**WE ARE NO LONGER Temporarily Reverting Tier 1 War Ban System**
After further discussion, the game team has made the decision not make adjustements to the ban system.
The previously proposed fix would have resolved the issue for Summoners who are on the cusp of T1/T2 play, and negatively impacted Alliances more securely in T1. Instead, we recommend that cusp Alliances switch to Manual Placement to your members to place the allotted 5 Ban Champions limit there.
Apologies for the back and forth, and for any confusion.
After further discussion, the game team has made the decision not make adjustements to the ban system.
The previously proposed fix would have resolved the issue for Summoners who are on the cusp of T1/T2 play, and negatively impacted Alliances more securely in T1. Instead, we recommend that cusp Alliances switch to Manual Placement to your members to place the allotted 5 Ban Champions limit there.
Apologies for the back and forth, and for any confusion.
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Based on your feedback, I expect we're not going to be able to reach much of a consensus.
I was literally just trying to work with your input to construct models with which to asses claims and stuff. I have a background in economics, accounting, project management, analysis, excel, making models, reports, etc. I can work with you or others to model, analyze, derive takeaways, and document findings for things.
I was providing my initial modeling and review, and asking for your input to adjust it to best reflect your concepts of the issue so as to then better model and review it.
But your feedback implies you see the issue as really being about controlling narrative and outcomes. And the substance of the claims referenced are merely window dressing. You're pushing personal fantasy. Mocking your perceived adversaries and trumpeting your grandeur with bold nonsense assertions wielded like a club.
Nothing wrong with that. MCOC and its community is a flexible, diverse space for people to explore the avenues that interest them. If you're feeling it, have at it. It's all good. You do you.
Years after its release, Hearthstone's Ranked was changed to "help players progress in the ladder without having to grind as much, while still making most matches fair." Battlegrounds can learn from this.
(NOTE 1: To make the review of Hearthstone's Ranked easier, I will be using MCOC Battlegrounds terms in place of the Hearthstone terms for the same things. Example: "Victory Medals" in Battlegrounds are called "Stars" in Hearthstone, so I will just call them Medals).
Also, one key difference is that Hearthstone's Ranked has also always had a "winning streak feature" that grants players a bonus Medal if they also won the previous two matches. This Win Streak bonus is only active for matches up to the completion of Platinum 1.
Hearthstone's Ranked mode launched in 2013, and in 2020 it was overhauled in part to:
"make the matchmaking experience fairer... while preserving the essentials of the core system that’s already in place"
Hearthstone's 2020 Overhaul for a "matchmaking experience fairer":
=======================================================
Medal Bonuses:
"At the start of each season, players will be awarded a Medal Bonus based on their performance the previous season(s). This Medal Bonus acts as a multiplier on the Medals you earn from each win.
For example, if you have a Medal Bonus of 5x and you win a game, you’ll get five Medals instead of one. If your winning game is a part of a win streak, you’ll get double that: 10 Medals."
(plus any other Medal bonuses)
"Upon hitting each new Tier in your climb, your Medal Bonus will be reduced by one. When playing with a Medal Bonus you’ll be matched by your matchmaking rating (MMR), meaning you’ll be matched even more precisely with players of your similar skill level when climbing."
"Every player starts with at least 2 Medal Bonus at the beginning of a season. Also, if a player misses playing for multiple seasons, the player will not lose much of their Medal Bonus.
The following is a table of the minimum Medal Bonus a player can start with at the start of a season, provided the player's best rank performance in the last season(s):"
Best rank last season.................Minimum Medal Bonus
=======================================
Bronze 3...........................................2x
Bronze 1...........................................2x
Silver 3..............................................2x
Silver 1..............................................3x
Gold 3...............................................4x
Gold 1...............................................5x
Platinum 3........................................6x
Platinum 1........................................7x
Diamond 3........................................8x
Diamond 1........................................9x
Vibranium.......................................10x
Gladiator's Circuit...........................11x
"Q: How does matchmaking work for each season?
A: There are two matchmaking pools: matchmaking by rating (aka. MMR) and by Tier.
When your Medal Bonus multiplier is bigger than 1 you are (generally) in the first matchmaking pool; when your Medal Bonus drops to 1, you are in the second pool."
"Q: Why are there two matchmaking pools?
A: Since each player starts at the bottom of the ladder at start, we want fair matches for everyone (aka. win-rate close to 50%). At that time, your progression on ladder is protected by your Medal Bonus, thus your net expected gain will be positive through the ladder. Once other players run out of Medal Bonuses, matching by rank will allow for good players, or players who want to push themselves a bit, to be able to progress to a higher rank.
In short, having two matchmaking pools helps players progress in the ladder without having to grind as much, while still making most matches fair."
"Q: If I 'tank' my MMR at certain rank floor, will I be matched with easier opponents next season because you are matchmaking by MMR at the start?
A: No, in general you won’t. At the start of the season we will recover your MMR to certain threshold if it is dropped below that value, which is based on what your rank is in the previous season. Therefore, there would be no benefits to intentionally tank your MMR."
"Q: Do you reset MMR each season?
A: No, we do not."
"Q: Will the value of my previous season’s MMR be exactly same as the new season?
A: Technically no, although the change will be very small and the “value order” will be kept (Player A whose MMR is larger than player B in the last season will still be ordered as such). Mathematically, a re-normalization process takes place at the start of each season to keep the distribution in a nice bell-shaped curve."
"Q: If I missed one season, will I lose my Medal Bonuses when I return?
A: No, you won’t."
"Q: If I missed multiple seasons, will I lose Medal Bonuses when I return?
A: Based on how long you are absent, there will be some small decay applied to your MMR. Therefore, you may (or may not) lose some Medal Bonuses."
"Q: Where do the Win Steak bonuses end?
A: Platinum 1."
We were a high prestige alliance constantly matching other high prestige alliances, sputtering to 7-5 records and never climbing. When Kabam removed the shadow element of prestige from matchmaking, we spent half a season obliterating alt accounts full of 4-stars until our war rating landed where it should’ve been all along.
This game should NEVER create a disincentive for roster growth. It’s really bad that my cavalier alt, which I abandoned almost two years ago, would have an easier time reaching platinum than my paragon account with two dozen champs that are 6r4 or 7-star.
This is one one of my alt at Conqueror. Heading into GC 🔜,
Here's an interesting question: why did Heathstone use the match system they did for so long? Is Kabam ten times smarter than Hearthstone's developers for tackling similar issues that much faster?
Spoilers: not really. Game systems evolve over time based on a number of factors, and rarely can you simply transplant them from one game to another. Chess has been using ELO for competitive purposes for longer than MCOC and Hearthstone have existed combined. Why didn't both of them simply universally implement ELO, when it obviously has a multidecade track record?
I have time in on both newer MCOC and older Hearthstone. In addition to my "thing" as a designer. So I'm bringing in some measure of context in my review of these matters.
So, depending on your knowledge of HS, I can either just jump into the middle of it if you know older HS well, or I can ease into it slowly and with added notes if you don't know older HS well. I generally do not subscribe to the notion of game systems incompatibility. To me it's more about what the goals are and considerations of how to derive them.
But I also am generally not one to cast shade on someone else's view and methods in their creative processes.
Plus, those players will get the same matchups they got earlier (since matchmaking is not progression based). Why are these weird caricatures of UC players you have built up, staying at UC if they can get to Paragon in a week?
Seatin got his f2p account to TB in a month after not playing for a few years. Don't give me some sob story about how hard it is to get a higher title. Especially if you're going to argue that titles don't represent a player's skill level. If those UCs and Cavs are so good that they'd beat Paragons with an equal roster, like has been argues, then getting Paragon would be pretty easy.
Keeping your account low to get easy matches for a few seasons only to boost your title and then spend the tokens is the smartest thing for low accounts to do.
Rosters don't move from 9-11k to 15-17K in a week or a month, however well one does on the story progression. You might get a prestige bump up because you were able to rank up a couple of champs but your broader roster (and BG deck) isn't going to change dramatically in a week or month. UCs who are at 9-11K and who you think can get to Paragon in a week will still face the same opponents in BG that they were earlier facing. They are not suddenly going to face 17k rosters. So there is really no need for them to camp.
Also, if one can get to Paragon they should. Tactically, there is no reason to stay at lower levels, especially not to hoard token. It is definitely not the smartest thing to do.
Prestige is only 5 champs so if you do the content and r4 3 champs you can easily raise your prestige drastically by doing the story content and raising your title.
Hoarding is the name of the game. If you choose to blow all your tokens in an overpriced store (which is the whole F'n argument if you've forgotten) then that's up to you. My point is that it's not hard to raise your title to lower the price if you want to be smart with your resources.
You're also ignoring the fact that hoarding for months is less of an issue of Rewards structure and more of a personal issue of keeping Players from being able to advance.
There is no system that prevents anyone from hoarding their Trophies. You're not going to stop them from doing it by beating them down in Bronze.
You've also ignored the logic presented about how that's not advantageous to do at all, and just leads to months of falling behind anyone who is already Paragon.
If your sole concern is preventing anyone lower than you from making any progress, your focus is misplaced.