Premade paradox

Well, the obvious solution is drop the clan tags until clan support makes it in 1.2?

Also put a tag in your custom games so people know you are a team.

It's only a problem in Pantheon if you do the drop/quit thing.

In Custom, that's what Custom is for. They're complaining cos they are tards.

If you see 2 people waiting on one side with the same clan tag and you only realise once you're 20 kills behind in the first 2 mins, then.. well... you deserve to be hammered.

I would have thought the obvious solution is to make an effort to find other premades. Try joining other people's lobbies, and when you come up against good players add them to your friends list. Many people have a premade that they don't always play in, so you may well find some decent organised teams to play against. Some randoms are good enough at the game to take on premades when paired with other good randoms as well.

You could try to get an irc channel going with people from your area who you know are good enough to play at the premade/compeditive level.

Don't settle for playing low standard games, find a group of people at your skill level and play against them, it's a lot more fun.

I have the same problem as you, but it's getting better as I find more premades to play with through pugs.

it doesn't matter if you do put it in the game title. 90% of the people still tend to join and accuse you of being a premade team even when you openly admit it. That's why myself and my friends just play like normal and if someone asks then we tell them, yes we do know each other.

Look for games with "NO NOOBS" or "PRO ONLY" etc etc in the title.

They are obviously for capable people who want a tough fight.

These games seem to attract more bad players than the games with names like "3vs3" etc.

Then you are not looking hard enough.  At least 50% of the games listed in the custom game list at any one time are premades.  They don't say it in the title, but the more you play the game, the more you recognize names and their associated premades.  Whenever I join a game, I do two things: 1) ask if its a premade, and 2) pull up the host's name on the Pantheon web page to check their last 2 or 3 games to see their teammates.

Premade games are rampant and deterimental to new players that are not savvy enough to look up people on Pantheon (which none of them are because they are new).  I am a big advocate for SD to provide more information about people in the lobby before the game launches.  New players should have the option of Pantheon to get games of equal skill, but Pantheon is completely broken as we all know.

I sympathize with premades, though.  It can be tedious to get into another premade custom game because the spots fill up so quick - which is why they just host their own and play against PUGs.

Yeah, the problem is that if you are part of a premade, say a 3 person team, getting into another game someone else started can be a pain. You all try to join at once... but only 2 get in, and the host won't kick the non team player.  Or you get in, and find out it isn't premade at all, so when you ask people to 'change teams' they get angry.

There is no super easy solution here with a lobby software.  You need a 'team join' feature that allows your 3 person team to wait in the queue for another 3 person team.

LOL sounds like DOTA!

I don't get it. Everyone complains about how there are all these premades out there, yet the ppl who WANT to play premades can't find them. What's the deal?

(Not bashing anyone, just doesn't make sense.)

I dont play a HUGE amount, but I only play with my friends as well. Add me to your friends and we might be able to get games set up

What time zone do you play in? My team is us east, and is always looking for other premade teams to play against. Message me if you want to play some games (2v2 or 3v3). That goes for anyone. 

US East!

2v2 and 3v3 too. SOMETIMES 4v4, but its hard to get everyone over at the same time with work and girlfriend and all.

I play customs with my friends a lot, mostly we are just average to above average players, and sometimes not even that.  If someone looked up my stats and saw that I played with them and didn't want to play, well thats their decision, I'm not teaming up with pro players in customs to stomp noobs or whatever, I'm teaming up with friends in real life so we can enjoy the game further and then talk about funny/cool things that happened in our games, including comebacks, wins, losses, and strategies used against us.

Edit - In fact, I'm pretty sure I recently played with Zec above, he was on the other team that beat me and my "premade" friends.  If we were so dominant we would look for better matches, I want to have fun games not concede fests, and I want to play with my real life friends.  If they had a ranked option to do that (which hopefully they are making) then we would probably join that.  Anyway bottom line just cause I play with friends doesn't mean you should auto leave the game.

Hey I'm looking for premades from EU...

feel free to add me to your friendlist and ask me for a match!

Don't make games, join them.

Most premades are likely to be on the host's side, so join a game and find a premade team to fight against.

People just need to stop being wusses.  The only people that don't want to participate in premades are the ones that either do not want a challenge (aka people that only like to win) or people that only want challenges up to a certain amount (aka "Oh my team sucks, that's why we lost.  I totally admit the other team is good, but we would have done a lot better if my teammates were good.  It is just too frustrating that I seem to never be on a good team.  It's my team, I am the only good one!  I can't carry the team!").

The simple solution is to show skill levels.  Each person's name is colored relevant to you.  So if a person, compared to you based on some equations, is much better, they will appear deep red.  If the person is much worse, bright blue.  Midway, orange.  Also hovering over a person can show immediate relevant stats such as overall ranking, overall ranking as selected demigod, win ratio and number of games played.

Ideally, an equation for this would take into account win ratio, total games played, and overall ranking.

Basically the idea is - people don't leave because they are playing premades.  That is just the excuse.  They leave because they don't like to lose.  If people were color coded relative to your own calculated "skill level" then they could choose to leave based on the fact they just entered a game where the enemy team is all dark red and their teammates are all bright blue, where as they would be inclined to stay if their teammates are dark red and maybe the enemy team is all just orange (regardless of the fact it is or is not a premade team).

To further, custom games could then be sorted by overall skill level of the game.

Unfortunately, a coding system like that would require the stats to be recording correctly.

The same thing can be said about premades who don't play other premades. Besides, there is a difference between wanting a challenge and not wanting to be roflstomped by someone with a clear advantage.

Disclaimer: I have nothing against premades.

There's no concrete advantage that premades have if they don't use any third-party programs like some voice system. They do have advantage in being an established team and knowing each other better, but that's about it.

Those with voice comm should make others aware, though, that they are a premade, imo, otherwise it just seems to be misleading. Just mho.

Obvious solution for the OP is to have one of you on each team.

You're still playing with your friend, I actually much prefer it, much more entertaining that way.

Um, no.  A premade has a level of trust that cannot be found in a PUG.  When I play in a premade and my teammate calls for help, I respond.  When I ask my premade buddy to go capture a particular flag, he does it.  When we want to spring to catapults I know he'll pitch in on the upgrades.  When I push, he pushes.

In the vast majority of cases, you will not get this in a PUG.  So you can chalk this up as a minor advantage, but to me it is a tremendous advantage.  I'll only play against a premade in a PUG if I know the other PUG player has a clue.  If he doesn't, then it is a waste of time. 

I see this all the time in competitive games.  Get a bunch of really good players together and they will still get trounced by any decent premade team.  When I play competitive games with dedicated teams, we practice, and practice, and practice.

Well I can understand practicing an RTS or FPS...but how much practice do u actually need for demigod haha.

Unless you are trying to get your chain stuns perfectly coordinated!