forced into a situation like that. If it is a game, it should be fun, and not a huge frustration.
Freehugz Nov 27th 2007 4:12PM
wowinsider, now featuring "how to exploit ____ guides"
Rich Nov 27th 2007 3:35PM
Yet another example how the arena is ruining the game...
hpavc Nov 27th 2007 6:40PM
Sounds like a QQ fest to me, clearly these people have no idea how the real world works.
Coherent Nov 28th 2007 2:17PM
What they need to do is start handing out suspensions and bans to players who do this and show that they've got a heavy hand when it comes to keeping the game honest.
They should consider introducing a competitive ban - players still get to play the game, but they can no longer have an arena rating for the rest of the season, perhaps even banned from competing at all.
Then people will shape up - nobody wants to risk an entire season's worth of arena rating just to advance 300 points.