So today I was chilling and playing some MK8 online, which is pre fun tbh fam. I was surprised to note that one guy wasn't dominating the lobby for 5-6 races in a row, despite it being normal for a single person to go entire races up the front without being hit by an item, today the last race's winner kept getting bogged down towards the back of the field for some reason. On a match on Cloudtop Cruise I raced particularly well, having raced on that track a lot in singleplayer and knowing all the optimal lines to take, and the shortcuts not needing a Mushroom boost.

The race after that didn't go so well for me tbh. I made the mistake of going for the Coin patches at the start of Mute City, and never saw the front again. These 2 people from Japan made sure of that. I noticed it when I drove past a guy waiting with a Red shell, instantly realizing his plan (only thinking it was a one-time move) but being unable to make it to a wall to cancel the shell out, resulting in losing 3 places, where I met another fellow (again, Japanese) doing a similar tactic but much worse. Every item box he got was a Star (I'm not convinced he plays legit but I have no reason to think somebody has managed to hack online yet) and he'd always activate it and try to stop right in front of me, chasing and hitting me if I missed, before repeating the tactic for the rest of the race. I got past once thanks to some Mushrooms but outside interference from a Red shell dropped me behind again), and he waited before deciding I couldn't make up enough ground to score points, so I finished 10th out of 12. I left the lobby because there is simply nothing that can be done about that style of play.

TL;DR: Guy who might be hacking (but also may just be blessed by the RNG for a specific race) has a hate boner for skilled MK racers.

So what gives? That was blatant deranking, but in Mario Kart's Multiplayer I don't think it's even remotely necessary because it's largely a recreational game, and online score is inconsequential outside fake internet points as far as I can see. Can anybody think of a reason somebody might do this? Just trolling, or trying to forcefully share first place around in some kind of nanny state?

I guess they find some sort of satisfaction from cheating in a casual game...?

But not even that, it looked like they were just punishing the winner of the previous race into submission without trying to finish anywhere well themselves. Their highest finishing spot was 6th in the time I was racing.

oh but yeah NEVER go for the first coin patch on Mute City, always wait for the straightaway

Yee, what's effective in Time Trials and Races is completely different.

Same reason someone might smurf in CSGO, they want to rek some scrubs, which is kinda sad.

Me & Milk (Some guy from Blind.net) might have met a hacker once, the guy had an 8-0 W/L ratio and when the race started he was already way ahead of us, we couldnt catch up the bastard, he was going fast or "too" fast to be normal, and I don't know if the fourth guy was on it with him because all we fucking got was  useless green shells and even if we got the red shells that didnt slow him down at all.

8 stars in a row is pre suspicious fam.

Yeah, but I didn't know that there was actual hackers in MarioKart 8.

Me neither. Even that guy with like 80,000 points plays legit, pity you can't report players ayy.

That's why I only played online when B.lind held tourneys.

Eh, that was my first experience with them. Before that I consistently finished well enough to score points in every race. Aside from the slowness (I think online is either 50 or 100cc) it's pre fun fam