Note paired with this suggestion, for upper ranks:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=194023&p=4245834#p4245834 Concise description: Allow lower ranked players to limit upper ranks from joining their games. It might be offered as a "premium only" option. If so, you might offer it as a trial option for people who have not yet played 25 games.
Specifics/Details: To qualify, you must be currently no higher than Sergeant, and have NEVER reached Captain or above. Would not apply to Tournaments, Battles Royale or BETA maps. Might or might not be allowed for holiday/special maps. There might be an exclusion for "approved mentors", in mentor programs.
If you fall in the above categories, you can exclude anyone who is ranked Captain or above from your games. The exclusion would automatically be removed if you go up in rank. Initially, when a person first goes above Sergeant, they would be kicked off, but them be allowed to exclude again once they dropped back in rank. However, once they hit Captain, they would no longer be allowed to exclude
at all. This last is to keep "sandbaggers" from using this to their gain.
If offered as a trial option, people would have the option of excluding higher ranked players for their first 25 games, then they would have to buy premium if they wanted to continue to exclude. This limitation would have to be explained (maybe in a quick pop up) or people would miss out, not knowing it exists.
How this will benefit the site and/or other comments: This is about having games that are fun and competitive, learning experiences rather than just massacres. Unlike other suggestions, this one should encourage newbies. It might be offered as a "premium only" option. If so, you might offer it as a trial option for people who have not yet played 25 games.
I am far less concerned about upper ranks occasionally losing to lower ranked players due to "luck" or "sandbagging" (a good player that intentionally loses to go down in rank), because even though the system is not perfect, skill pretty much does outweigh luck in those cases. Its not so much that there is NO problem, just that any fix is worse than the "problem" of higher rank people occasionally losing lots of points to lower rank, if for no other reason than that higher ranked players have generally been here long enough to figure out how to "work the system", finding ways to generally limit lower ranks when they wish to do so.