Original poster; ibgsloan:  What we have here, is; Failure to commoonecate! 

While your inquiries and responses are intelligent and well spoken, your staying power is what's important.  You and your bud want to take it to the next level, and being veterans of RTS, you should know that every "community" has it's own cliques.  Leaderboard Junkies, Top-Guns, & Ladder-Climber types abound in most, and self-consumed "gunslingers" in SoaSE is no different.  I can't stand some of the players, but I respect their ability.  Some are inclined to "go to the well" one too many times with a certain strategy, and it is in those circumstances it is actually fun to be in the right place at the right time so to speak.  But by in large, you will find this community pretty tight, but you can be brought into the fold if you're willing to put up with your share of bullsheet.  I know more and more vets are now insistant on not kicking newer players in order to give them a shot or two.  But it's your in-game behavior that count's though.  Everyone learns sometime, and even though you may have all your build orders & rock-paper-spam all set, you will develop a reputation quickly as either a teamplayer who listens and is open to following suggestions, or as someone who may not be desirable.  This is a rough game sometimes, and it's not uncommon to find those that have endured/invested time to get where they're at to be less than tolerant.  "Paying your dues" as JJ puts it is simply that.  That doesn't mean that it's not fun to crush them when you catch them map phucked with a single phase lane start without a roid in the suicide spot

Agent of Kharma; really?  "Personhood?"  But seriously, what are you looking for in a good quality level of competition in a game, a date?  I don't recall playing you, but my guess is that you are a little too thin skinned, and by bitching about how unfair everything is has branded you a troublemaker. 

If I host a game and a new player says someting to the effect, "Hey,I've played a lot of ai matches and I really want to improve..." or, "I really need to step it up to multiplayer now that I've been playing for a while, mind if I play?"  Or, really, just any coherent dialogue, he is much more apt to get in more and more games by getting off on the right foot.

ibgsloan, if you haven't discovered already, there are a multitude of counters/strats and real RTS depth to this game you will see fleshed out in a 5v5 skilled game of any length.  You and your bud will do fine if your willing to stick around to see it.

 

This is a very interesting thread.  I am a late entry into the SINS community, but have no problems getting into Skilled games.  Its true that many skilled games get killed by the one noob.  Its very frustrating to play with people who don't understand the mechanics of the game and want to play "SIM CITY'.  (sidenote) Agent of Karma sounds like someone who refuses to learn from playing, I don't understand that mentality myself but as some of the posted there is a counter for everything, learn it, watch some replays, build your own stategys to defeat spam and then laugh in the faces of the spammers.  Period.)  

As for the issues of not having enough game time logged to get into skilled games or PUG games, the answere is so simple.  You can make any record you want by simply hosting games with ONLY one comp, on your team.  INSTANT WIN! LOL or one comp on the other team and SURRENDER.  I know, I know.  There are people who think, "THATS CHEATING"  but I say no, you can build a record that reflects your skill and start from there.   ITs UNFORTUNATE BUT TRUE that a good record will keep you in a lobby over a low record.

I say to all the complaints, what else is there than spam.   Just because a ship is in the game doesnt mean you need to use it every game or even at all.  There are some ships that are useless in my eyes, unless someone builds their own useless ships, and then they force you to build your own."SPam" is just building a non diverse fleet......

Personally my fleets consist of the same units always, Fleet 1 - Capital ships, Fleet 2 - Lrm, Fleet 3 - carriers/flak if needed,  FLeet 4 - Guardians  Fleets 3 and 4 are interchangable.   Micro Management is a must.  If you have lots of LRM, focus on Capital ships, if you see large feets of LRM's incoming, keep your own Capital ships back.  Use your fighters like units, you can tell them to stay local or hold ground,  a large ball of fighters holding ground near a mass of LRM will dominate and are harder to kill by flak, or tell your fighters to hold ground in the middle of your fleet and watch the enemy flak crash into your fleet, lol.   Simple logic rules this game, with a little knowledge you can do very well.  

Final note:  Ponder this.  Obviously people enjoy playing this game or there would be no "PROS" or Clans........... so what gives people the right to get online play the game and then say "YOUR NOT PLAYIN LIKE I THINK YOU SHOULD, SO YOUR WRONG"  you didn't say it in those words, but thats how it feels.   The fact remains that if you can't survive the 1st assault, you should probably rethink how you play.  Not get on and complain that every game is the same "crap" LOL,  Why do we end up defening the game to every online NOOB.   Suck it up and learn how to play online or dont.  Its as simple as that.  Personally I enjoy 5v5 games and see no reason why the host should not be able to kick "UNKNOWNS FOR KNOWNS'  it simply makes the game a much more enjoyable experience and limits smurfing.   Consider this,  When you join a game and sit in the lobby, unless the HOST invited you personally, you are a GUEST, and not GUARANTEED A SPOT,  If you want to GUARANTEE you have a spot  HOST YOUR OWN GAME or build you a nice record.

Also you and your friend need to learn you will not always be on the same team so if you wish to play with the so called "pros" (we like to call ourselves skilled because we are not yet paid for playing) you need to play with them to become known and get good learning how to play. Anymore if you are kicked it will be because they think you are a smurf no otehr reason since noobs are becoming less and less common these skilled players if you say you are noob for the most part will help you when your in game not before never admit it before but at start of game say "I am knew to the game what should i do". Yes you might get an omg and a F*CK but they will give you advice and this is how you learn.

also just an fyi these skilled are much nicer than the skilled i had to learn from i got yelled at so much no advice ever given to me