The stacking in pub games have gotten completely out of hand

[davidhasselhoff]

I'm done playing here for quite awhile, my friends have grown and no longer play DoTa which is fine, and it's fine that teams are stacking, but if you are a group of three to five guys that typically only play together then inhouse is the appropriate option over a pub. I never remember playing against so many stacked teams in my life. The past few weeks it's become unbearable. I'll have 4 guys who will combine for 1-25 and this is typical now. So I'm done for awhile. This isn't even remotely fun.

[EdgeOfChaos]

Pro tip: learn an OP hero and smash the stackers

The EdgeOfChaos Guide for beating stackers:
1: spot a stack of 25+ ELO
2: (optional) create new account for maximum luls
3: they'll all pick carries right away. wait til all 5 of them pick, select meepo, tell whatever noob called mid to gtfo
4: farm travel + aghs and start killing things
5: farm a skaddi and rosh, at this point you should be able to rax with whatever help the noobs give you. gather up your noobs by repeatedly calling ALL MID or something similar, together with plenty of pings so those Brazilians/Russians understand
6: (not optional) shit talk the enemies, things like "bye 25 elo " and "easiest game of my life" seem to work well

feel free to substitute any pubstomp machine in for meepo, like Slark. you'll still lose sometimes, but you should be able to get a decent anti stack winrate just by latepicking an op hero.

I can go provide some samples if you need inspiration, but if we all start targeting stackers, maybe people will stop doing it! (who am I kidding..)

[davidhasselhoff]

That's an idea, but it's too boring. I guess if I keep playing I will just reset my stats. That way eventually my ELO will get so low they will leave me alone

[davidhasselhoff]

Well, since I made this post I have dropped from 1400 elo to 1040. Will probably be in the 800's within a few weeks. Don't know what to say about this other then I've always played solo. I don't join games with friends. A game that mixes the heroes or auto balances might be a nice addition. It really is ridiculous.

I will say if there is one bright side to this it is making me a better player. I have to play damn near a perfect game to ever even have a chance to win. It's tough.

[nitromon]

You know you can um... go to ENT's game page to see who is joining the games before you play right? So when you see a stacked game, then just exit and wait for a more favorable game.

[davidhasselhoff]

You know you can um... go to ENT's game page to see who is joining the games before you play right? So when you see a stacked game, then just exit and wait for a more favorable game.

That doesn't work. People create new accounts every 6 hours. That's the other issue I have with this BOT. Honestly though, I'm getting used to losing. Just hopefully will let it make me a better player.

[nitromon]

That doesn't work. People create new accounts every 6 hours. That's the other issue I have with this BOT. Honestly though, I'm getting used to losing. Just hopefully will let it make me a better player.

Well there is no guarantees but dropping from 1400 to 1000 is pretty yuge. Just develop a system on what games you want to join.

Personally, I'm more concerned about players on my team than on the opposition. Stackers are not necessarily good, in fact I've lost many 20-29 elo games b/c I was on a stacking team (unintentionally of course ) I mentioned before in another thread, been on too many teams where it is a bunch of macho high elo high kdr players who are too egotistical to work together. They all pick agil carries while the enemy pick AOE, support, stunners, etc... and we get wiped out in 20-30 mins.

So just check the players on your own team, their elo/kdr is some indication, but click on their account and go back 2-3 games on certain players to get a feel of what kind of player they are. Generally I avoid players under 1 kdr b/c I can dick around and still get a 1 kdr average. But lately I've found certain players who are genuine support player with decent elo but 0.8-0.9 kdr and checking their previous games let me know they're dependable. Also, assists is actually quite important, probably more than kdr. Assists tell you if they are team players. Anyone under 10 assists average, you need to watch out for on your team.

So average game, you need at least 3 decent players to have a chance. If you consider yourself a decent player, then all you need is 2 more decent players you can count on. Smurf accounts are wildcards. They can either be pros who are smurfing or really bad game ruiners. I never allow more than 1 blank account on my team. If there are 2, I quit and wait for next game.

I mean, I don't even have a main account, so I don't care for stats etc... but I do want to enjoy that 30-60 min game. People rarely get upset at the opposition, usually people end up getting upset at their own teams and for good reason. So pick your team carefully b/c you're going to devote 30-60 mins, either you're going to have a fun or get really peeved.

[Astros]

Your problem stems from those who create smurfs account and a declining player pool. Games are taking longer to fill and since most are AP games, you're going to get a more organized team in which stacking may happen.

Fewer players give the illusion that there is more stacking but in reality, it's the same amount of stacking but since games are taking longer to fill, you're most likely playing with the same smurfs more frequently. There's nothing ENT can do unless:

1) they force every player to stick to one account per IP and even then, that might be unfair due to some people wishing to play with their friend on the same IP.

2) auto-balance every game.

I would go for #2, but I am doubtful it will be implemented.

[xSAINTx1]

Maybe its the heroes you play that result in losing 400 elo in a month. I see you play storm, but don't go solo mid, which is usually not a good thing. How about you practice heroes like morphling, lina, arc warden, who can dominate a lane, and become a problem to beat later on in the game. Hardly anyone plays a good morph, and he can blow up soft heroes like mort, slark, drow, sniper, legion, etc with shotgun. IF you really want to troll, you can get linken or manta depending on the game, BOT, and 4 eblades. Your shotgun will do like 2000 damage before anyone can react to bkb.

[nitromon]

Your problem stems from those who create smurfs account and a declining player pool.

That's partially true in theory, but mathematically it should balance out. I mean, in theory, the more new accounts or smurf accounts, the more saturated ELO will be b/c these new accounts are sacking your ELO if they win and since most of the smurf accounts are not record keepers, they get discarded after a dozen of games or so, so those ELOs are thrown out.

But this is under the assumption smurfs are good players and typically win. There are also smurfs who are terribly bad, so in that case, they give ELO to players and then the account is dumped after a few games and discarded. In this case, it is the opposite where ELO is injected into the player pool.

In theory, it balances out.

But I have to admit though, been rarely seeing any 1200-1300 ELO players. They're either really low 800-900 or really high 1400-1500.

Curious.

[xSAINTx1]

I think my smurf Shibal-Nyon and Smoker_ are the highest elo right now, of active players (roughly 1720 and 1820 respectively). It's 100x harder now to get high elo than 3-6 months ago due to everyone seeing stats before you join lobbies, or games start.

[Sylvanas]

I think my smurf Shibal-Nyon and Smoker_ are the highest elo right now, of active players (roughly 1720 and 1820 respectively). It's 100x harder now to get high elo than 3-6 months ago due to everyone seeing stats before you join lobbies, or games start.

That was already true before, but I guess now it's completely unavoidable. I think I've lost about 150 elo in the few arem games I've played since connect. I see the inevitable stack form in the other team in every lobby. If you're playing alone with an account with a little bit of elo, there's always going to be 2-3 obvious smurfs joining the other team looking for maximum elo with minimum effort. Elo is more meaningless than ever before.

Of course, there's an alternative in desync.net, future home of REFORGED. Such great times we're living.

REFORGED!

[BeerLord]

desynch.net...

effing hilarious sylvanas

[bansheex]

I like how you and other meepo players argue that meepo isn't op and can be countered easily in meepo threads, and then as soon as people complain about stacking, you're like:

wait til all 5 of them pick, select meepo

latepicking an op hero