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Battlegrounds Matchmaking/Whales
Savag3r
Member Posts: 10 ★
I wanted to talk about battlegrounds for a little bit. As I have continued to play the game now for some time and have been grinding as much content as I can during my free time, I've come to the conclusion that battlegrounds is the pay-to-win feature of MCOC.
The rewards with radiance have been a nice addition, however, because of this, whales have separated an even larger gap between F2P players. I have now encountered multiple rosters with quite a few rank 4's and 7* dark phoenix's and with the addition of human torch coming soon, it's going to cause an even bigger gap now. Sure, "just ban them", but then that takes away from another champ that may need to be banned and now banning isn't a strategy as much of a necessity against pure power from rosters. As a mostly free-to-play player (casually spend during big events like during Christmas) I can't even keep up with the rosters I'm being matched with in BG because even when I play perfectly in certain match ups, I have lost and dropped rank significantly just because other players can spend more than me and have a way deeper/higher rank roster than myself.
I really would like for matchmaking to not just be for current rank rating (ex. Arcane 1 with Arcane 1) but also maybe prestige or average battle deck power rating instead. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like this and would be interested in what the community has to say.
The rewards with radiance have been a nice addition, however, because of this, whales have separated an even larger gap between F2P players. I have now encountered multiple rosters with quite a few rank 4's and 7* dark phoenix's and with the addition of human torch coming soon, it's going to cause an even bigger gap now. Sure, "just ban them", but then that takes away from another champ that may need to be banned and now banning isn't a strategy as much of a necessity against pure power from rosters. As a mostly free-to-play player (casually spend during big events like during Christmas) I can't even keep up with the rosters I'm being matched with in BG because even when I play perfectly in certain match ups, I have lost and dropped rank significantly just because other players can spend more than me and have a way deeper/higher rank roster than myself.
I really would like for matchmaking to not just be for current rank rating (ex. Arcane 1 with Arcane 1) but also maybe prestige or average battle deck power rating instead. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like this and would be interested in what the community has to say.
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Comments
At some point Kabam does need to bring a fix that helps smaller accounts enjoy the game mode more. But the fix is absolutely not changing matchmaking. We're all going after the same rewards, so we should all have to compete against one another for them. But I don't know what the fix could really be. If they gave Valiants their own separate rewards, that doesn't solve the gap between a fresh Valiant with two R3s verses someone like me with five R4s. Where do they draw the line?
For example a group of young kids start playing this one sport. Some kids come from wealthier backgrounds and then there's some players who don't. Do the wealthier players automatically go pro? No. It's the players who practice and get better despite the money they put in. It shouldn't matter based on how much money they spend on the game they play. I don't know if that makes much sense, and the analogy will be flawed to some degree, but just processing through this lens of forums.
You need to accept that you will hit a ceiling every season where your roster and/or skills can't compete and take the rewards wherever that lands.
If you haven't done all the content, you need to do that for the rank ups and progression. If you have (which should give you 4/5 r4s right now) and you're still not happy with your final rank then as a ftp you're going to have to hit arena and hit it hard for units so you can get progression from the sale events.
Asking for kabam to give easy access for the same rewards isn't gonna work.
1. BGs are not designed to prove who the best players in the game are.
2. While not determinative, real world resources invested will always be a significant factor in BGs.
Dr. Zola
I guess I just don't understand the fact that wins come from money in a video game that has quite a high skill cap. Which is why I'm sure this may be viewed more as a rant than helpful.
At the end of the day, BGs is not a game mode solely dedicated to proving who the most skilled player out there is. If it were so, then MSD would be out here with 2* G99 in his deck wreaking havoc.
BGs has three components to it; skill, roster and draft. It's not about who the most skilled player is, rather it's about who can best bring those three components together. In some cases, yeah, you might lose to an opponent because their deck is that much stronger and they don't need as much skill or luck in the draft to beat you, but that doesn't change that they need to bring those three things together.
Fantastic Force Recruitment
Competitive Meta Event
2* Focus
Everyone competes with the same roster
52 specific champs to use
Highest ranks get Featured 7*
So where are the “big” rosters and skilled players suppose to do in game if battlegrounds didnt exist?
I already mindlessly grind arena with my big rosters
Already 100% epoch, and just waiting on more revives to do wheel of fate lol all done with free revives we get everyday
Im about to drop $400-500 on 4th of July to prob get a lot of r4 7*’s lol.
Where else are they suppose to be used? Rank up some defenders or attackers for war?
Other than that yea whats points of having 10+ r4 7*’s if I do all the content in the game?
If there’s no competition then why am I getting more r4 7*’s earlier than people ?
People wana compete for rewards lol and those with money keep this game alive
Also, look at it this way. Almost all competitions in sport are dictated by money. The richest teams usually win the most championships.
And yeah, I think that's a good counterpoint that more pro teams have a history of doing better more often. There are still those teams that contend with not as much money cap and still end up beating out those teams too though.
What I'm trying to get at is that some people who have spent more time in the game and getting matched with someone of a significantly higher account, like those rank 4 dark phoenixs just takes the fun and skill out of the game sometimes. I was giving the solution that players with a closer average in power index would get matched up more against each other, which I think is a possibility for sure. That way as the ranks go up higher, the whales or the thinner rosters are more filtered by skill cap too as they work their way up.
But yeah, appreciate the insight and understanding.
There are many with big rosters and good skill but they are already at the top in BGs. You most likely aren't facing them unless you're in celestial.
I just find it's weird that, with 5 days left, I'm still fighting accounts with 3 or more r4s and the remainder is all r3s. Unless they got a late start, it's curious why they'd be hanging around VT when they could be in GC getting the radiance.
Or rather, wrong isn't the right word. Rather, you want something the game is not here to provide you with. You want to decide who is fair to fight and who is not. But in Battlegrounds, ironically the only thing that decides that is your performance on the field. If you have a certain rating and the other guy also has that rating, that's a rating that was won on the battlefield. You match against everyone else fighting at the same rating. Nothing else matters.
We can't tell spenders well, sure, you paid for the entire game, you're the only reason we have a game, so out of the goodness of our hearts we'll let you actually use those things you paid for here and there, maybe in the solo content, but that's it. Take it or leave it. We'll take your money, and then we'll decide where you get to use what you spend. Be thankful we even let you use that stuff in end game content, its bad enough we have to deal with end game content balanced around your whale accounts.
Its weird that I even have to say this, but spenders can't be discriminated against. In this game, spending is fair. It has to be, or the entire game falls apart.
BGs is no different. If they wanted otherwise, then either Kabam would give you all the champs just for that mode, or at make it so that only 4 stars were playable, which anyone can get with a few rounds of arena (although newer players would still have to get lucky with some "bad" crystals.
At times, the difference is minor. 2 months before R4s came out... most free to play rosters at the end game could still fill a BG deck with R3s if they wanted... but yeah, when R4s came out, the whale effect kicked in, and the most you spent the more advantage you got... for a while.
By December, this effect will be all but gone (but of course, 6-12 months after that.. R5s will be out, and we'll be having this conversation all over again).
Whales don't just buy the deal for the materials that come in it... but for the advantage it gives them... if there wasn't one... significantly less money would be spent on the game, and the game would have to either change pricing models so that everyone paid a subscription fee, be full of ads, or possibly just shut down.
I'm not saying this is the beset model... but it is viable, and we've all learned to live with it or gone to another game.
Years ago Kabam experimented with an unpure form of matching in a competitive game mode.. AW matching that was Prestige based..Many of you will remember why it didn't work and why AW matching was reverted back to strictly War Rating
It's the most fair/pure way to do matching in a competitive game mode.. win and you advance, lose and you drop down, end of story
Just for reference.. I have alliance mates that have double my R4, etc.
So I'm not speaking from the "Whale" camp
There are problems with every system. I get frustrated at our battlegrounds system sometimes too, but it’s the most fair way to do it. If you reach your peak in bgs, go explore content to get rank 4 7*s and then go back to battlegrounds. I’m ftp and that’s what I did. I’m still at a disadvantage because the bottom of my deck is worse than most people where I am in gc, but I stand a fighting chance.
Somehow, I think someone who's opinion of the monetization of the game is that Kabam is too greedy because players need units just to progress in the game, who thinks progression in this game is far harder and more expensive than most other mobile games they've played, is going to have some difficulty there.