Ranked Exploit. BOT. Playing for Intentional Loss. No human player.
I have noticed this several times over the last three days but this time I made sure to document it so wizards can address the exploit of the ranking system, ranked play, and how players are matched following the Arena Open’s conclusion, but before the “new season begins.
I attached as much as I can, but please reach out if you have questions about this particular issue and I will do my best to help with the details.
The match was played in standard ranked best of three on my account today October 30, 2023 at ~5:50am PST. The sequence is exactly the same all times I’ve come across this issue. The opponent will immediately concede the first of the three matches. Which happens sometimes.
However, when the bot is playing for opponent every time the second round opponent almost immediately (faster than a human could do it) mulligans down to zero cards. The opponent’s avatar never stops repeating “Your Go.” As in, from the first second of gameplay and lasting until at least 5 minutes after the match has concluded. Opponent plays zero cards. Opponent still however draws and immediately passes turn.
I was attempting to figure out why any account would do this and I came accross a discussion about how there may be potential to exploit the ranked match up system to benefit players in the next season’s ladder because by losing as many times as possible over the last two/three days of OCTOBER season, the players can trick the matching system into giving them match ups next season which will make it very easy to rise to mythic rank and avoid the status they have obtained by there previous play.
Normally you would say “Well they will not get advantaged in the current season too.” They do however. After the Arena Open has concluded, there is no incentive for an account to maintain their ranking before the next season and next set of qualifier invites and tournaments begin. There is also little upside to playing and winning games after open but before the following season because the ranking will be reset down teirs no matter what on November 1,2023.
This created the situation where a bot has been created in order to allow players to lose as many matches as possible, but in a way that the match making system doesn’t recognize as an exploit. The players are not present or in anyway interacting when this occurs. It’s cheating the system into making the next season match making much easier to rise to mythic.
As you may notice, this also lead to the matches I have witnessed being grossly outweighed in ranking vs the player the account Opponent using to lose. 3 times today I played match against Diamond tier 2 and tier 1 as a player ranked in Platinum tier 3. Those diamond accounts all lost to me and all did the exit same exploit behavior.
Notably the bot seems incapable or not programmed to quit after matches. The opponent account will just stay after the match concludes indefinitely while repeating “Your Go.”
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SandbagCentral#26631 commented
Anyone else witnessing this exploit, please follow wizards reporting guild lines:
How to report a bug
1. Give us the steps to reproduce the bug
2. Note which platform you’re using (PC, Steam, Mac, Android, or iOS)
3. Enter the actual results you’re experiencing
4. Enter the expected results of the feature
5. Add any relevant screenshots/videos
6. If you found a workaround, please add workaround steps.