Random Arena Sync Teams: Cheating?

I like to faction farm in RA because I'm not a big PvPer but I like unlocking odds and ends for my account.

There have been too many occasions that I have encountered obvious synchronized joiners who are, of course, more co-ordinated and probably using TS/Vent to communicate to their advantage. As a result of this, my team inevitibly loses and also lose our chance of gaining a gladiator point. It is especially evident that the opposition have sync-joined when their tags are identical.

I believe this is cheating but I'd like some other people's views on it although I am all to aware that many people do not think very highly of RA but that is not what is being discussed. If I remember correctly, RA/TA proposed changes have been talked about but still not been put in to practice as of yet but I can only hope that it will stop the need for sync-joins or make it impossible to do so.

I am sure a lot of people have had this problem or can at least understand the frustration of getting to 8 or 9 wins out of 10 to face a co-ordinated guild team of 2 SP Assassins, a ZB monk and a Spirit Spammer to whom a random team stand little chance. I've turned my nose up at this sort of thing far too often and dismissed it as a one-off but it's getting extremely irritating now and I'm tired of being the good Samaritan. It's very tempting to start abusing these exploits myself for my own benefit instead of complaining although I'd probably get banned knowing my luck.

I'd love to provide some constructive advice as to how to solve the problem but my ignorance of programming prohibits me so any ideas are welcome.

This is not a QQ thread, despite how it comes across, and I think its worthy of discussion.

RA is supposed to be random, so i guess people that sync would annoy me, but i dont RA much but i can see your point.. maby just go TA with a good team and rack up the glad points

Where are the rules? ... Exactly.

Um, in the title? Random arenas means you shouldn't be able to get in a game with friends...

It's not very random when people run a coordinated team in RA...

It is annoying when it happens, but i synch enter sometimes and its good fun so i cant hate on anyone else who does it.

I don't see any reason why synch entering is wrong, as Skuld said theres no rule book.

Doesn't really bother me to see 2 people synching. I've tried it a few times in the past, if I knew someone in the district. To be honest it's more trouble than it's worth. It's pretty difficult to land the same team if you're playing at peak hours. I gave up on it, but if other people are into it, whatever. Takes more than 2 people to get a streak anyway.

I do find it a little sad when it's 3-4 people trying to synch together. I tend to think with 2 people it's not as big a deal because you're only half a TA group as it is. It's much more work to go to TA (or the f list) and try to find 2 more, than it is to hit enter battle on 1. When you've got 3-4 though, it's a bit more pathetic, as there's really no good reason not to go to TA. It pretty well says: we have no shot at a single point in TA, so we're going to sit here all night until we all land the same group (and probably still lose before 10).

And it isn't very PvP when people run heroes. Is this cheating? There is no rule book, anything goes.

This, whats quoted, is the problem with random arenas and why you see people trying to synch into it.

Common sense
Not very often used skill but very useful, trust me.

I don't consider it to be cheating, but I do think it is gaming the system.

cheating? no. A flaw in the system? surely. who's to blame, the player for being clever in it's use of the system, or anet for designing it?

I'm inclined to blame anet

The same can be said for duping.

Two things.
1. LoL
2. Don't bite the hand that feeds you

Even when a team tries to synch, it doesn't always work. It does sometimes though, so I will see if the designers feel it is a serious issue, and if there is a way to fix it.

well RA is random, I don't believe syncing is a problem unless the ppl attempting to sync are leavers and leave games continuously until they successfully end up on the same team.

If ppl attempt to sync but end up on different teams, as long as they don't leave that game then its not a problem IMO. If they happen to get lucky and end up on the same team in one of their attempts than I consider them just lucky.

Syncing is a problem however if ppl continually leave games where they don't successfully sync.

Agreed. This is one of the ways in which the title system has hurt the game overall. There are alot of other downsides to all of the titles PvP or PvE that should be thought about that have been broght up by other people and myself before in other threads that point this kind of stuff out.

I read somewhere that Arena Nets original intention was to create a game that didnt depend on grind (time spent in game) but would rather depend on how skillful one can be at playing the game for rewards. I dont understand at all how the title system fits into that intention.

You failed. Its not the title system to blame for this, its thae fact that you can EARN gladiator points by farming noobs in RA thats the problem. Why else do you think that most of the people do RA? The gladiator title would be a great and probably one of the most respectedly earned titles if it was left to only TA and not have been degrated by the RA noobstomp its mostly known for.

I have a bigger problem with people rage quitting than I do syncing up. Syncing doesn't mean they will win, your team ragequitting does.

I understand. Like I said in my OP, I don't have any solutions to the problem so I'm pretty helpless although I greatly appreciate your effort to forward the issue.

Well.. if you think about the title more in depth. Random Arenas truly WOULDN'T be random if a synchronized team didn't have that slim chance of slipping in. Random to me, means you'd be going up against anything, including the chance of 4 friends who luckily got stuck together.

Thats just some blatant wordplay though, personally I'm more pissed off at the lack of res sigs in RA. Hahah