If you know you're a pretty good team, just put good players only in the title.  Really you guys who complain about premades not being able to get games going without being deceptive are going to have problems sooner or later when stats are eventually visible.  People aren't really going to care if you know your buddies, they're going to demand balanced teams.

Fact is almost every game I join has a host who's played with the majority of the players on his teams (read 2/2, 2/3, or 3/4) for the past half dozen games or more (usually more) and they all complain about not being ablie to get games when I call them out on it.

Premades put forth zero effort to balance teams or attract competition, that's just the way it is.

If pros flock to your game because you put up a tag that says "no noobs," then you probably would have gotten them anyway.  I consider myself to be a pretty good player but I'm sick of getting stuck in hopeless games because of people like you.  I can hold a lane all game on cataract, I've even had games where I'm holding back two people for five minutes straight, and I still see the third guy racking up kills on my partners, and it's futile.

You say you don't "like the mentality that usually goes with those kind of games," well I don't like the mentality that goes with YOUR games, the mentality of pretending not to know each other and then rolling over the other team the majority of the time because you made no effort to ensure that anyone decent was on it.  It only makes it worse that you say you don't like walkovers, because it just underscores the complete lack of effort put into avoiding it.

The real problem isn't the lack of voice chat, though it is odd that it's absent, the problem is that there's no stat listing in this game.  You have to tab out and check the website which is still extremely tedious in spite of having a pretty stable system a second monitor so I can still see the name list in-game.  For the average player trying to remember if it was Fac.erap3r or F.ac3raper and his two similarly named buddies while they tab back and forth praying the game doesn't crash it's a complete luck of the draw, and you're stacking the odds against them.

Asking for stats (which were already promised) is far more reasonable than blaming a lack of voice chat which would in practice probably only make the game worse given that it's a P2P badwidth hog in the first place.  If there were actual servers it would be more practical.  I believe in this very thread I cited the lack of stat tracking, so don't thrust the blame on me for not addressing the real issue while you continue to refuse to improve things in the here and now when you're the only party capable of doing so.

Or feel free to blame me, it doesn't matter anyway because even if I have convinced you to start putting "no noobs" in your game titles it'll have no real impact on my gameplay because the mentality you conveyed so far is so pervasive.

My post clearly displaced some frustration with players who have other tendencies on to you, so perhaps I should have cut some of that out.

For Pantheon games, obviously its a huge advantage.  Not only can you ensure any map, you and your teamate will have balance power, at least guarantee the other player is competent.  The otherside, not only is it a crapshoot you don't get a bad teamate, random selection can have bad synergy, or bad combination for certain maps.

People loooking to roll noobs in pugs have low self esteem. I do as well like joining then leaving when it fills or after the game starts.

If you are that pathetic that your plan is to roll noobs i feel sorry for you

Listen up, I only play as a premade, and that is because I am head of my division and need to be in contact with all my mates. Beyond that, playing as a premade does not mean its an auto-win. I continually play with recruits who are strangers, and willing bring them along with me. About 50% of them are not so good. Also, make some damn friends people or join a clan. XoO has a thread looking, pleading, begging people to join. I don't like playing premade against pickup, because the skill level usually isn't there, even with titles like 3v3 US central pros only. I don't like playing with pickups because the skill level isn't there. I don't care if I don't know the people on my team, and can't even communicate over VOIP if they can play this game at a solid level of play. But continually I find that a large portion of the demigod's community is just not that great at this game. I will say that this game has a learning curve, however if you ask individuals like me or rey you can learn a lot. I will tell you all about skill sets, item builds, how to play in general and against whatever demigod team you can think of. I just want to play this game with people who don't suck, so i play with a clan. That doesn't mean the whole clan is pro, but they don't feed (unless your name is fimbulwinter and you are playing tower rook on cataract ). After reading a lot of these posts, i realize that many people are not familiar with what it takes to become a very good demigods player. To this end, I will begin a tireless campaign to educate you all in the school of pendrix. To begin, start drinking a lot and stop exercising; also pick up smoking. Lesson Two, don't listen to half the crap i spew .

Part of the purpose of custom games is to allow people to pick who they play with, so yes, there are going to be people playing there who know each other.

Automatching is another matter, and it can be quite unfair to others when people game the system to get paired up with people they know (not only the opponents, but the people who get stuck with the "dud" games left in the wake of people trying to get paired up).

It's understandable that people will want to play with friends, but try and be considerate of the other players as well. We do want to get team automatching implemented in the future, but until then, it makes for a better experience overall if premade teams stick to customs.

I know OP is a wind up but the whole premade thing is becoming a bit of a drag for me. I consider myself a good player at a few different DG's but getting battered constantly by teams who have obviously played together for quite a few games is not my idea of fun. I generally ask if they are a premade but i've not had 1 response of yes. Adding "Good Players Only" to the lobby title does not mean premade, it means im expecting a bunch of players of decent quality to give a decent game. I don't mind losing but getting completely slaughtered is a different kettle of fish. I'm finding it harder and harder to keep playing.

Just to clarify before someone mentions it: I don't have any friends who play DG and i don't have time to commit to a clan, the same as many i would guess.

The OP made me laugh. Props with your satire, man!

I got to be honest I jumped in and out of your lobby last night I think...I was only in there for 5 sec though while I looked up your names.  I don't mind playing against a premade, but I want to bring the same number of friends your team has...  Since it was a 3v3 I was not willing to risk 2 unknowns on my team vs your team of seasoned 3.  Never whined at you, never said a word.  Unless it is another name...lotta names on these forums I recognize from the lobby.  However it might not have been your name... I see alot of common names in the Custom Games lobby.  I just know I recognize yours.

Premades who go out of their way to seek weaker opponents or disguise their premadeness are assholes. Premades who don't are fine.

I don't even know what to say to the lone players. Maybe, "what the hell are you doing?" This is a team game, and the only games that are meaningful or fulfilling in any way are the ones between organized teams. If you don't play in a premade, or at the very least are trying to meet people so that you can form a premade, then you are wasting your time.

While not particularly useful, anything providing a person with genuine fun is not a waste of time IMO. So if they like to play alone and/or however style they with then it's a good thing. If you only care about premades and winning then you are the one wasting time IMO.. The rest of us will have fun on the road to either victory or defeat.