Addressing the Solo Queue Exploit in Onyxia’s Arena System

Introduction:
The solo queue arena system in Onyxia (Warmane) has recently seen a surge in popularity. However, a significant issue has emerged that is being exploited by certain players, leading to unfair rating gains and losses. The core of the problem lies in the duo queue feature within the solo queue 3v3 system, which is being abused to wintrade and manipulate the rating ladder.

The Problem:
Currently, the solo queue system allows players to queue with a friend as a duo. This system calculates rating gains and losses in a way that is being exploited:
- When players queue as a duo, they lose double the points but only gain half.
- Conversely, the opposing team benefits by winning double points and losing only half.
- This mechanic is being abused by bad-faith players who intentionally lose matches to feed rating to specific individuals, making it easy for them to climb the solo queue ladder unfairly.

How This Exploit Harms Solo Queue Integrity:
1. Wintrading Abuse: Certain players are systematically queueing as duos and deliberately losing to selected opponents, allowing them to gain double points effortlessly. This is especially concerning as some of these players were suspected of similar activities in the previous season, but the issue went largely unnoticed due to lower solo queue participation.
2. Unfair Losses for Solo Players: A major problem arises when a solo player gets matched with or against a duo. If a solo player is on the losing side of a match with a duo partner, they also suffer from the double-loss penalty, even though they queued solo. This results in an unfair rating drain that discourages fair play.
3. Manipulation of the Competitive Ladder: The current system allows players to game the ranking system, leading to undeserved high ratings for some and frustration for those who play fairly. As a result, legitimate solo queue competitors are at a severe disadvantage.

Proposed Solution:
To restore fairness to the solo queue system, the following change should be implemented:
- Only the duo team should be affected by the double gain/loss mechanic.
- Solo players should retain the standard rating change formula, regardless of whether they are matched with or against a duo.

Conclusion:
The current rating calculation for duo queues in solo queue 3v3 is leading to widespread abuse, wintrading, and an overall unfair competitive environment. Implementing the proposed fix will help prevent rating manipulation and ensure that solo queue remains a fair and competitive space for all players.

We urge Warmane’s staff to review this issue and take action to preserve the integrity of solo queue on Onyxia. The community deserves a fair and balanced arena experience, free from exploits and unfair advantages. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Win trading has always been a problem even outside what you're talking about. And what you're suggesting as a solution just creates more problems.

Keep in mind that all rated games are documented. You can actually see all your games played under match history on your armory profile with all the details. Any player that is up for any significant arena reward has their matches reviewed. Win trading is fairly easy to spot and those players get disqualified and banned. It really isn't a smart idea to mess around with that.

I can tell you in my experience that I haven't seen people throwing games. I also haven't faced the same opponents frequently. So the claim it's greatly affecting gameplay couldn't be true. There are enough players in the pool that it would be challenging to pull off in Solo Queue. Now 5 v 5 is a whole other discussion.

cool post and all but who is actively exploiting this wintrade thing in solo queue you are making up here? can easily verify it using the public match history and issue bans in no time IF there are individuals doing this which i highly doubt xD
and no your post is a bit flawed, you do not lose double the rating as a duo, you only gain half, but you lose the same as any other player in the game (you can also check this on the public match history of duo queues)

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Originally Posted by guildbank59

cool post and all but who is actively exploiting this wintrade thing in solo queue you are making up here? can easily verify it using the public match history and issue bans in no time IF there are individuals doing this which i highly doubt xD
and no your post is a bit flawed, you do not lose double the rating as a duo, you only gain half, but you lose the same as any other player in the game (you can also check this on the public match history of duo queues)

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you definitely lose double the MMR and win half. You can test it yourself it’s just not as noticeable at lower MMR since losses are minimal. But at higher MMR, the difference becomes clear. Instead of losing 10, you might lose 20 because the penalty is much harsher.

Here's the evidence: https://imgur.com/a/s6OKzvF

Also, if you're playing solo while your teammates are in a duo queue, you’ll still take a bigger MMR hit. I’ve had plenty of games where I lost -24 MMR just because my teammates were duoing.


EDIT: The only time you don’t lose double is when you’re playing duo queue against another duo queue.

20-year-old game content, mediocre arenas—who plays this? Why care about rating when you receive a predetermined, fixed amount of arena points each week? Total waste of time. There's nothing more "enjoyable" than entering a random arena with teammates in green gear, playing 10 matches, and then disbanding the arena team. Completely pointless and unnecessary topic.

You don't understand the concept of win trading. It means that you enter the arena yourself using one account, log into another, and "trade" wins and losses. The fact that someone has a 5v5 team and doesn't care whether they win or lose, or doesn't even enter the arena, has nothing to do with win trading.

The fact is that you get the most arena points from 5v5. Warmane allows multiboxing, so it's obvious that people take advantage of it, gearing up characters for farming or selling. This is a completely pointless, crybaby post.

Reporting people for win trading is another effective way to deter them from continuing to do it. Those bans are generally more severe than simply stealing loot.

I have never really played solo arenas in Warmane servers, so consept was new to me Before Onyxia. I thought it is 3 random players vs 3 random players, as name states solo queue.
I had been wondering how some teams had so good teamwork and so fast reflexes, like having discord up to change tactics on the fly. Maybe they just joined same channel while waiting to round start, but then why i didn't ever get into a round where my team wanted to have a discord up? Now i know why.

So you can join solo que as a duo and end up being 2/3 premade team? That's fine if it's meant to work that way, but why the name "Solo que" when it obviously isn't and favors non-solo players?

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Originally Posted by ekmisi

You don't understand the concept of win trading. It means that you enter the arena yourself using one account, log into another, and "trade" wins and losses. The fact that someone has a 5v5 team and doesn't care whether they win or lose, or doesn't even enter the arena, has nothing to do with win trading.

The fact is that you get the most arena points from 5v5. Warmane allows multiboxing, so it's obvious that people take advantage of it, gearing up characters for farming or selling. This is a completely pointless, crybaby post.

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First of all, "Wintrading" in World of Warcraft Arenas refers to a form of cheating or exploitation where two or more teams intentionally queue into each other in rated Arena matches and coordinate wins and losses to manipulate the Arena rating system.
Second, you're going off-topic — we're discussing Solo Queue here, not 5v5

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Originally Posted by Repost

Reporting people for win trading is another effective way to deter them from continuing to do it. Those bans are generally more severe than simply stealing loot.

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Reporting can help, but it's a lot of effort for both players and admins — especially in Solo Queue, where wintrading isn't always obvious and it's nearly impossible to have 100% proof due to so many variables. On top of that, waiting days for a verdict doesn’t solve the fact that fair players are still losing points in the meantime. Even when bans happen, the damage is already done, and those lost points aren’t refunded. So instead of relying solely on reports after the fact, why not proactively minimize the systems and loopholes that wintraders are exploiting in the first place?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ekmisi

20-year-old game content, mediocre arenas—who plays this? Why care about rating when you receive a predetermined, fixed amount of arena points each week? Total waste of time. There's nothing more "enjoyable" than entering a random arena with teammates in green gear, playing 10 matches, and then disbanding the arena team. Completely pointless and unnecessary topic.

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You clearly have no idea how Arena works. Stop talking about things you don't understand. Arena points aren’t fixed, they scale directly with your rating above 1500. The higher your rating, the more points you get. I honestly don’t get how some people have the nerve to come on the forums and trashtalk topics they’re completely clueless about.