Sandbagging

The practice of deliberately underperforming in a competitive setting to obtain a more favourable handicap, ranking, or matchmaking placement, then exploiting that advantage in later matches. Sandbagging originates in handicapped sports such as golf and is a known risk for any balancing system that adjusts to demonstrated ability. In online competitive video games, the pseudo-anonymity of the player base and the difficulty of monitoring behaviour amplify this risk, making it a key design consideration when introducing handicapping or dynamic difficulty mechanisms intended to broaden access.