trippatwiikuuBeyond and even before prizepools, sandbagging hurts growing players the most, it creates false, localized maximas in skill rating that end up blocking most player's paths. Skill rating isn't even anywhere near linear, climbing it organically is a challenge by itself, you're making that challenge a whole lot worse.
no, I'd argue it makes improving easier despite making winning harder
imagine if u went into invite as an IM move up having never played against an invite player before, would make the first invite season even rougher than it already is. I never gave a fuck about sandbaggers when I played open or IM
and i just realized im sandbagging this season so this comes off as me defending myself. ayylmao
This is a fair statement, however I think that if an IM team wanted to practice against an Invite-tier team, they should do it in their own scrim time rather than having no choice and facing them during league play. I would also argue that IM sandbaggers contribute to the widening of the skill gap that exists between Top IM and Top Invite, inviting more teams to do the same and never attempt to reach the highest div.