For the most part I can say Carnage did not really care about gear, they would pvp with fully geared AA toons or sh1t stained blue geared alts. And I remember them inviting extreme trash players like engage and payyourtaxes, and even shoola at one point, although I doubt any of these clowns were used for anything outside clicking rocks for the afkers.
Of course if they would stop sharing accounts and letting the same 2 people earn them bans for trash talk, they probably would have most of their original toons.
I can't say I disagree with the buddy system, I'm tired of getting chased 4v1 no help while my team beats on conqs with OtO on and wonder why they can't kill him, or the ToS turns red yet "my attacks heal him" (heard that today), lol, minis are at their all time worst.