Custom CC Games are way better than Ranked

[Mawlzy]

Let me wind up here by giving some credit to Mr. Brand. One of my frustrations over the last few months, particularly in the megathread, is the gaslighting we have received from some members of Discord. We were told, for example, that curbstomping was for the good of the game, and other altruistic posturing which many here noted was disingenuous at best. Much of this appeared to be a tacit defense of the 7.0 status quo, which the premades forming on Discord used so effectively to create eye-watering win-rates.

Mr. Brand, on the other hand, should be commended for the honesty of his contributions.

In the case of the 7.0 DRK meta, he defended the DRK vacuum, asking rhetorically what was the purpose of 48 enemies if you couldn't kill them all at once.

In response to my request that the Princesses do not organize single-job mini-synchs until such time as enough people are interested to allow J-filtered Q-synchs, he responded that these events would continue because he and 20-50 other people find them fun.

It is much easier to find resolution on these topics if they are discussed in good faith, as Mr. Brand has done.

Edit: Bonoki's post above is an excellent and balanced summary of precisely the concerns many of us have. Fundamentally, sub-communities frequently develop goals that are badly misaligned with the health of a game and the interests of the broader player base.

[Bonoki]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t have much experience with Ranked CC or these groups, but I wanted to share something I’ve heard that might add to the discussion. I’ve spoken with at least two people who felt that Discord tournament communities were partially responsible for the queue time issues Ranked CC faced before 7.1. Their perspective was that by hosting multiple custom tournaments, these communities pulled players away who would have otherwise been queuing for ranked matches. As a result, the pool of players for ranked games shrank, leading to longer queue times.

I’m not sure how widespread this belief is, but the fact that I’ve heard it from more than one person makes me think it’s worth mentioning.

[Eastwall]

Why is he getting so much hate? I tried custom match, and l had nothing but negative experience, but that just means it isn't for me.

[Mawlzy]

Why is he getting so much hate? I tried custom match, and l had nothing but negative experience, but that just means it isn't for me.

Maybe your negative experience is common and part of the reason for the skepticism expressed by some in this thread?

[Mawlzy]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t have much experience with Ranked CC or these groups, but I wanted to share something I’ve heard that might add to the discussion. I’ve spoken with at least two people who felt that Discord tournament communities were partially responsible for the queue time issues Ranked CC faced before 7.1. Their perspective was that by hosting multiple custom tournaments, these communities pulled players away who would have otherwise been queuing for ranked matches. As a result, the pool of players for ranked games shrank, leading to longer queue times.

I’m not sure how widespread this belief is, but the fact that I’ve heard it from more than one person makes me think it’s worth mentioning.

It strikes me as probable that a thread titled "Custom CC games are way better than ranked" is intended to draw players from ranked and into custom matches. That will impact queue times.

[gidsonBrand]

Their perspective was that by hosting multiple custom tournaments, these communities pulled players away who would have otherwise been queuing for ranked matches.

It's half true. Especially when people got to Crystal, there may have been 7 people queued up for ranked on each given data center, meaning we couldn't get a game to pop. And lordy did we try, we had a sign-up bot to tell us if and when enough people were interested in doing ranked. But when no group of 10 existed on a single DC, we decided to do custom games instead.

Not only that but the coordination and skill expression you can have in custom games is way more fun than ranked, at least in my opinion. And if we decide it's a more fun time than doing ranked, that's what we're going to do and it's why I want to let folks know when/where they can join us.

[Mawlzy]

It's half true. Especially when people got to Crystal, there may have been 7 people queued up for ranked on each given data center, meaning we couldn't get a game to pop. And lordy did we try, we had a sign-up bot to tell us if and when enough people were interested in doing ranked. But when no group of 10 existed on a single DC, we decided to do custom games instead.

Not only that but the coordination and skill expression you can have in custom games is way more fun than ranked, at least in my opinion. And if we decide it's a more fun time than doing ranked, that's what we're going to do and it's why I want to let folks know when/where they can join us.

You appreciate the negative repercussions this will have for those who prefer to queue solo?

[gidsonBrand]

I love how you try and twist my words to make it seem like my main goal and intention is to make people suffer. That's gotta be exhausting.

But sure -- if we pull 12 people out of ranked queue and into customs, and the ranked queue dies because of it, that's just the people deciding how they want to play the game. And in which case I'll be here again, telling people where to go to join in on the fun.

[Mawlzy]

I love how you try and twist my words to make it seem like my main goal and intention is to make people suffer. That's gotta be exhausting.

But sure -- if we pull 12 people out of ranked queue and into customs, and the ranked queue dies because of it, that's just the people deciding how they want to play the game. And in which case I'll be here again, telling people where to go to join in on the fun.

I'm not twisting anything, simply verifying that you understand the consequences of your actions.

As mentioned above, I credit you with honesty. Thus I believe you when you say that your support for the mini-synchs is not motivated by a desire to grief others (even though that is clearly the goal of some involved). Similarly, I'm not going to fault you for promoting games in a format you enjoy, even though a side-effect will be reducing the ability of others to play the way they choose to.

[Atreus]

And do those other means include prominent Discord servers using the power of their large memberships to lobby the devs? Or is there something so cunning and subtle going on that it is completely invisible?

They include talks with community reps who are on the larger Discords (not mentioned here). They include discussions and collaboration with the JP playerbase, whose section sees far more engagement and hosts far better discussion. They include interactions with Yoshida himself, who actively participates in scrim days on JP. They include the tournaments we host that SE reps tune in to, where they constantly draw data on job balance. Even REDDIT gets better discussion than here.

I’ve spoken with at least two people who felt that Discord tournament communities were partially responsible for the queue time issues Ranked CC faced before 7.1.

I’m not sure how widespread this belief is

It's not, because that's insane. The queue time issues are because the reward for ranked is the same as it's been since season 1 with a different roman numeral. No one cares about them anymore. They only care now because the system is new and there's a bigger pool of players.

Maybe your negative experience is common and part of the reason for the skepticism expressed by some in this thread?

Without even knowing what his experience is, you're just dying for that sweet validation huh