This is utter bull.

Game should not start untill there r 4 players on each side. It is terribly frustrating to face an auto loss cause someone cant take a pop, or they decline on purpose to gimp the team and get an easy win whoever they r trying to favour.

it's because ELO

decline on purpose to gimp the team and get an easy win whoever they r trying to favour.

You would be surprised, but sometimes they decline or even kick the 4th person since the 3 people are on voice chat and will win even against 4, which gives them more ELO as they won 3v4.

I have to agree, yesterday we had quite a few 3v4s which was strange as I have not seen it for some time now.

You would be surprised, but sometimes they decline or even kick the 4th person since the 3 people are on voice chat and will win even against 4, which gives them more ELO as they won 3v4.

 

I have to agree, yesterday we had quite a few 3v4s which was strange as I have not seen it for some time now.

That would be hard to pull off in solo ranked since it is 4 (3 in this case sort of randoms) being put together. I guess if there r very few ppl queuing and they all happen to know each other.

In my humble and limited experience, what tends to happen is a person disconnects, misses the pop, or maybe just does not take the pop on purpose (is that what q dodging is?).

The particular instance that triggered me, was when a 4th never joined (unless they loaded in b4 me and left b4 i zoned in which is super unlikely). And the bloody game just started the 3v4 instead of getting a 4th anybody or aborting the match even though there was all the time in the world to get a fill. It is pretty depressing.

sometimes there are only 8 people in the queue. - Or 8 people left over. If one declines or arrives and quits before the matchup is assembled, you're left with 3v4.

I'd like think it'd even out over 100s of matches, whether your team is left short or the enemy team is.

Besides if any player isn't worried about their rating, they can accept and decline mathes with impunity - if they think it's just gonna be 2 rounds to acid, they might refuse the pop, and wait it out until the odds are better in their favour.

solo ranked is such a crapshoot, it shouldn't really matter, but BoiWare can't get matchmaking right, let alone ensure there are enough people in the queue to cover any absences.

BW can't do anything about disconnects and quitters, nor should they be expected to (from a matchmaking perspective). However, they can ensure that each team has the right number of players and the right roles on each team before the match begins.

Conceptually, it's the simplest thing in the world:

• assemble the two teams.
  
• Extend the match invitation to all 8 players.
  
• Port players into the arena only when all 8 players confirm the invitation (take the pop).
  

voila. 99% of the 3v4 and mismatched role contests are solved.

this does not address players leaving or getting disconnected in spawn or during the match, but it does eliminate the vast majority of 3v4 and mismatched roles games that I've played.

you cannot do anything about the guy who purposely throws the match b/c he hates his teammate (that happened last night -- my guildy was collateral damage in that one).

this doesn't address class stacking

this does not address healer/tank roulette (this will always be a thing that's more impactful than a dps carry).

but once again, it does address the vast majority of 3v4 and mismatched roles games -- matches in which one side never even sees a 4th teammate or a healer/tank take the pop.