Quote Originally Posted by Ransu View Post
3 way fights in large scale pvp is the only way to balance things. If it was a 2 way fight it would swing way too hard in one direction or the other.
Quote Originally Posted by Elfidan View Post
Let's be honest the three-way system is just there from a time when they were trying to push the Grand company choice matters thing... If you have ever played Rival wings, which is the answer to this, you would know that it's usually lop sided with one team getting the swirly...
Quote Originally Posted by GordonGeeko View Post
At least 9 games out of 10 are complete stomps because one team is clearly stronger. Comebacks very rarely happen. I see no reason to believe Frontlines comebacks would happen more often if there were just 2 teams, battle high or no.
These explanations right here are essentially why things are as they are. Really, it should be /thread after this. Personally, I want to give the original PvP team the benefit of the doubt in that the Grand Company thing is the excuse, but the third team being the hypothetical balance is the reason.

It's the inexperienced/ very shortsighted people that think they want 1 v 1 to rectify the issues where one team is constantly picked on throughout the match in a threeway (have you thought about why? Maybe your team is playing like morons, splitting-up objectives to fight both teams and feeding them easy kills? Maybe your team is full of feeders who are easy sources of battle high?) Eliminating a third team basically eliminates your only real chance to recover from a better team pushing you back at every skirmish. How many times have people been on a team that gets their arses handed to them in a mostly 1 on 1 with another team and the only reason they can recoup and stay in the game is because the third team came by to flank the dominant team to equalize things. Ovoos/tomeliths/nodes would never matter if one team could just plant themselves near your base out of your invincibility range and farm all your Leeroy Jenkins without a 3rd team theoretically keeping them in check. We see this all the time in Casual Crystalline Clownshow and low ranks.

Rival Wings may be a coin toss, but it's usually a lopsided stomp where one team is essentially just futilely dragging the game out by delaying the inevitable. If your alliance comp is bad (hurhurhur 18 ranged dps go pew-pew while getting steamrolled by a team led by 6 tanks and ~8 melee dps) or players are bad ("that PLD/DRK just popped Hollowed/Eventide, but I think the 10 of us can kill him, after all, he's the closest target"), the first skirmish will always be a bellwether and people will just give-up if they see that they're outmatched without the theoretical help of a third team to tip the scales or at least distract them.