Queue dodging: The latest in underhanded arena tactics
by Amanda Dean 
Mar 11th 2008 at 8:30AM
Recently, Kenjiwing of Korgath brought this phenomenon to the attention of the official forums. There is currently no penalty for a team that fails to join an arena battle once the queue pops. The team that actually does show receives no reward and the match is recoded as a draw, which does not count toward the requisite games for the week. They are left to wait for another battle in hopes that the other team will show.
This process facilitates win-trading and avoidance of unpopular maps (OK, Blade's Edge Arena). Some addons will tell players which maps they were assigned before they enter. In a win trading situation it would not be difficult to have both teams check in with each other before accepting the invitation to battle.
Throvaldr of Akama insists that this mechanic should stay in place. He would prefer not to have to enter an arena when his partner has disconnected. Evulflea of Cho'gall countered that that is a risk we take playing an online game with a partner with a spotty connection. We've probably all disconnected at a particularly inauspicious time in the past.
The complete list of rules for the official 3v3 arena tournament have not yet been released. They may limit the number of queues a team can miss, place penalties on missing battles, or leave the existing system in place. While arena epics are pretty, they're really just polygons, but $75,000 is really a lot of money. While Blizzard hasn't spoken up officially yet, most responders agreed that the problem of queue dodging is a serious flaw in the game and should be addressed as an exploit.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, PvP, Forums, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gokex Mar 11th 2008 8:37AM
As a member of the Korgath community.. I'd appreciate spelling our Realm name right :P
SimpleSurvival Mar 11th 2008 8:43AM
as a rule, you should ignore ANY and EVERY post made in a serious thread by some lowbie alt, especially those in defense of broken systems.
If he felt strongly about his position and stood by his opinion, he would have posted on a main
Todd Mar 11th 2008 8:45AM
Not really an exploit if working as intended.
theRaptor Mar 11th 2008 4:06PM
It is an exploit if Blizzard say it is an exploit. Just because you can do something within the bounds of the code, does not mean Blizzard expected you to be able to do it. Code isn't as simple as that.
Gokex Mar 11th 2008 8:57AM
Thanks :D but yeah.. It's not too cool that people are being able to pick and choose which maps that they fight on, some are clearly worse than others. However, I've been in the situation where a teammate has D/Cd right before a match and the rest of the team declined to avoid the inevitable loss. /shrug
Killer Mar 11th 2008 9:50AM
PVE FTW
YaMon Mar 11th 2008 9:56AM
I PVP IRL!
Michael Mar 11th 2008 10:09AM
I love my PVP but the tactics to gain gear and position are terrible.
Buying arena points.
Dodging less than ideal maps.
Win trading.
I've also heard of mods that will tell you who you are up against, giving you plenty of time to Armory them and back out. I mean comon...
I created an alt and decided to make her entirely PVE. While dealing with Need before Greed and DKP systems (to date) I have to say I feel like I am dealing with less childish antics than what I have seen in PVP.
It's a real shame.
As for SimpleSurvival's response, I agree and disagree. I personally avoid posts by lowbie alts yet too often see a player posting on their main smashed because some punk Armoried and took cheap shots at them. eThug's know how to pull up a URL and read... mate, that takes real skill.
Malachi154 Mar 11th 2008 4:54PM
I agree. The lowdown tactics some pondscum are using make Arena miserable for the rest of us. Not sure how to fix it, but if the amount of honor/points earned were the same regardless of rating there would be no reason to sell/buy ratings. Let the rewards be titles or standings. Cater to the epeen's of the elite players (who then wouldn't stand for a poser) and take the monetary away from the points...
dan Mar 11th 2008 10:06AM
How does this facilitate win trading if it results in a draw?
Amanda Dean Mar 11th 2008 10:19AM
You draw til you get paired with your buddy's team.
dan Mar 11th 2008 11:22AM
How do you know who you're paired with until you load? Besides, wouldn't that take a very long time to get paired with the buddy group? Maybe it's different for casual pvpers on high pop servers but that seems like an awful lot of work.
Imho, if this is a problem, they should let people back out of arenas prior to the load (as they do curently. dcs happen after all) but if only one team loads into the arena rather than counting it as a draw that team should get a freebie win. A strike in your loss column would certainly motivate people from ditching on maps or ditching an encounter.
bloodlight Mar 11th 2008 11:29AM
Well first off drop the tie, concept. If this is toba an e-sport treat it as a sport, you team does not show for your game you forfeit, with it counting as a lose fro you and a win for your opponent. That stops this little game all together.
Second, while i would love to see arena removed from the game, I know it will never happen, So the only way to stop the cheating is remove the prize. As long as superepics are awarded for arena play, there will be many kids who believe that cheating is a valid way to get them. Just asthe high price of fast flying mounts drives many to cheat and buy gold.
hpavc Mar 11th 2008 12:13PM
Well removing arena isn't going to happen. Managing it is all that you can hope for, yeah obviously 'draws' are silly.
juicyjuice Mar 11th 2008 11:28AM
If you ask me, this is just another example of how bad for the wow community the entire arena system is. Dodging matches because of unpopular maps or because you know who youre playing?? Are you serious?
Lets compare this to PVE for a second (i know its pretty much cliche to do it, but bare with me). This would be the PVE equivalent of going into SSC and reporting it cleared even though you skipped Vashj because, well, its too difficult for you.
Or stealthing into BT and pickpocketing a couple of warglaives, then saying I downed Illidan, cause well, I'm DW'ing Warglaives so it must be true.
The entire server would point and laugh, which is what i do when i hear some chucklehead talking about how good he is because he has S3 gear.
Adam Mar 11th 2008 11:46AM
You want people not to cheat in arenas, make the rewards less desireable. I am pretty much full PvE, I mess around in PvP when im not raiding. Im awful at PvP and admit it. But you know what???? I use a season 2 spellblade as my PvE weapon because its that damn powerfull! My only reason to do arena's are solely for PvE items that are better then the progression level my guild is at (starting attempts on vash and kael)
Cynra Mar 11th 2008 1:40PM
I will admit before the world: my 2v2 Arena partner and I have queue dodged once before. One early morning (we're both Easties and our server is a West Coast one), we were getting in our weekly Arena kicks and kept running into the same pair over and over and over. We're firmly esconced in the 1500/1600 brackets, but the team we kept coming up against included a Holy paladin who used to be in my guild (he sold his account to another player just after he quit the guild and the game) and a MS warrior with a 2100+ personal rating who has a reputation for selling his services to raise Arena team ratings (not confirmed, but rumors do abound). After losing to them some ten times in the span of maybe twenty minutes, my Arena partner and I would wait for when the queue popped up, check and see if both of those players had entered a match around the same time, and base our decision to enter the match or decline on that sole premise. If they were still waiting in Ironforge, we knew it was safe to enter the match and fight people around our personal ratings and gear level; if they just entered a match, we collectively shuddered, dropped the match, and then re-queued for a new one.
That is the sole time we've queue dodged. We just felt that it was ridiculous to be paired up against a MS warrior in full S3 gear in the 1500 bracket and keep losing over and over and over again. Normally we bitch and moan about losing to those experienced/geared players but take them in stride, but having to fight the same team on an early Saturday morning when few other teams were playing just underscored how shitty it was. Otherwise, we'd have just taken it in stride and moved onto our next match.
2.4 with personal ratings being the determining factor for matches just can't come quick enough.
Quickshiv Mar 11th 2008 6:05PM
This is an easy fix remove draw and replace it with forfeit at half point loss/gain. This way people that have a legitimate DC aren't penalized as much and it solves the problem.
Now on the the real reason I am responding. Why is it when ever there is any pvp thread 10 RNG (PVE) players have to jump on and scream bloody murder that their game is being ruined. If you don't like pvp don't play pvp. If you are worried about people less skilled fighting RNGs with pvp gear in your beloved raid then ban pvp gear from your raid. In other words shut your yap and get back in the corner with your dice and OCD play style.