Is BG participation really that bad?

I just got into GC and won a match, at 17 points I'm all the way up in Gamma II with 3 days to go in the season. This was the case last time too. Has participation dropped that much?

Comments

drsnow69

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948681#Comment_2948681

i couldn’t agree more i don’t really play anymore mainly because the drafts are always one sided against me doesn’t matter how good of a defender i get in my draft they get the perfect hard counter every time and even if they get a mediocre defender i can’t even get an ok counter and i just get wrecked. seems like the only time i get wins anymore (this is when i get to gc) is when they do worse than me. in the victory track my drafts are always good and it seems more fair. so i get to gc and thats it anymore

drsnow69

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948719#Comment_2948719

well it must give you decent drafts because i only ever get the same bottom row every match

drsnow69

battle grounds is nothing about spending it is controlled mostly on the drafts kabam has picked a winner before the match starts and this is not 100% obviously people can mess up in gameplay but you can definitely tell that one player always gets the advantage in the draft mode

Chuck_Finley

I am in vib 5 with two days to go and I faced mirror accounts that already got elder like me time and again. What’s the point? I just gave up. Rewards aren’t worth it. Will have to mess with it for the blade piece next month but the mode is just atrocious. It’s driven so many away from all levels.

SpyderFam

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948740#Comment_2948740

When it comes to drafting, some of the work is done before the match even begins.

What I mean is, while there will always be luck involved in drafts, some of that luck can be lessened by deck construction and ban strategy.

Stated differently, there is a lot of strategy involved, and that strategy begins before you enter a match. Everything has to work together and complement each other: your roster rankups (especially if you're F2P like me and don't have a lot of resources), who you put in your deck (this is very complex), who you plan to ban in a way that complements your deck, and all of this involves knowing which matchups can work for what point totals and also being flexible and having instant knowledge when the match starts. It's a lot of factors all happening together both before and during the matches.

The actual fights themselves are really about execution and a lot of the success or failure occurs before you even start fighting or even start drafting.

What I like about BGs is that it's not like doing content where anyone can achieve the same result because you can always spend limitless revives to do it and then both good and bad players obtain the same rewards and same titles. But I am afraid that BGs is going to become so monetized due to ascension and collectives bonuses that it will be impossible for F2Ps to compete at a high level unless they spend their entire lives focused on the game, which is not something that I would do or recommend doing.

spiderknight616

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948748#Comment_2948748

Agreed. Not only ban and draft strategy but picking attack and defense too. I've won so many matches by baiting my opponent to use specific champions and destroying the ones they have left in the next round (and lost just as many falling for this), it's this strategy that is my favorite part

spiderknight616

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948748#Comment_2948748

Vendemiaire

I am actually worried about the next season more than this season. First, it will include a Stellar Forge Blade piece. Second, the score will not account health remaining, only time finished. Every fight will be a Nuke fest. Turn on suicides or you lost. My main account can manage to switch to a suicides setup but my smurf (that is almost Elder but doesn't have suicides turned on) will be in a really tight place competing with a deck of R3s and some R4s without suicides. These experimental mode should only be on Off-Season.

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948759#Comment_2948759

Yeah war next season with suicides is going to suck

NoahSansman

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948761#Comment_2948761

You can turn on suicides, update your battlegrounds masteries by tapping on it in your deck, then switch back to your usual setup that you use for questing and war.

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948762#Comment_2948762

Translation: incinerate 70 units instantaneously

NoahSansman

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948763#Comment_2948763

You only have to update your bgs masteries once. They lock in place

HuskerCool

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948764#Comment_2948764

Still 70 units down the drain

Hulk808

i just get to GC and call it a season. Too time consuming for me.

YodaKaj

The whales have been breeding. Don't even bother playing right now. only 2 days left. Whale birthing season right now.

WeaponX2112

In the seasons when there's no champ piece to chase or bonus rewards, participation always drops these days. Add in all the other stuff to do in game, Carina's challenges, 9.4 dropping, the saga stuff last month, and its no surprise it's really low this season. Not to mention that dropped inputs and bad AI feel so much worse in a competitive mode.

phillgreen

I wont get to GC for the first time in a long time.

Bugged fight stats screen, waiting up to a minute for a match and losing matches despite scoring 50k+ and I think that might be it for me.

Skill issue, perhaps, but I am also just sick of having to do it and the radiance store isn't that great anyway.

Annoyed I'll have to grind for a blade piece next season.

O_Deadpool_O

This is an expected result.
I have foreseen it long ago, check my post about how hard it was becoming to acquire points in GC
https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/406073/kabam-please-do-something-about-gc-points-aquisition#latest

The system is built in a way that less skilled players are forced to quit it, because there is no point for them to participate. Then, when the lowest skilled players left, next turn was for less than average skilled players to quit. They also did it. Now it is the point when moderate skill players are leaving the mode because it is hard to progress and rewards simply are not that good for that time investment. Everything goes as I saw it. In last days of BGs only most skilled players will remain who will fight for 50 points Celestial placement.

It is a pure pleasure for me to see that more and more people understand that BGs is dying as a mode.
Unless Kabam makes some changes to value the time spent in BGs (not only effectiveness), this mode will proceed dying.

I am not saying that I am unhappy this mode is dying. I am pure BGs hater, I did not like it since the release, I think it is toxic, stressful, punishing and demotivating game mode. I do think it would be better if winning was not put as so high requirement and the time investment or attempt investment could pay the appreciation to players. I hate there is no alternative to earh the same rewards. I am forced to play this mode if I want to progress my account. From one side, I am extremely happy this mode is dying and that Kabam does everything to kill it faster, so that it will be easier to add another game mode to change it (how eventually Incursions are removed from the game). From the other side, I got used to it and it was a great mode that provided best game rewards during a long time.

Penzito

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948768#Comment_2948768

Worst investment ever, the 1K units invested for a 2nd deck early on in BGs. This is back when turning recoils on and off for a meta was reasonable, then they said NO RECOIL FOR YOU! Come back one year.

Flavyjay

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948762#Comment_2948762

I don't even had Suicide masteries unlocked 💀 cause I keep saving units

ItsClobberinTime

It is genuinely ****, barely any people playing and the fact Q1 is barely at 200 is **** wild to me when there's only two days left.

Now, I don't know why other people have stopped playing but this right here:

This is why I absolutely despise the game mode these days. I started my climb today after a week long break from this **** due to all the malding and dread it was causing, I won the match (I shouldn't have and I'm about to explain why) but I still think BGs are in a **** state and the worst they've ever been. Anyways what's wrong with the two screenshots I provided? Well what's wrong is blud drafted Heimdall, Serpent, Thanos, Maestro in a row, and what did I draft? **** nothing Kabam decided to give me a Pav and throw me overboard with no lifeboat. Furthermore, my only two sort of trap defenders (Evo and Yelena) were **** too cause he got Starky and Jean, and he messed up his own draft as well because he skipped Nico and went for Thanos instead had he gone Nico I would've 100% lost this match.

Long story short, as much as people want to act like it's a skill issue and what not, the truth is that BGs have become a mode where draft luck is way more important than actual skill. Skill has essentially become just as important as AI cooperation, matters sure but not as much as it used to. I genuinely miss those days when you could fight Onslaught with a plethora of champs and still finish 80% with proper gameplay, same thing with Photon and Dust. However, after seeing how much existential dread and fomo bs champs like Serpent and Bullseye induced, this **** cancer started to spread harder and faster in the form of Yelena Dark Phoenix Britain and others.

Yes, the amount of bs defenders have absolutely ruined BGs, and unfortunately at this point I don't think it's an issue they can even fix because this **** has metastasized everywhere. Maybe blacklist and whitelist could put a dent on the damn thing but as it is, BGs will probably start dying soon. If they don't for most people oh well, one thing's for sure tho, for me, that process has already begun.

ahmynuts

Kabam reading this thread: "they dont know what they're talking about. Anyways next season lets try a meta where all you can draft is the top 5 most used champs of each class"

Chuck_Finley

I honestly wouldn’t care if the mode died due to the rewards being irrelevant for the effort, the defenders and hard counters ruining the mode, etc.

But they JUST HAD to throw the blade piece in next season to force the dying mode on us.

The Next blade piece will probably be in the MCOC Dance Revolution side quest

SirGamesBond

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948815#Comment_2948815

I didn't use units to unlock recoils. I did use units (not much) to buy stoney cores for deep wounds assasin and unfazed. On top of that I grabbed every stoney core from classic back issues. I got all carbs from legend crystals. 10+ carbs in inventory atm. This is my alt account I'm talking about which I started playing around 3 Years ago. Long term planning and resoucre management.

The remaining mastries I may want to unlock in future are unfazed point 4/5, assasin point 4/5. Recoil point 2/3, and resonate 1/3. Like 6 months ago I also unlocked full collar tech.

I have all necessary ones unlocked with the help of legend crystals.

You need,

8 cores for recoil DE LC + 4 cores for willpower, all carbs. Plan them out and pray the cores rng, You'll get them unlocked eventually for free.

World Eater

After making the GC pretty regularly, I haven’t had the time or desire to get to do battlegrounds over the last few months.

my time is better spent elsewhere

Flavyjay

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948831#Comment_2948831

Yeah I have gotten carbs Twice from those crystals but that's about it 💀

TimoUfBerg

I played yesterday 3 hours in the GC. And the matchmaking was brutal.

I was around 32 points, now I am at 0 points. Some might say skill issue ( this is definitely a part of it) , but I was always able to score 50- 150 points in previous seasons. Couldn't even get close.

Hope it will feel better next season, with that stellar forged piece in the objective and hopefully more participants.

I am definitely not playing BG for fun, I am playing it for radiance...

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948880#Comment_2948880

It won't be better next season since they're doing that braindead scoring change

AlmightyGodButcher

Does anyone know what happened to the BG screen that showed the fight breakdown? It’s not there anymore.

Graves_3

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2948889#Comment_2948889

Fight breakdown screen broke down