Friendly (unranked) catch up on Battleground Dev Dairy - This is NOT from a Kabam Dev

Hi Kabam,

Soooo....how are the work on improving BG going.

Remember this Powerpoint slide back in Oct 2025 stream

Now I know you done a great and speedy job removing the "Decline" button, amazing, make a lot of sense.

I assumed the rest are all done and live in game now right?

1) How is the little league going…oh you haven't done it yet....only Unranked match…still matching with account double your size, but less rewards...ummm...ok

2) How about Shuffle update, that sound like a really good idea, reshuffle and not getting the same champs appearing, what not to like, surely that have been implemented right?.....riiiight?.…no?...no update...um ok

3) White / Black list updated, that could be interesting, so how did it went, what was the players feedback?...ah ok, not done either…umm..ok

So what have you done to improve the unbalanced and disengaged BG have become?

You remove the skill requirements aspect of the mode, and making it purely based on whoever have the newest, biggest, highest ranked and ascended champs win.

How did you do that?....oh by remove the Health points…oh ok.

Oh and to ensure it will be fully a pay to win, you going to introduce Collective, where the bigger your account are, the even stronger you champions will be.

UUmm…interesting, and you think this is a good idea, health and balance for the game eco and future.…um very interesting.

Comments

Gordon_X602

I need that Blacklist👀👀… It will save bans

GroundedWisdom

This doesn't really sound friendly. 😆

spiderknight616

Omega pools need to be implemented in the game proper. That was a great idea

Phantøm_Echø

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949934#Comment_2949934

How would that work though. The way it was implemented was every player decided on their picks before the tournament, does this mean another interface before every match to decide your omega pool picks…? I am genuinely wondering

Kabam (Osaurus) Rex

1) How is the little league going?
Unranked Matches is Little Leagues. It matches based on strength, not ELO or Rank.

2) How about Shuffle update?

Shuffles giving the same Champs makes me yell - very frustrating and something we want to fix.

3) White / Black list?

This is something I'd personally be very interested in, and it is still on the table & under exploration for the future - for now, the team has tried to see if the meta can be influenced in other ways aside from a strict blacklist.

Omega Pools are awesome, something I would love to see implemented, but requires must larger structural changes to the mode first.

Legendrv

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949938#Comment_2949938

how about adding a some reward for winning or losing a bgs match , that would make people not quit from just losing :}

Magrailothos

Props to @Kabam (Osaurus) Rex for a constructive answer.

Seriously folks, we can't treat every expression of 'we're looking at…' as some kind of promise; or Kabam will just stop sharing information at all.

I mean, the line for Little League literally has six question marks after it...!

Personally I'd rather hear about the six things they're considering/exploring (four of which don't happen) than just wait to hear about the two that make it through development. Because it's interesting to hear these suggestions, and we get to provide feedback/discuss possibilities on here.

But fine, maybe that's just me.

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949966#Comment_2949966

I dont know if English is your first language or not but typically ?!?!?!?! does not denote something speculative or a question it's used as a shorthand or even slang for the sentiment of something like "what! No way! We're really doing that?! Thats insane!"

Magrailothos

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949975#Comment_2949975

English not my first language?

ROFL 🤣

By all means, accuse me of being old and unable to understand how the cool kids communicate - that's fine.

But ?!?!?!?! is not a word, let alone English.

It's a collection of symbols intended to denote meaning; which I guess might qualify it as a 'language'.

But it's not English.

Osborne

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949938#Comment_2949938

Give some friendly objectives man... No one wants to play with an unknown or random guy

Terra

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949938#Comment_2949938

A community voted blacklist in-game sounds like something interesting to me @Kabam (Osaurus) Rex

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949995#Comment_2949995

Captain Britain, Serpent, Nico, Dark Phoenix, Deathless Thanos every season

NARWH4L

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949994#Comment_2949994

Yes, give everyone a means of match manipulation to earn rewards. That would be perfect

Anotherconcernplayer

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949938#Comment_2949938

Warning:-

To anyone even consider reading this, yep English is not my mother tongue and I'm also dyslexic, and typing on a phone and most likely a few screws lose too 🤪🤣, so read at your own risk.

Hi Mike,

Firstly, always appreciate you taking the time to converse on some of these matters, even if they are heavy and tricky (I saw your response on the Ascension post). So honestly appreciate it.

Secondly, I understand that you can only comments and express to a certain extent, as other matters Kabam might be know or ready to share yet. So I'm not expecting any follow up response (but if anything are given it will always be appreciated, where we agreed or not).

So on these points and the state of Battlegrounds:-

Little League

Yep I did understand that Unranked Match was what Kabam consider as Little League, and alternative way for small accounts to get involved in BG.

However, I'm not sure what is the data telling Kabam abotu Unrank BG mode, but in actually reality, it does feel like it provided the intended goal.

Here was a post I made a few months back

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/413107/bg-unranked-match-purpose

Unranked Matching is still wild out, I have matched with account much smaller than my and account that much bigger (both in term of account, prestige and dex size).

Unranked Match is now just the space for players to collect their Essentia after made it to GC. While smaller accounts feel like the been boxed out from higher rewards.

Unranked Match would work if participation in normal Ranking was high, but since BG is in such a bad state, Unranked Match actually make it worst.

Shuffle Update

It is great to hear that Kabam want to fix that, and based on that response we can only assumed that Kabam is working hard on that for that last 6 months, because the honest true is "we want to fix" is not equal to "we are working in it". But if Kabam are working on it then a a simple update in one of the many stream we had during that time stating that would have been helpful in building trust and communication with the community.

Just a simple "hey, we are still working on Shuffle update, it it trickier then we throught, but just want to let you know we are still on it"

Also maybe not testing doing 3 (not free) Shuffle test meta while it still not working as intended.

Whitelist / Blacklist

Ok, good to know it is on the table

BG Testing & Experiment

Now on the testing, experiment, working on way to fix BG and give a bright future. Great, I believe the players have actually been very patient and understanding of this, however patient and understanding have been really pushed to the limited when some of these metas and tests feel so far off. There is a different is taking a swing and miss, and playing basketball with a fishing rod.

When some of the concept and test feel so off, they make players feel like Kabam is taking them for a ride, like a little stupid guinea pig testing out Square wheel for rotten carrots (or whatever guinea pig 🤣🤣🤣).

Did Kabam honestly thought removing Heath point is a good idea, when only a while back Kabam actually reduce points in BG Time (i.e, give more weight to Health). How did we go from one end to another? Come one Mike as a high end, well experienced player yourself, you can't me that isn't a dumb idea (not actually expecting an answer here.)

Root of BG Problem

There are a number of factors that got BG to this current state, including "Unbalanced Def", "too many Magic Lock and Magic Key", "Purchase Power" and "Over Extended Exclusivity OP Champions".

All of this lead to the root of BG problem, which is the different in Account Discrepancies, where matches are just unwinnable no matter how skilled you are, this lead to the feeling of hopelessness, pointless, waste of time and frustration. No one want to experience that, and would walk away from whatever cause it, i.e BG. Which Kabam would know all of this.

This can not be "fix" with meta alone, and if anything everything tested so far only make matter worst. 40 dex size, 5 bans, 3 Shuffle, no Health point, all of these meta only exacerbate the problem.

This combine with 1 year of exclusivity of higher ranking on new champions through Ascension (via Feature Valiant crystals) and Collective, will only make it worst for BG, and there are no meta alone snd would help fix that.

Base line is - Players feel wasting time playing BG with very little or no turn on rewards. Time Invest > Rewards and Enjoyment. Players want to feel like they making progress for the time they put in.

BG way of progress and rewards also need to be review, and if Kabam is doing that, then just let the players know.

Again as simple as

"Hey we know BG is in a bad stated, we are testing on the match experience, but we are also reviewing other area too, including progression and rewards.

No details yet, but will keep touch base and keep you updated".

Right now all that being done to BG and future proposals only seem to make BG worst, which doesn't give players and community much confident and hope. Might worth consider a bit of time on your next stream to tackle that head on, or as a great CCP once said "Face Block" 🤣🤣🤣 (I think his name is KarateMike, shame he doesn't upload anymore).

Osborne

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2949999#Comment_2949999

😭 For off season.. ... I'm not talking about on season bro... Atleast some obj so we can play with our frnds and get some free stuffs ... :

Lost____one

It was doomed as soon as they kept toxic emotes in the game mode and did not allow permanent blocking.

Kabam will always go for short term profit vs long term investment. It is the business model after all.