**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.
Comments
Dr. Zola
I also dont see why you would think you know more about people reaching GC through unapproved means than kabam employees, such an assumption is a bit much, even for you.
However, benefit of the doubt to you and let's pretend some of them didn't properly earn their way there, what about the rest of them and the rest of the lower accounts that aren't even in the video.
I guarantee a decent percentage of them are in GC in a legit way and again are only there as they don't have to face the stronger rosters while the stronger rosters stay stuck in Victory track and getting less rewards.
As for your last point, you're saying you're stuck in the VT because you're not taking on Accounts like the ones you shared? Is that what you're saying?
What I said was, they are based on the results in GC. Random Matchmaking, with whatever Bracket/Tier you're in. If they're advancing there, they're either earning it, or something else.
Is modding an issue? Don't think anyone would debate that. What we're talking about here is the fact that people are offended they're in the GC to begin with, while their own Accounts are still in the VT. Literally nothing to do with their own Losses.
In the meantime, I'll keep doing whatever I can to increase awareness to the player base as many have no clue of this problem, but as awareness increases, so will community voices.
I'm saying it is completely unfair in a competitive game mode where we compete for rank rewards for path to be available where much weaker and less d developed rosters can get better rewards than those far more developed and who the lower rosters are allowed to bypass.
I am not saying nor have I ever said that I want to be facing those weaker accounts. What I'm saying is they shouldn't be allowed to get better rewards than players like me without having to actually face us. This leads to many possible solutions that have been discussed in these threads.
Dr. Zola
In the GC, they're facing random Matches within the Tiers. So if they're advancing past the first Tier in the GC, they're likely doing it on skill. Or other means.
What the OP is pointing out is that they believe these Accounts shouldn't be in the GC while bigger Accounts are stuck in the VT. What I'm talking about is further to that. I don't think it's questioning people's abilities to look at the results on paper. It's logical. If they were winning their Matches, they'd be in the GC by now.
No way an under 800K account (and especially not an account 500K or less) is advancing further through GC if in fact the GC is purely random matchmaking. Scale and size of roster is too steep a curve to climb at that stage for even the fastest thumbs. Cursory review suggests nearly all of the small accounts peter out around rank 450 of Arcane 1.
But…all of this makes me curious to know whether purely random matchmaking is actually the case in GC or whether other factors are still in play.
Dr. Zola
I'm lazy and don't deserve better and my masteries are all wrong for meta, but the guys I'm matching with should be GC easy.
@GroundedWisdom I've tried to support your side on this, but . . . dude. I guess you did allow for "nefarious", so you are at least in the "nefarious or broken" camp now.
Encouraging young players is good, but driving out the long term spenders will kill the game.
The reason these low accounts are in Arcane 2 is because there is no one in Arceane 3 and lower. This means less than 2500 players are in GC. The weak accounts getting through are just a minor byproduct. It doesn't matter if a few dozen accounts get enormous rewards while cavalier or early thronebreaker if it helps prevent hundreds or thousands from getting them. And since the store prices are bad at those ranks, what you buy has less impact. Then after they R3 a few more 6 stars, they will be in the same boat as the late thronebreakers and paragons (stuck in gold).
This is for the good of the economy. The value of sig stone, rank up materials and shard had been plummeting because people had "too much" trophy tokens. This is market correction.
A bit of a story for you...
One of the members of the game team messaged me last night with this thread (in our off-hours) and wanted me to pass along that they investigated the leaderboard after watching this video and the first ten accounts mentioned in the vid, "literally every single one of them was banned by our sweep today."
So a couple things to keep in mind:
1. Bans happen in waves, not continuously all the time.
2. "The system that bans [cheaters] and the system that [removes] them from the leaderboard is not the same system," and as we've talked about before, it takes some time to remove those accounts visibly from the leaderboards.
I know the intention with this video is more to call out the matchmaking and: we hear you.
We've stated before that matchmaking is constantly being evaluated and there are adjustments being planned for coming seasons; we've seen the constant conversation in the forums over the last month+. It is, however, worth noting that there has not been a single suggestion that everyone has unanimously agreed with. This is a solution that doesn't seem to have a solution to appease everyone; and therein lies the challenge.
"Fair matchmaking" is defined differently by everyone and, in some cases, Summoners demanding "fair matchmaking" are asking for matchmaking that best suits them.
We've also chatted about how BG is the first mode that isn't meant to be won 100% of the time. Every other game mode (excluding AW), you dedicate time and energy and you will end up with a W in the end. Because you are head-to-head with other Summoners, inevitably 50% of you are losing. It is completely reasonable that this shift in gameplay mentality causes discomfort and frustration.
Now, none of this is in defense of the current matchmaking - like I said, there are adjustments in the works - these are simply a few additional considerations on the topic.
Happy Friday, everyone.
For me, a good test of matchmaking is that a player should be able to advance more easily with their main account than with their alt account. There's no skill differential in that situation, so it must come down to matchmaking. I struggle to understand and agree with any system that doesn't meet this requirement, although I appreciate testing it is not necessarily easy.
Second, thanks to Kabam for taking the time to watch my video and promptly address the issues I addressed in it. I guess smaller YTers can make a little difference after all.
Why does it only have to be one way for matchmaking? Seasons are different for a reason—this one, for example, is more open ended than last one.
If the goal for this season was to make it easier on small accounts with less expansive rosters, then state that up front. If the goal for next season is to encourage players to have a broad roster and broaden existing rosters even further, then build around that principle.
No matter what you do, someone’s going to be at a disadvantage. I think acknowledging that at the season start (and trying to ameliorate it somewhat) might be a positive step—provided players can be confident there will be subsequent seasons where they may have more of an edge.
What’s missing for a lot of people now is a sense that hard work and effort in building a roster pays off in this mode. I can’t imagine that’s something the team wants.
Dr. Zola
It's inevitably going to lead to the death spiral people have mentioned. It's not going to be worth playing for the bottom 50% so they'll stop playing. Then it won't be worth it for the bottom 50% of those that are left and so on until battlegrounds is a ghost town.
Also interested in your most likely contradictory commentary on the following: "Water is wet"
You need many options to increase success in BGs. Enough to account for drafts, Bans, Nodes, choices, whatever the situation calls for.
Having an Account with a few highly-Ranked Champs is not enough to compete in BGs with more filled-out Rosters.
GC has a lot of low level acccs because the big ones are in VT yet, so when matchmaking gets fixed, GC would be aswell
As you progress to higher levels, that’s true.
To be fair, this would be 100% true across all levels in a fully competitive mode. But at lower levels—as evidenced by many of the accounts in Arcane already—getting lucky with your first several 6* and having a decent batch of 5* champs is all it takes to progress through VT. At that level, it’s more a matter of game knowledge and crystal Bingo.
And that’s something for the team to decide as a policy matter: should that level of shallow roster development be sufficient to progress as much as it currently is? Does the game need small accounts to play and progress more than it needs veteran accounts to do so? Is this a mode designed for everyone or certain classes of Summoners?
Here’s hoping it’s as much a matter of concern as Ajax indicates it is.
Dr. Zola