Han Shot First

There has been much talk of pug/pub stomping in Mechwarrior Online lately by pure pug players. Why? The Devs removed the ability for a full premade team of eight to go against puggers quite a few patches ago. Back in the days when you could do that, there really was pugstomping going on. Eight man groups just ran over pugs. Now? It is pretty much only happening in the imagination of some players looking for excuses as to why they lost horribly. That is how I perceive it anyhow. 

Things are pretty balanced in public matches now. Players can only queue with a group 3 other friends maximum, 50% of the team is then  made up of other small groups or individuals. If you are a Lone Wolf and pug exclusively you have an equal chance of being teamed up with or against pure puggers or a small organised group. Statistically speaking, in the long run everybody is on an equal footing. You will win some, lose some, wipe the floor with the opposition occasionally, and get rolled over from time to time.

If you are a group of four people organised and in Teamspeak, you increase your chances of winning, sure, but then you tend to get two idiots, one Rambo, and one AFKer tacked onto your team negating your advantage. If you are an idiot, a Rambo, or an AFKer, chances are every bit as high that you will be teamed up with an organised few people.

So if stats show that everyone is on an even footing, and that the chances of a team of Lone Wolves coming up against a team of 2 X four man premades is very low, why all the crying in the forums as of late? I think what it comes down to is when people lose they just can’t handle the fact that they lost fairly. There has to be some other explanation. It can’t possibly be that they or their team was bad, or that the other team was just simply better on the day. If teaming up with a friend was removed from the game and it was just Lone Wolves vs Lone Wolves you can bet there would be cries of something like “Veteran players should not be allowed to play with new players… it is ruining the game”. In short, people blame everything but themselves.

I play in a large organised unit, but spend maybe 60% of my time pugging. I play full 8 man premade vs 8 man premade. I join public matches solo, with one friend, two friends, and three. I experience all aspects of the current matchmaking system. 90% of the time that I’ve had lopsided losses when pugging it’s been for one reason and one reason only.. the team I played on (and I count myself here) sucked really badly. People scattered to the winds, or milled around the base looking at oneother wondering what to do next, whilst doing absolutely nothing. It wasn’t because we encountered a premade. It was because our team sucked and/or did not work together well.

That is the very nature of public matches boys and girls. You never know what hand you will get dealt. Sometimes you are dealt a royal flush, sometime you are handed a giant shit sandwich and you just have to take a bite. That’s the life of a Lone Wolf. Live it! Love it! Embrace it!

As an aside, and just to illustrate what pubstomping really is, here is a video of a match I played back when pubstomping really did occur. As someone who still plays with these people, I can attest to the fact that nothing of this sort occurs anymore. It just is not possible with matchmaking the way it is now.