Battleground suggestions

There have been many complaints about matchmaking, point farming, etc. Before offering suggestions, we should make it clear that this is a competitive mode. That is a combination of roster and skill. It is the same with Alliance Wars, and to some extent, alliance quest (based on map and prestige). If that's what the mode is about, that's fine and we should be clear on that. Because of that, I am completely fine (and happy?) with the latest changes to matchmaking.

I want to point out the big issue in my opinion...most competitive game modes still has participation (i.e. grind) rewards. That's what the solo events and 2-day objectives are for. Wins get you there faster but losses still give you some progress. I am fine with those. The issue is when we put into competitive rewards what people think of should be participation rewards. I think the only such rewards are deathless pieces and perhaps those Magnetron crystals. Moving the Magnetron crystals to objectives was a good move, but it still makes it hard because some people cannot get the 1 win every 2 days.

One can argue that maybe deathless pieces need to be "earned" by playing tougher contents, but with those contents there is always the option for weaker players to use items to get through. In BG there is no way to use items to push through hard content. Especially even with a +2/-1 medal system, you can still erase progress by playing the mode.

So here are my suggestions:

If something is meant to be "participation rewards", then make sure it is really participation. Sure, make it easier to reach with wins, but losing should not make zero progress. Maybe make it 1 win or 5 losses, or whatever the number is so people feel like they are actually making progress. If you want to make it "win or use items", maybe make it 1 win or 10 losses.
If you insist on tying participation rewards to wins/reaching a certain tier (e.g. GC), then make those tiers more participation friendly. Instead of +2/-1 medals for win/loss, make it +1/0 until you get to the "competition tiers" (and readjust tier requirements). This way people feel like they can make progress to climb... Figure out what tier you think is okay for "participation" to get to, and put participation rewards to get to that point. After that people can have a real competition.

Using a +1/0 system instead of +2/-1 will also eliminate point farming at the participation tiers because there is no way they can slide backwards and not progress, and then the lower tier won't get matched with much better opponents (skill and/or roster) for long.

Comments

Asher1_1

With +2/-1 the one who are playing will be placed accordingly next season based on there this season finish but there are some casual big account that doesn't play they casually play & they get matched with smaller account and win easily.

There will be some anomalies in players that don't want to play but have valiant level account & they just spend on big occasion like July 4 and they don't need to do anything.
Imagine 1% anomalies 100k players 1000 are just beating lower level from that u get 100 forum post 😂

GrimXYZ

The casual accounts that don't play much isn't a big problem...because they don't play much. But if it is +1/0 then they can't hang around the lower tiers for long.

The bigger accounts that wait until the last week to try and climb is more of a problem.

DNA3000

One can argue that maybe deathless pieces need to be "earned" by playing tougher contents, but with those contents there is always the option for weaker players to use items to get through.

The "argument" which is not so much an argument but a statement of fact, is that the Deathless champs are top tier chase items. In other words, they are essentially end game content. The Deathless option for lower players is the 6* versions of those champs, only the 7* versions require doing top tier difficulty content or ranking high in BG. There is no specific need or desire for the 7* Deathless champs to be available via "participation" paths.

The participation rewards for BG are and always have been in the solo (and alliance) milestone rewards. There are rewards just for participating at all (the do 3 matches rewards) and incrremental rewards for winning matches when you participate. Even a player who doesn't win at all still gains rewards, and for all intents and purposes even a player that only wins every so often also gains VT tier rewards because the lowest tiers of VT now only require one win to promote.

So here are my suggestions:
If something is meant to be "participation rewards", then make sure it is really participation. Sure, make it easier to reach with wins, but losing should not make zero progress. Maybe make it 1 win or 5 losses, or whatever the number is so people feel like they are actually making progress. If you want to make it "win or use items", maybe make it 1 win or 10 losses.

If you insist on tying participation rewards to wins/reaching a certain tier (e.g. GC), then make those tiers more participation friendly. Instead of +2/-1 medals for win/loss, make it +1/0 until you get to the "competition tiers" (and readjust tier requirements). This way people feel like they can make progress to climb... Figure out what tier you think is okay for "participation" to get to, and put participation rewards to get to that point. After that people can have a real competition.
Using a +1/0 system instead of +2/-1 will also eliminate point farming at the participation tiers because there is no way they can slide backwards and not progress, and then the lower tier won't get matched with much better opponents (skill and/or roster) for long.

To be honest, I'm surprised the devs even went to +2/-1 throughout VT because I thought they'd never put that much forward bias into the scoring (even the +2/+1/0/-1 system I proposed a while ago had more bias than I thought they were willing to add) but that's because I didn't think they would extend VT as far as they ended up doing in S19. However, to make +1/0 practical, they'd have to make like a hundred VT tiers. There's simply no way to make that viable. At that point you're simply turning VT into the arena, where anyone could get to GC with their eyes closed while watching TV.