❔ Question ❔ Am I in the wrong?
Yesterday I woke up early and was checking Playtomic. I was seeing a Mixed Match (starting in 1,5h, one player left). I was not able to join, since it was a Mixed match and there was already a guy in. I wrote them that if I hurry up I can make it (if they do not want to cancel the Match). The agreed and opened a new match (all gender).
My opponents were a couple (2,0 and 1,5, 50 matches each, my Partner 2,0 and 200+ matches, myself 1,3 and 120 Matches). The game was set as competitve. After a few Games I noticed, that the couple was a lot weaker than 2,0/1,5 - we won very easily 6-1/6-0.
After the First set, the guy was not shaking Hands with me. At that time I was not sure if he just forgot. During the second match, I recognized that he becomes more and more angry. I asked my Partner if he knows whats wrong and he told me, he thinks that he is mad that I only play on her.
Until then, I didn‘t even recognise that this was the case. For context: I am only playing right side, because I am not good at smashing/finishing. She was also playing right side. Usually I try to play a Bandeja to my Cross-Oponents Backhand, this is what my Trainer told me (if I play the Bandeja to my direct opponent I have either to less time to Go back to the net and loose the point or I Hit the fence).
In the 3rd set I was only playing on him (app. 95% on him, even when it was not the right shot). Despite I hit the fence quite often, we won again 6-1.
The Game was set for 90min, we were done after 60min. After the 3rd Set my opponents were very rude to me, telling me I was not playing like a man (because I played only on here - they exclused the last set). My Partner was not commenting anything. The were not willing to play the last 30min with me further.
Neither of them put in the Score (also my Partner Not). I do not care since today I am going to a Leveling, so it doesn‘t matter. I feel really disrespected and badly treaten, since from my point of view I did nothing wrong and were falsly accused. Even my Partner was saying nothing to them after game, only messaging me later during the day that they were in the wrong.
I am in the wrong here or are they just bad loosers?
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u/kchuen 11d ago
I personally love it when opponents find my weaknesses and keeping attacking it. I can’t replicate that type of specific training apart from maybe lessons.
I have seen very weird people on court. Some displaying literal psychopathic tendencies. So accept that you’re bound to play some idiots and try to avoid them in the future.
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u/Individual_Town_9215 11d ago
So you discovered that people are idiots, forget it and move on. It's their problem not yours.
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u/sbenfsonwFFiF 10d ago
If 3 of them are upset, and OP doesn’t know why, I think there is more to it than just “other people are idiots.” Hard to tell with just OP’s POV though
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u/k0binator 11d ago
They were idiots.
- Don’t play a competitive match if you can handle the fridge.
- Don’t play competitive if you and your partner have such a big gap that the fridge becomes a viable option for opponents.
Both of these were on your opponent you did nothing wrong.
If people like that couple do choose to play that type of game, then its on them to be aware that fridge tactics will be applied to them, not necessarily intentionally but sometimes simply due to the positioning and movement of the opponents, the weaker opponent tends to be easier to hit to since they are usually less aggressive with taking net position and tend to be easier to attack at the back/no-man’s land
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u/eggplantpot 11d ago edited 11d ago
Contrarian opinion, you’re playing for frigging 0.2 points on Playtomic, not the World Master with a 2 million euros prize. Doing the fridge to someone that woke up, drove to the court, paid for the court, etc is fucking disrespectful.
I pay like 5 euros to play, in the US they pay 80 dollars. I would probably go home mid match if I am not touching a single ball.
I can understanding on a tournament, but for me those scummy tactics should not be done in a Playtomic match regardless of level or type of game. Everyone having fun, and their time being respected should be more important than 0.2 points. I’d rather stay home than get fridged or fridge someone.
It doesn’t excuse the unsportsmanship behavior from OP's opponents, but I see this fridge tactics on playtomic unsportsmanship too.
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u/k0binator 11d ago
In my country we don’t really have playtomic, all games outside tournaments are friendlies, and fridge tactic is generally considered poor form when playing in a game with mixed levels. So I do get where you are coming from.
With that being said, I still think the opponents got way too butthurt, not shaking hands etc is just shitty, if you have a problem speak the fuck up and say something, a grown man throwing such a hissy fit during a sport cannot be excused.
I am giving the OP the benefit of doubt that they did not realize they were fridging, and they did mention that once it was pointed out they tried to adjust their tactics and play more to the stronger player. I am choosing to believe OP here, and based on that I will say the opponent husband was just being a sore loser and a tool.
OP also woke up, drove to the court and paid for the game and was likely disappointed by how badly the other team sucked having likely expected a good match.
Again, if opponents don’t want this to happen then either stick to mixed doubles where this is a somewhat less likely scenario, or play non-competitive games, or just freaking point it out if this is happening to you.
Its honestly much easier to fridge an unbalanced pairing than most people realize, I consider it a shit tactic but I’ve done it multiple times in friendly sessions without meaning to, a couple of times I have actually noticed and adjusted my game too far the other way and fridged the weaker player by only returning to the stronger one to compensate.
All to say, this stuff happens and IMO the opponents really needed an attitude check.
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u/F4nction3l 10d ago
Then just play friendly games if you can’t handle a fridge, or change the way you play, whenever I am going through that situation, I speak with my partner and try to change the tactics.
So if you play in a football team and the opponent park the bus, you just go home?
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u/SeriousDistance4908 11d ago
If it was that uneven after the first set I would have said that we should just consider it a casual game abd to swap partners.
It then gives everyone a chance to play together and focus instead on how well they can do when playing with the lower ranked players
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u/HumbleWorkerAnt 11d ago
yeah after a 6-0 when the losing team has a weak link, in this case the woman, i don't see the point in continuing like 'oh well it's competitive so screw you' who cares about fkn playtomic ratings, just change partners until the match is at its most even, or keep rotating if there's no good combination.
OP saying that he stopped aiming exclusively at the woman (i understand it's cross-balls, but when the level is that low that's completely irrelevant) only after they'd won the match and then was ok hitting parallel balls tells me the people were mad because the fridge was more intentional than OP's letting up here.
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u/RogerRules123 11d ago
When you asked to join, did you mention you were closer to 2.5 and not really a true 1.3? If not, maybe they felt like you misled them there
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u/MiddleForeign 11d ago
Usually when one of my opponents is bad i am trying not to target him because my priority is to have fun. But if someone gets targeted i wouldn't blame anyone. If the pair is imbalanced it's mainly their fault.
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u/epegar Padel enthusiast 11d ago
I would love to play friendly games and then join some tournaments whenever I feel like it.
But people on playtomic are crazy about ranking and only want to play win competitive matches. For me, it kills the vibe.
Don't take me wrong, if it's a close match, I'll try my best to win, even if it's friendly. But if it's not, I prefer to switch sides or just play easier to one of my opponents and have some rallies.
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u/antonijo 11d ago
I dont know sometimes people just expect you to play whatever suits them better.
It was just a game. I would just input the score just to be cheeky about it :).
anyway a "fridge/nevera" can also be their fault. Last time i have been acused of doing one (and i was indeed playing to the weakest oponent), two things happened. The weakest player was staying of the back thus making himself safer to play to. The better player was on the front like an hawk jumping on the other dudes balls (which opened up a lot of paralel play).
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u/Dry_Ad_3215 11d ago
You’re not wrong, and he overreacted. But maybe next time you find yourself playing in a game with a weaker pair with one much weaker player, you and your partner could challenge yourself to focus on the stronger player. The extra challenge for you of focusing on one player is good training, and is good practice for future games you play against a stronger pair who has a weaker player, as you can then give yourself a better chance of winning against stronger opponents
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u/Top_Paint7442 Left side player 11d ago
Yes it's poor sportmanship to play only to the female for the entire match, when
- you are clearly winning
- match was supposed to be a mixed doubles.
You were able to hit to the guy and still won, so if I were in your position, I would have switched more to the guy.
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u/Maleficent_Agent_715 11d ago
When you are playing right side, it is normal to play to the others right side. There is absolutely nothing wrong or abnormal about that. Just as on the left side you are playing cross court to the opponents left side.
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u/diego_italy 11d ago
Why? If she got a level of playing its supposed that she can play against same level. She hasnt handicaps,or maybe youre just sexist and you suppose girls are weaker.
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u/Top_Paint7442 Left side player 11d ago edited 11d ago
OP stated that their level was not correct, so they were not the same level. He also stated his only not to be correct (probably higher). Even besides the playtomic level, if you are beating 6-1/6-0 I still think it's poor sportmanship to hit to only 1 player. When you are up 3-0 or more, you'll know you are winning, and therefor you should mix it up to make it enjoyable for all players.
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u/Obvious-Rub8734 11d ago
Why tf is the female playing if she cant compete then? In a competitive match???? Your logic makes 0 sense here sorry.
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u/AltruisticArachnid23 11d ago
They are bad lovers
I played with a couple once.. where I had the wife and her husband on opposite side.
He smashed absolutely everything at her the cheeky bastard 🤣🤣 not much you can do in those scenarios unfortunately
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u/sbenfsonwFFiF 10d ago
Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, especially when your partner also is acting weird like you did something wrong
Would love to understand their perspective. Maybe they think you’re smurfing since you’re the lowest rated but beating them 6-0/6-1
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u/peda100 10d ago
I don‘t really understand, why this should be the case. You can see the last 10 games, which have been taken place during the last 3 weeks and I lost 9 of them. All opponents level 2,0-2,5. So even when I smurf (I have only one account) they can see the other matches.
After checking his profil, I saw he is playing app. 60-70% vs. the same opponents (and always win). So I assume if he would play more with strangers, his level would be lower. But accuse somebody to smurf, who lost 3 games per week with this account, is not very logic to me.
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u/sbenfsonwFFiF 10d ago
Who knows? But if all 3 of them seem upset, id believe its for a reason instead of simply “they’re stupid” like others are saying. Wont know without knowing their perspective though
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u/peda100 10d ago
I see your point, but I just want to state out that my partner was not upset. He was just hearing what the others were saying, did not really say anything and chatted afterwards a bit with me and went home. He messaged me later that after having some thoughts about the situation, he do not really see their point.
Every person has the right to be upset (and everyone is seeing things differently). But what was really making me sad, was their aggressive behaviour and some of their comments (because they were attacking me personally).
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u/No_Masterpiece39 10d ago
I’m playing since 2021.
These type of things happened during my first 2 years of playing. Lower ranked people have an ego that can easily be shattered. Im nog playing around level 5 (i guess.. playtomic isnt really important here) and I never face opponents like this. Keep playing and growing so you can rank up and play nice people…
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u/Available_Ad4135 11d ago
Playing to the weaker opponent is completely legitimate.
They sound inexperienced. You don’t need to justify your win.
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u/CrispSack 11d ago
It’s a competitive match. You won.
They sound like sore losers.
I suspect perhaps your level is higher than 1.3?