Grand Arena MM

You’re going to be given many negative replies with your post about how you’re wrong and GAC is beautiful.  

This is the number 1 guy in Kyber 1 - no GL, not great mods.  Clearly being fed the winners circle.  The #2 and #3 guy are similar stats.  This points to collusion and collaboration within GAC which is why Arena mode was revamped and rewards moved to GAC.  His Era toons are 31 so this isn’t even an episode pass buyer 

From a 'stats' perspective the ladder system (it's not really a match making system) is far from disastrous.  We're all winning somewhere between 65-35% of our games, which is what they wanted and a positive 'working within parameters' stat.

GP is a very poor calculation for actual PvP power.  It's not something you should consider for 'fair' match-making.  However, of course 6 GLs to 0 GLs is a very good indicator that you're probably outmatched.

Your chances of winning any match up are fair (as shown by the stats).  However, your chances of having an engaging match up that adheres to the spirit of the game sadly isn't.  This is the issue.  A lot of the 35-65% of the wins may come from players that are not engaging in the game mode.  I.e. they're inactive.

So, if we can accept that the chances of winning are fair, but the chances of having an engaging match up are not what they should be, an 'Activity Score' which is used as a secondary for match making should fix the problem.

Players are given an Activity Score.  The 'AS' is used for secondary match making criteria.  1.  You're matched on the ladder with the players closest to you on Skill Points, as normal.  2.  You're then matched with players with the same Activity Scores as you.  You gain +2 points for being very active in a GAC match up, +1 for being active.  0 for doing some.  -1 for one offensive match.  -2 for nothing.  Max AS is +10 min is -10.   Now, those that don't try and demote to Leagues way below their true power level won't interfere with players that are actually trying, but with a lot less resources.

This bug appeared after they 'fixed' the squish issue in Kyber.  At first, it appeared to be players with a legacy GA score being placed.  However, now that's not the case.  CG hasn't even acknowledged this bug, let alone attempted to fix it.  I think they're of the position that the squish formula is now so delicate, they daren't touch it.

Sashaisha (and players like him) is the one that's really losing out (the guy that should be top).  Apparently he loves his GAC and is now in the position where he rarely gets real match ups due to this bug.  Here you have an uber kraken that's having his game ruined and being ignored.

I think you’re misunderstanding the issue around these lower GP players at the top of the ranking in GAC. These players have all had lengthy spells of inactivity but have recently returned to the game. 

For some reason, likely CG’s lack of foresight on the effects of their squish adjustments on the skill rating of long-term inactive players, when these players return to GAC activity they have much larger skill ratings than would seem otherwise reasonable. 

Because a handful of these players return to activity at the same time as each other, they end up getting bracketed with one another which means their woefully inadequate rosters are not always exposed to being completely outclassed. 

You can see this yourself if you look at the GAC history of any of those top of K1 accounts. Suggesting that this is the result of collusion is naive and incorrect. 

What I don’t understand is why so many forumers are so annoyed by these players sitting at the top of K1. They’ve been inactive for a long period and have weak rosters. Who cares what they’re doing in GAC? Would anyone seriously want to trade accounts with them?

I suspect the annoyance is centred on a frustration from lower ladder players thinking “I’m better than the players at the top of K1, so it’s unfair that they are in that position.” I couldn’t really care less, myself. Yes, I’m better than them - but I’m not better than at least 2000 of the players just beneath them, so I just move on and focus on my matchups.