New Shatter map... something Feels off.

[Archeron]

everyone? that seems pretty rich. I get a lot more love than hate when I'm calling and leading a team.

I'm sure you do, when EVERYONE YOU PLAY WITH IS ON YOUR TEAM. I'm not going to shower you with "love and praise" because I, along with the majority of players find premades downright obnoxious.

There is nothing a premade does that can't be done by every other player.

Yes there is. Premades often use voice chat, Just because you don't, doesn't mean that its not happening on the other 2 DC's. (It's fairly common on Primal for instance.) If that wasn't enough, you're asking a group of strangers, who don't know each other, to organize and make tactics to ward off a premade designed to wipe entire teams with salted earth, and coordinated call outs. I need not say that trying to organize random Frontlines players is like herding cats. It very RARELY works out. You yourself admit that premades are an advantage to your team, and its one the others do not have. It is not fair, and winrates alone prove that. If you're winning 50% of matches, imagine how much worse you make it for the other 2/3 of players who don't have friends to queue with, and don't know what they're doing enough to make call outs.

If there's a higher percentage of people that take the mode seriously, then that's great.
-I don't know how much less they could really care about the mode. They seem pretty content to put band-aids over gaping wounds.

They're going to continue to put band-aids over the gaping wounds, because why put resources into a game mode that is universally disliked? As both a Solo queue player, and a Mentor I see the attitudes firsthand towards PvP, and its universally negative. Why would they put resources into much needed QoL updates, new maps, or new modes when people have NO interest in Frontlines? You cannot deny that premade groups are harming both Frontlines as a whole, and the community at large. Players who otherwise may have given PvP a shot will go elsewhere. We've seen the consequences of the generally apathetic attitude the playerbase has with Shatter being ruined, Borderland ruins being outright removed, and us waiting 6 months just to get half hearted patches to "fix" issues that were discovered day one.

If you care about the outcome, then yes. Do you want to win without putting in any effort? There's plenty of content in the game to accommodate that mindset. Why are you so against playing with friends? Do you not have any that PVP? I can introduce you to several discords or CWLS where you can interact and make some. You call it "sweaty," but we have a pretty chill time. Even if you are disgusted at the idea of playing with others, you can still help your team by adding some simple macros and callouts.

I put in plenty of effort, I have a 41% winrate as a solo queue player with over 1600 frontlines matches played across my account, so don't go accusing me of wanting "a win without putting in any effort." I organize my teams full of randoms to win. I make call outs, and I leave practically every match with BH IV or BH V. I put my pound of flesh into this mode, and I play to win, I don't play for a participation trophy like you seem to be suggesting.

As for why I do not form my own Premades, or join up with my friends;

1. Dark/AST/DRG compositions aren't fun to play as, or with.
2. I'd rather play jobs I find fun, that aren't "meta", that would not fit into a typical steamroll set up.
3. I don't find steamrolling my enemies enjoyable. I want competition.
4. As you suggest, my friends don't enjoy PvP, for the reasons I've described in numerous posts. The ones that do have no interest in putting in the time that I do into PvP.

I'm not against joining any such communities, and I do consider myself open minded, but you'll find it very difficult to convince me that premading is benefical in the long run to anyone. If we want all these PvP changes, the community needs to be large enough to demand them, and not allow ourselves to be ignored, or stepped on by the PvE community that works against us more often than not.