Ranked progression feedback
TL;DR: Current entry cost is too high, Diamond+ players are getting stuck at Platinum. Hello. I would like to share my feedback on ranked progression in season 20. As I see it, there are two system...
Forum Discussion
Sure, previously entire rank was one lobby, so if you were rising in IV, you would be rising in the other three divisions. Now that the lobby is more granular, the challenge level is raising constantly, so you may get stuck mid rank. I’m not against more granularity, my feedback is about the fact that the scoring system in Platinum+ ranks makes progression very grindy or even impossible when you are playing in a similar skilled lobby. And that’s not good – you should get stuck when you get to a lobby that is beyond your skill, not when you are playing well-balanced matches.
Shouldnt you get stuck when you play "averagely" in a lobby with players average your skill level though? Thats how I perceive fair competition at least, i.e assuming a perfect lobby with 60 players EXACTLY equally skilled in all regards (ofc impossible to achieve in practice), the players who underperforms should decrease in rank, the players who overperforms should increase and the players who performs averagely should remain , i.e "peak". In other words; to rank up in any given rank; you must be, not equal, but actually better than your similarly skilled opponents.
But anyway; its so hard to comment on the RP cost/gain balance without the actual statistics of the matches played. For instance; total amount of RPs given vs total amount of RPs lost in every lobby would be interesting to know. I guess it should be a zerosum game for it to be a healthy RP gain/loss balance?
My two biggest critics of the ranked progression is think is that its kinda hard to have a consistence performance. I havent peaked yet and I am now like mid plat. But my gain/losses over 10 matches kinda looks like -36 -30, +5, - 25, + 10, -30, + 200, -30, +90, -20. Hrmm so even though I am steadily climbing, my "experience" can feel a bit bad since I "fail" most matches, just to get a big win now and then hehe. The second thing is that I would have preferred a bit more individual based RP gain/loss situation. The whole "win and lose as a team"-principle only works if it was a 3-man premade game but I think the reality is that most people who played rank play as solo or premade duos. So I see no reason why to reward individual performance and punish bad performance more. I dont know how many useless players I have carried to so much free RPS; matches that we win and I have 3000 dmg and they 600+500.
If you are the only player who is climbing the ranks, then yes, you should get stuck when you reach similarly skilled group. But of course, that’s not the case, everyone is climbing simultaneously and you can get into a similarly skilled group where everyone is lower than they “should” be. When you get stuck in this case, the most reasonable choice is to wait a few weeks until less-skilled players will get to this level and will make the lobby easier so that you will be able to progress. And incenting players to not play is not good for the game’s health.
Also, I think that team-based reward is a good thing, because it helps recognizing non-damage-based contributions like ring prediction, rotation routes, knowing which fights not to take to avoid getting third-partied, and so on. I admit, I’m biased here as I’m much better IGL than a fighter, but I think that rewarding different playstyles is good for game’s health as it makes the experience more varied. (By the way, I’m solo-queuing 90% of the time and I like the experience.)
You are right in principle. If the ranked mode was perfect from a competative POV, i.e that all players in each lobby played at their current peak level and really tryhard played to gain RPs, the team-oriented RP gains would make perfect sense. Because a player who lacks fighting skills and only can hide and avoid fights wouldnt be able to advance if EVERY player try hard played. The only reason this strategy works in the current system is because too many players in a lobby below master/high diamond are smurfing and therefore plays in a way that empties the lobbies too fast (try to play "strategically with smart positioning and movement to avoid fights when there are 15 squads alive in round 4, everyone exactly as good at the game as you.. its impossible and you would need to also rely on your fighting skills)So the reason I opt for a more individual performance based RP system is because I think it would work better in the situation ranked is in. Its just not healthy that a player with a fighting skill of an average silver lobby can advance probably to mid plat since so many just wanna frag and mess around in every lobby. It would also combat the smurfing issue since smurfs would then A) much faster get to his appropriate rank, B) not be able to carry his teammates to free RPs.
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