**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
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This also ignores decay. If we preserve track between seasons without decay, then eventually *everyone* will be in Gladiator, which doesn’t make sense. Decay plus unrestricted random matching will trap a substantial number of players between tracks. That’s untenable, because that’s the sort of thing that would destroy the game mode over time.
1) do you even know what sandbagging is?
2) if you think you do, what is it in your opinion?
Because your arguments seem to be justifying something completely different
At same time make the tokens you receive from moving up and ranked rewards scale with progression so bigger accounts get more. (Don't see many of the people who want to be just matched with equal accounts say they want smaller rewards which would be the only fair thing)
When hit certain level (either gladiator or upper part of victory track) remove all structured matchmaking and it be a free for all in that tier.
So, I tried some different setups.
My best champ's:
Worked well for awhile. Pretty even most matches until I got to gold 1 and then found myself fighting accounts that had way more 6* r4s than me, and mostly all had the newest champs. Couldn't get ahead and started hating playing. I'm not a bad player, but my account could not realistically compete with the matchups. The accounts were just way more stacked and couldn't beat them fast enough, most of the time, even with perfect game play and good matchups.
Sandbagging:
Not as great as you think. More times than not, I'd get only 2* to pick from and a guaranteed round lost. Or, the one good champ was a terrible option and didn't help either. Plus, even doing this, I still faced many accounts that had comparable rosters that had better rng. Everyone acts like sandbagging is a guaranteed win. It's not - not by any means.
Using lower champs:
I started playing around with teams of different rankings and PI and this is where things get interesting. You're still using your roster, fair and square but, now, I don't get matches that are lopsided on the high or low end. They're almost completely even, except when I face a sandbagger, which sometimes works in their favor, and sometimes in mine. But, I feel this is the best place to move up because I have a large and diverse 5/4/3* roster and just need to keep the pi pretty evenl across the board.
So that's where I'm at - using lower champs, but not sandbagging, because the game mode matchups are not in my favor when using my best champs - simply because that puts me up accounts that have 6* r4 rosters that dwarf mine.
Is that cheating? No. Is it unsportsmanlike? I don't think so. Does it feel good to be able to move up instead of being stuck - you bet. Does it feel good that I can't use the best champs in my roster I worked so hard to aquire and rank up - nope, not at all.
The rankings aren't great. You can't blame people for trying things to get past bottle necks outside of their control, especially if it's working. If it's not cheating, and they're willing to tweak their deck enough to find a combination that allows them to progress, and it's not cheating, you can complain all you want or you can find a strategy that works for you, or keep doing what you're doing and let them get the rewards instead.
Kabam needs to take action to make the matchups more fair at all levels of the game. If the matching system was better, then sandbagging wouldn't even be a thing. As it is now, it is a thing. And it has its own set of risks vs reward.
And instead of screwing around with how players are matched, instead give people handicaps.
Sandbagging? Maybe you only get 20k max points instead of the standard 30k for defeating the opponent.
I used to play fifa where people used to bronze bench and it would give them "easier" matches. This was a few years ago.
Then it was made such that only the main team players counted towards the rating matchup, so ppl started putting bronze players in the main squad and using subs at the beginning of the match.
Let's say the solution is to use the top 20 champ ratings and matchup. This will work until people on purpose start using lower rated decks and bench their main champs.
I am sure I could outsmart someone who has only 5* champs because their experience with mcoc is still limited BECAUSE MCOC is such a game where besides the obvious champ levels, the player skill and knowledge matters a LOT. If someone knows the champs inside out, then can easily outsmart a loaded deck.
I disagree with the fact that players should start and be pre-ranked each time a new season begins. That will cripple the ability to gain rewards for ppl in higher tiers and once they've plateaued. Eventually resulting in ppl dropping down the ranks and starting again, pummeling the lower rated players in lower tiers. This was a problem in fifa as well.
This almost certainly falls under the umbrella of what I described in my original post as wildly differing opinions on what the nature of the competitive modes even are supposed to be, and I don't think there's going to be any way to resolve those differences. Which is why I said a wide range of people might disagree, but I was specifying what I would do if it were my decision to make, because while other people might take issue with it as being contrary to their ideas of competition or fair play, they don't contradict mine in this context.
What I don't condone is the idea that such manipulations are fair. Players who aren't doing such things are depending on the Matchmaking system to allow them to progress with "reasonable" Matches. Reasonable is subjective, but what that means is within reasonable capabilities. They don't have to be an exact match, but certainly not something that ambushes them into an almost certain Loss.
I'm not subscribing to the justification that their skill is what matters because the people doing this are almost definitely aware that these cherrypicked Matches are not really capable, both in Roster and skill. It's not a matter of earning Rewards because they're more skilled. It's a matter of taking it upon themselves to stop lower Players from getting Rewards.
Do I think that all people doing this have that motive? Not specifically. I just think people are using the system for easy Rewards. Something that's not uncommon in this game. However, the simple fact remains that taking advantage of other Players is not in the spirit of fair play, regardless of whether the system allows them to.
Players should be rewarded appropriately. They should also be matched with Players in their own "paygrade", so-to-speak. A Player with a lower to mid Roster shouldn't be matching with a Paragon full of R4s unless there was some natural way of them making their way up that ladder. Again, one wrong doesn't justify the other.
Everybody wants to achieve the best roster they can the difference is how you go about it and the type of person you are.
For those of us who play the game as it's designed are generally decent people with morals and values.
Those that sandbag/cheat/manipulate for their own gain's are sad individuals who are happy to go to any length to get ahead with little or no respect for anyone else.
Unfortunately this only mirrors real life, something that the human race will eventually destroy itself over because of wanton greed.
We may not like it but we learn to live with it.
Wakanda Forever is out soon, that's something to look forward too and can't be sandbagged lol.
Maybe they should be awarded a special default profile pic of a giant chicken?
You're only seeing this from your point of view and ignoring how frustrating it is for people who are good at the game, to have to lose match after match just because they're opponent is exploiting a system that's flawed.
You take a clip (why very fuzzy, btw ?) from in the post about hiring of a new person to combat cheating, in which they lay out different things.
Of which, you can toss in the newer post they made which DOES actually say that “WIN-TRADING” is not allowed.
And then as a side note in this earlier announcement, they also mention changes they will make to sandbagging (without calling sandbagging cheating, like the modding, etc, is).
Your 2nd paragraph would be summarizing the rest of the post, not specifically pertaining to sandbagging (which was not the primary purpose of the post).
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But, yes, changes will be made to better do matchmaking. I would think something like a PRESTIGE-based system of the DECK you are using, like average rating of your top-10 in the deck (10 out of 30, so wouldn’t matter who you bring for 11-30).
As far as the ranking system itself, I feel like Victory Track should be removed entirely. No other competitive game that I can think of has a ranking system that completely prevents a player from demoting. The way the Battlegrounds rank system is currently setup, if we really wanted all players to be matching with similar rosters, we'd have cavaliers coming out of Victory Track just like Paragons who have significantly superior rosters but still end up in the same place on the ladder, resulting in the same issue of cavs getting stomped by paragons straight out the gate and having no reason to ever play Battlegrounds once they reach the circuit due to a broken ladder.
If we wanted to have player ranks carry over between seasons, that introduces the problem of figuring out how to distribute token rewards to players who are already in high ranks and can't possibly rank up from B3 to B2 etc.
The best solution I can think of would be to implement a milestone system that rewards players for reaching rank thresholds relative to the rank they ended the previous season in.
So you would have players start every season 3 divisions below where they ended the previous season i.e. someone who ended this season in Plat 3 would start the next in Gold 3, which forces players to prove that they actually belong in whatever rank they're in and didn't simply get there through a streak of good luck.
Milestone rewards would be given out as you approach your last season's rank, giving you your total trophy tokens when you reach that rank, then giving you small amounts (1-200) per win as long as you're above your past season's rank, incentivizing people to continue ranking up while minimizing rank exploits.
For the highest ranks, say celestial, mysterium and quantum, rewards can be directly tied to individual wins since there's no real way to exploit rank when you're playing with the best players, plus it's a lot more difficult to rank up when you're already at the top.
Should be based on the actual DECK you use each time.
**Points for BG Events reward more for using certain champs (Villain, and more specifically Off.Burst and Def.Util tagged ones).
So I actually want to use ONLY those tagged champs for my actual fights.
No way I would have that many tagged available from among my top champs, so I take them from among a fuller availability of 4* roster (and Skip using any high 5* and 6* champs), so I have more of those 4* specific tagged champs available for my Deck and Fights.
Which even then would be at a disadvantage against other 4* who bring top performing champs (not necessarily some weaker ones like Off.Burst Gamora).
If Kabam wants to match you based on your overall Roster, and not your Deck, then they can’t be specifying bonus points for just a certain subset of champs.