Honestly, it's not the Proto gear that is ruining the experience. It's the fact that they are running organized squads. Organized squads, working together, will dominate uncoordinated players every time. Now, add in the fact they are using superior gear, and the problems just compound.

It's purely a MM problem. If MM isn't working properly due to low player counts, then it will continue to be a major problem. I can't count the number of times I look at the opposing teams, and see at least 6 members from the same corp, and 2 or 3 others from another corp, while my team is filled with mostly starter corps and my team chat says most are unsquaded.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but I'm positive it will have to be solved in the MM algorithms.

Is it so hard to start using proto gear instead of standard?

The above mentioned points are all natural according to Dust's mechanics, do you really expect fps players too not use our best? We're mostly not Care Bears...

Does the inside of your ass smell as bad as I assume? Spamming scanners does not equal situational awareness, that aspect of the game crawled up your ass with your head and died. These patches just turned the game into COD, a heavy AA twitch shooter that people think they are good at when connection or teams are in their favor. If you want to boast your skill go play LAN tourneys, nothing else reflects skill but keep telling yourself what you want.