Ranked Feast really needs to concentrate on the player's contribution - not the group

[Stormfur]

Too many people throwing matches by sitting at the base or diving headlong into enemy territory and dying when there's 10 seconds left. They may not care because they've got points for days, but for those of us that are trying to climb, it's infuriating and frustrating. Players don't deserve this kind of trolling. If it happened in PVE, they'd be kicked in a heartbeat. In PVP, you can't blacklist them, and even if you did, you're still matched with them whether they're on your server or not.

There's no incentive to want to work together or improve your own skills. I get that you can't force someone to improve in PVP anymore than you can force them to learn their rotation in PVE. But when you the player work hard at something, you should really start to see your efforts pay off, not get curb-stomped because your healer or monk decides to Leroy Jenkins at the last minute.

I guess/hope Stormblood will help remedy this but ranked feast should really consider the individual's contribution to the group when it ranks -- not the group's outcome, because that's nothing but who you're lucky/unlucky enough to get matched with. It doesn't become about pure skill until upper platinum/diamond. There are players that are 2,000+ matches in and not on the leaderboards. Really, it shouldn't be about how many matches you play but how well you perform in them.

What I'd propose is something like a medal system that awards you bronze/silver/gold medals based on your contribution in the match. The question then becomes "how do you define contribution?" Here's an idea --

% healed / % damage done
# of assists / # of kills (the game already calculates this in order to get the minions).
Adrenaline boxes broken (your hit was the last one and it counted for your team)
Wolf Heart box broken (your hit was the last one and it counted for your team)

Points can be allotted to these things and then tallied at the end of a match. At the end of the season they could then be redeemed for items.

People keep suggesting ideas to help keep PVP alive and thriving but hearing nothing -- I'm starting to think we're the red headed stepchild of the development team.

[Kai_Lee]

I don't know anyone who has played 2000+ matches and not on top 100. Players contributions might be harder to calculate.

[Zojha]

The easier solution would be to just do what every serious competitive game does: Ignore solo-queue and only count matches between pre-formed teams with a set roster and a few bench players.

Trying to reward individual contribution will only lead to one thing: People will stop trying to win and instead try to maximize that metric. Screw bursting an enemy as summoner when you can just spam Bane for massive damage contribution. Screw killing the 300 medal tank when their 0/7 monk is feeding you kill score. Screw assisting a burst when a box has just spawned for extra contribution. And with it being based on last-hit, don't forget to use your burst for the half-dead crate instead of the enemy. What about paladins again? Ah, screw those too.

You'd need to make an excessively complicated metric tracking system to fairly gauge contribution in a way that can't be abused. That's why almost no sport if any bothers to do something like that. PUGs are for casual matches, serious games are done in premades.

And we all know how lively our premade queue is. It's always the least popular queue, not just in this game, precisely because it is not casual - you can't just queue up whenever and alone, you gotta fix times with your teammates. So nobody does it. And because nobody does it, games don't even pop when you do, or you get lulzworthy matchups like a full diamond team against bronzes because no other teams were available. Which in turn makes it even less appealing. Vicious circle.

That said: Doing anything with ranked isn't going to help keep PvP alive and thriving in the first place - The vast majority of people who do care about PvP in the first place don't care about ranked. Even in the number one leading E-Sports title League of Legends, the relation is 9:1, i.e. 90% of the actively playing population is not ranked - not even bronze. It's not much different in this game, most people don't care and do 8vs8 or frontlines if they want to PvP in the first place, typically casually with a handful of friends. The best thing you can do with high competition is making people watch it and that's exactly what SE intends to do, hoping to make an extra buck via advertisements.

I'd strongly advise to stop taking ranked solo queue seriously. Judging by the chat restriction and matchmaking, SE doesn't take creating a serious competitive environment particularly seriously already and taking it more seriously than the developer is a recipe for frustration.

[Kai_Lee]

Serious games and competition is premade? Tell that to the hardcore street fighter v players or the serious starcraft players. Or any serious solo competition games.

[BloodRubyXII]

Serious games and competition is premade? Tell that to the hardcore street fighter v players or the serious starcraft players. Or any serious solo competition games.

Whilst I'm triggered you take that literally and don't interpret it as Team games, I then think of League of Legends which is a solo/duo queue team game and it doesn't do that.

Also premades won't fix it, like you've said, premades are dead. PvP is not the focus of the vast majority of players and there is literally no incentive to play premades because of it (grats on getting a reward with like 5 teams in your entire dc!). Just learn to do what everyone else does and only queue when it appears to be safe.

[TiramisuMacaron]

If someone has 2,000 matches and said person is not on the leaderboard.... there is something wrong. This system wouldn't help them at all lol.

[Stormfur]

The easier solution would be to just do what every serious competitive game does: Ignore solo-queue and only count matches between pre-formed teams with a set roster and a few bench players.

Wouldn't that just discourage people from participating? For example, GARO got a lot of people involved in PVP that had never tried it before. Some of them went on to be pretty good. With pre-made teams you're just setting everyone who isn't a god-tier PVPer up to never be able to join in and it becomes more of clique -- more so than now.

Trying to reward individual contribution will only lead to one thing: People will stop trying to win and instead try to maximize that metric.

Heh, they do that now. Skip soar or disband, anyone?

You'd need to make an excessively complicated metric tracking system to fairly gauge contribution in a way that can't be abused. That's why almost no sport if any bothers to do something like that. PUGs are for casual matches, serious games are done in premades.

Yeah. I just fear that pre-mades will segment an already fractured part of the game.

I'd strongly advise to stop taking ranked solo queue seriously. Judging by the chat restriction and matchmaking, SE doesn't take creating a serious competitive environment particularly seriously already and taking it more seriously than the developer is a recipe for frustration.

True! I just hate that they put such great rewards in there that are damn near unattainable.

[Titor]

There are players that are 2,000+ matches in and not on the leaderboards.

[Citation needed]

[Korihu]

[Citation needed]

Wasn't there a player last season in Aether who played 2000 games but fell off the top 100 board?

Even right now we have someone who has 1.5k games played and is really close to falling off. (granted he goes up and down the leaderboards a lot)

[SuperZay]

If someone has 2,000 matches and said person is not on the leaderboard.... there is something wrong. This system wouldn't help them at all lol.

2,000 matches maybe an exaggeration, but there are players on Chaos with 600+ matches who are still Silver. Forever stuck in Gold qualifiers. With around 33% win rate. Nothing can help them and I don't think even 2k matches will change it.


No, running around with full MP and spamming Ruin 2 is not the right way to play summoner in PvP.