State of battlegrounds Gladiator Circle

Let me start by saying I love battlegrounds. I have a small whale deck of 16 r4s and quite a few exclusive champs. I did not miss a single victory track completion since it came out, and ever since radiance came out I made it a point to grab the extra solo events.

The last one broke me. I made it, but felt exhausted afterwards.almost relieved and in need for a 3 week break.

I’m gonna put the reasons into points:

1. Champs needing a a specific countrer - it used to be serpent, now you have decks full of them. It’s a game of draw more than skill or cunning.you can be awesome and still get consistently bad pulls and drop 4-5 ratings. It’s frustrating, it’s time consuming, my thumbs end up sore, I’m grumpy around the kids, and it’s only getting worse. I spent more rounds and almost 20 hours of gameplay just to get from 100-200 - up to 195, dropping to 70 and back again.
2. 10k radiance for the effort is just too hard for too little. People aren’t even trying, and with no new players feeding points from 0, it turns into a zero sum game between a handful of extremely skilled and extremely well equipped players, making it a win lose win lose frustration.
3. As a result, the 10k radiance milestone can only be earned by mysterium 2 players - that’s top 500 rating. That’s just insane, making it highly inaccessible for a huge part of a 120k community - and this is making point #2 even worse. It’s a vicious cycle.
4. So many cheaters I swear to god, I haven’t reported so many accounts in a while. It’s like kabam isn’t even trying.

Those were my 2 cents.

Comments

SirGamesBond

It's getting harder as large portion of players are just fed up of the mode. stopped caring after first and maybe second month. Now it's a ghost town which makes it much more inaccessible.

Less players in GC decreases overall scores. The less players are in GC, the harder it is for players to hit it. This has failed imo. Kabam might need to tune down the cutoffs if they want more engagement. 10k radiance isn't cutting it.

But hey... 500k 1/6 peice magik is coming soon to the store near you.

Yaron_aviv

I appreciate your support. I see the sentiment is mutual. Half a mil for 1/6? That’s insane. I saved 430k for the update and it took me 4 months. I only bought the units and mastery point 😬

TotemCorruption

Where are you guys getting these numbers about BG participation being down?

I know that before radiance, I would make it to GC/Uru and stop every time.

Now because of radiance I always try to push into Mysterium.

Yes obviously in the higher tiers matchmaking takes longer because there are fewer players to choose from, but I don't know, I don't feel like the mode is dead at all.

Compared to pre-radiance, it went from being dead to being the top mode imo.

I do have many players in my alliance who complain about the difficulty, the stacked rosters, the draft RNG, etc.

That's what it makes it tough imo. Obviously draft RNG matters a lot, but we usually have the same players near the top of Celestial every season, so clearly skill+roster strength can overcome draft RNG consistently.

Yaron_aviv

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884058#Comment_2884058

I’m talking about unique IDs playing.

I’m fighting the same few hundred people in a zero sum game and no one is progressing because no weak players are pushing points from below.

SirGamesBond

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884058#Comment_2884058

Estimated observation from total scores.

Players with 200 points landed arcane 3 the season they announced radiance objetives. I landed q3 that season casually.

More players have to participate at 0 points which eventually drives the cutoffs higher and makes it easier to hit 200.

Yaron_aviv

there is a very easy fix for this

give 100 radiance for every completed match- and less competitive players

PuppetMaster_18

Thats good you love battlegrounds with your "small deck of 16 r4s". Personally, Personally i feel battlegrounds getting worse and worse and obvious its a whale game mode. Im not the skilled player and dont have nowhere near 16 r4s…..i have 2 r4s. I usually get to gc and maybe 30-70p but thats ab it and forget the week1 and week2 radiance. I get to gc end os season and thats fine…but damn i find it more and more difficult to play that game mode and enjoy it. Most of fights i face Legends, dont always mean good player i know, but then i see roster and prestige which often are 3-10k above my prestige and many times worst champ is a r2 7* so they have plenty of options against me. I usually dont forfeit but recent seasons i do it alot. 20-30 matches easily and its obvious difference between spenders and non-spenders is bigger than ever. And it pisses me off that i use elders and energy to basicly get bullied. Naah man…battlegrounds is maybe fun for YOU but for me its opposite and its a game mode im thinking of stop doing if its keeps this way.

TotemCorruption

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884168#Comment_2884168

I do agree more incentives would be beneficial.

Maybe like two-day objectives for finishing in specific tiers.

So that finishing in M2 or Q3 or Gamma 1 or whatever doesn't only matter at the end of 4 weeks, but you get something every two days for being in a specific tier.

Otherwise it is true, a lot of players only make a push during the last couple of days in BG.

I think they were planning on some sort of parking decay system, but that doesn't address the issue of people who don't park but actually just wait to play seriously until the season is about to end.

Because it does seem a little unfair that someone who was like C6 for 25 days of the season but then runs into modders or doesn't have time to play during the last day gets pushed out to a lower tier and gets Mysterium or even Quantum rewards even though they were Celestial for basically 90% of the season.

Yaron_aviv

ELO decay is planned but how does it solve the zero sum game of a few hundred players and no new blood pushing points from below?

Aaronxz

I agree, it’s really stressful to earn those milestones. In the first few days, the Gladiator Circle is full of whales, and by the time they move up to higher ranks, the deadline has already passed.

One alternative could be to allow players to earn those points throughout the whole month instead of having a deadline. This would help many people reach at least 100 points, or even better…

Another alternative would be to make the 20k milestones achievable after a certain number of victories in the Gladiator Circle, rather than relying on the current points system. For example:

Earn 10k Radiance if you win 10 times in the Gladiator Circle.
Earn another 10k if you win 20 times in the Gladiator Circle.

This change would help smaller accounts a lot.

Asher1_1

16 r4 , now imagine the struggle for free2play just for those 10k radiance

Yaron_aviv

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884559#Comment_2884559

I can’t imagine because past 100 points I only faced whales bigger than me, that couldn’t progress in a zero sum game. That’s my point. F2P and smaller accounts need to be incentivized to play BG or it’s unplayable for the paying customers.

DannyB01

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884556#Comment_2884556

This is an excellent suggestion which aligns well with Kabam’s intention for these milestones, which is to encourage people to play the GC early in the season. Just need to keep the same timers on them.

Aaronxz

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884569#Comment_2884569

I just created a new post to go deeper into my suggestion in the correct forum category. If we show activity on it, we’re more likely to be heard. I’d appreciate it if you all could help give it some visibility. 🤗

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/404702/bgs-make-gladiator-circle-milestones-more-achievable

startropics

This perfectly describes what i’m experiencing this season. I have a decent endgame deck of 17r4s and for whatever reason I’ve never struggled this badly to got 200, which I still haven’t. It was never an issue before this for some reason.

I admit that I'm not good at the mode, but this season is very odd. Maybe I'm just extra washed up now, I don't know but it's definitely a weird feeling.

Are less players doing the mode this season and the main people climbing are just celestial/mysterium players?

Yaron_aviv

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884644#Comment_2884644

yup.

Depressing.

KamionWizard

Not to mention the thousands of bugs, lags, input that don't work... And let's face it, sometimes (nowdays very often) the A.I,does everything to make you lose maybe it's my feeling but it has happened to me too many times to believe that it is a coincidence

KillerM

this GC meta nodes are also awfull lot of champs that have multiple immunities draft no counter and they ending with 100% health… its not the players its the nodes that frustrated me always the same over and over again regen/powergain meta’s

SirGamesBond

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884685#Comment_2884685

AI is same for everyone, out of the proportion fast. It's not targeting just you though.

BigBlueOx

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884644#Comment_2884644

I can say on my part… I just haven’t found the mode enjoyable at all. And I manage to get all the radiance objectives… it just feels like a chore doing so because the game mode feels to rigid thanks to post Serpent Champion design. So point 1 really resonates with me OP.

I miss creative and flexible problem solving… and this mode used to shine in creating un-ideal matchups to experiment with. Now if you don’t have the rigid solution for the rigid problem you are SoL. It sucks and I blame the fart sniffers over there that’s created this mess

Rayven5220

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884544#Comment_2884544

How do yoy expect these players to get there when they can't? I have 8 r4 and continuously get smashed by guys like you who have double the r4's i have.

I'm currently sitting at around 140 points, being as high as 181 yesterday but win one lose one scenarios make it take forever to get anywhere. It's not worth my time.

Yaron_aviv

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884709#Comment_2884709

they don’t need to get there. They need to be incentivized to play at 0-100 just to drive points upwards to you and me. I have a buddy who’s a phenomenal f2p player consistently in mysterium and he has the same number of r4s as you, but anyone with less than that doesn’t stand a chance -and since the token store is obsolete and tokens are the only compensation for playing at 0-100 - no new blood enters GC.

Rayven5220

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2884718#Comment_2884718

To be fair, if they don't have the r4's available to ftp, that's because they haven't done the content to get them.

Thought I'll also admit that even for me, 10k radiance isn't exactly enticing at this point, so I understand why alot of smaller accounts don't bother.

NüΚΞ

when I started playing before 7* was a thing battlegrounds was pretty enjoyable, because whale or not most had high rank 6*. The fight was all on relatively even keel. It was enjoyable because you could go as high as your skill could take you.

I think it would be fun to occasionally have something like a 2*, 3* or 4* locked BG meta. At minimal it would be a good laugh. At best an enjoyable season where all could be very close to the same power level.

SirGamesBond

I was 20 points away from 200 (2 wins). Since I kept winning, I kept playing. Next match I lost... ehh, whatever, so I stopped.

I was not trying to reach 200, I wanted the emotes for completing objetives. Got both emotes. Even though I never send emote first, but these are nice to have.

Out of curiosity, I went to check leaderboards and see where 200 is landing...

Apparently at this moment, 1.1k players are at 200 points. (Celestial 200 + Mysterium 750 + Quantum ~100 + +/- 50)

How exclusive is that 10k radiance. How are the devs concluding that these radiance objectives encourages participation.

I'll play few games tomorrow as I reached close(r). No push though, will try couple matches.

All the best to guys who are trying to join this 0.001% exclusive club.

willrun4adonut

I have 8r4, and as soon as I get to where I think I can camp and get gamma 3, I'm done for the season. I'll check in a couple days before the season ends, but right now I'm sitting at 76.

I don't enjoy the mode, so I don't play, and I'm sure there are others like me who don't play much either.

MadhanHiphop

I have only 8r4s and I'm f2p i don't have leader,Nefaria,anti venom without these I got 197 points. Only 4 points to get that 10k radiance. But got matched with a guy who have 20+ r4s and I didn't get good draft I lost the match. Then lost 6 matches in a row Landed with only 104 points. Imagine my frustration.

Aaronxz

As I said earlier, this is easy to do and will encourage participation, at least more than it does nowadays.

Make the 20k milestones achievable after a certain number of victories in the Gladiator Circle, rather than relying on the current points system. For example:

Earn 10k Radiance if you win 10 times in the Gladiator Circle.
Earn another 10k if you win 20 times in the Gladiator Circle.

This change would help smaller accounts a lot.

TheMilkman

Bro said a small whale with 16 r4s. It's like. When Trump said a small loan of a million $ 😂

BTW when I wrote the same thread here ppl tore me apart, you're lucky.

Penzito

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2885171#Comment_2885171

You got the right idea. Always thought that BG ally was a great way for less skilled players to get good rewards just by playing more, while skilled players got their rewards from GC (still could get BG ally too). I looked at radiance as being a positive feedback loop for the elite, while the rest of us fight for scraps now. Similar to AQ/AW, its hardcore or stay home.

I just got my 200 points yesterday, I was at 156 needed 3 wins. 19 matches later I finally pulled it off, a terrible waste of time for 10K radiance lol. All that would change if BG ally rewards were meaningful again, at least your gaining points for the ally going nowhere.

Since point farming is moot anyways like the 100/200 radiance rewards were for to encourage getting into GC. Shift the task to Win 10GC matches a week = 10K radiance, hell buff it up a bit more

Make GC = 15K radiance

Weeks 1-3 Win 10 GC matches each week = 15K for a monthly total of 60K

This way everyone has to return every week to play again, can't just front load, or back end. It puts rewards around P4 war and top 500 AQ. For the love of the game though BUFF THE BG ALLY RANKED!! (Bring back solo too!)