Frontlines sucks Ultra megathread

[Mawlzy]

Lol, ya, why try and win when you can ensure another team loses? XD

Multiple reasons.

1. You claim a premade win-rate for yourself of 70%+ which I believe, although on Onsal I'd expect it to be 80% minimum. I've heard 80% from others, and as high as 90% for those real charmers who type that in chat to tell dissenters to fall in line or piss off. Let's take 80% as typical.

You or someone similar is running a premade session. I load in and find you are not on my team. I now have a 1 in 10 chance of winning the match (since the remaining 20% not sucked up by you is a priori split 50/50).

This is unlikely to be an interesting match since you're in it, and a 1-in-10 win probability is unattractively low. What else could I do to enjoy the next 15 minutes? Denying you a victory sounds reasonable. A natural side effect is that it increases the win probability of each of the two non-premade teams. Thus it increases my win chances, despite the fact the strategic imperative is to prevent the premade winning. As an advocate of "win at any cost" I would think this would appeal to you.

2. An attempt to evolve the meta. When premades are on the field, they dominate the current meta, both strategically and tactically in the stacks they use. Siding with the other non-premade team to defeat the premade is really the only counterplay, and by actively pursuing it, it's likely other solo players will follow suit. Again, this increases my win-rate long-term.

3. Spite.

[EvianYmir89]

Lol, ya, why try and win when you can ensure another team loses? XD

I’ve done it. Especially if my team is far enough behind.

[EvianYmir89]

I’m also gonna add a pet peeve. If you’re gonna try and direct traffic in PvP, please make sure you are actively contributing to us attempting to win instead of just typing directions.

[Mawlzy]

I’m also gonna add a pet peeve. If you’re gonna try and direct traffic in PvP, please make sure you are actively contributing to us attempting to win instead of just typing directions.

Goodness, yes. There's a new group of shot-callers on Aether whose main strategy seems to be directing the team into a pinch, then complaining we're all too slow.

[Mistress_Irika]

Goodness, yes. There's a new group of shot-callers on Aether whose main strategy seems to be directing the team into a pinch, then complaining we're all too slow.

Sounds like that group is hard inting to me...

[Mawlzy]

Sounds like that group is hard inting to me...

Yeah, it's certainly consistent with win-trading, but is equally well explained by incompetence.

[EvianYmir89]

The chasm between premades and random teams is so large that, in many games, "try and win" = give the win to the premade

Naturally, it varies a little from game to game, but the point differences in games can so wide that the only possible way of catching up is for all remaining objectives to go to whichever random team is in second place, while both random alliances try to focus down the premade's alliance. And, from what I've seen, such a decision is usually made in the last part of the game when it becomes blatantly obvious that to continue their usual playstyle with the aim of winning will only end in a bad result for both random teams.

It's a combination of various problems: current job actions making it incredibly easy to wipe out an entire alliance with minimal effort, the objective-driven playstyle of many casual players, the ego-driven approach of a large number of premades.

I'm not saying 'make it easy for them', but I hold far more respect for those players who queue solo and work with the random team they were assigned, compared to those who simply queue with a group of coordinated friends on voice chat, diminishing the need for the majority of their alliance, and removing any semblance of competition from the game. Add to it the openly arrogant attitude of some of these premade teams and it's no surprise they're so widely opposed.

This. I even queue separately with friends trying to get on different teams. It gets to be a riot when we end up finding one another and seeing who’s got the better situation.

But I queue solo and can see certain top pvpers who also solo queue. Give them a lot more respect when I see them on the leaderboards

[Scintilla]

This. I even queue separately with friends trying to get on different teams. It gets to be a riot when we end up finding one another and seeing who’s got the better situation.

But I queue solo and can see certain top pvpers who also solo queue. Give them a lot more respect when I see them on the leaderboards

I'm not totally against playing alongside friends or FC members, as it is one way to help introduce new players to PvP. But, there's a great deal of difference between just queuing as a party and then playing as you would solo (giving your friend no more focus or attention than the random players in your team) and actively forming a pre-organised group to cover all meta jobs, syncing via vc to the point where attacks are simultaneous, and demanding the rest of the alliance obediently follow orders without question and responding to any conflict with "Do you have a 90% win rate? No? Well shut up". Sadly, that's the case for many premades.

I appreciate that a kill-focused, coordinated approach is the way to win but, even amongst a very good random team who aim to sync attacks, the level of coordination reached by decent premades cannot be replicated to the same extent by random teams. I enjoy a competitive game. Unfortunately, premades remove any sense of competition and just push more casual players away from PvP altogether.

[EvianYmir89]

Goodness, yes. There's a new group of shot-callers on Aether whose main strategy seems to be directing the team into a pinch, then complaining we're all too slow.

It’s the exact same on Crystal. It’s the fact I see shot callers with 0/5/5 for their final tally and I just get annoyed. But is what it is. I keep my calls short and sweet. North, east, srank. It’s simple

[EvianYmir89]

This is my rationale for "spite" in my earlier post, and fwiw is not actually directed at Olivia. She has the ovaries to come here and defend her position, and I appreciate and respect that. On the other hand...

I'm on a number of Discord PvP servers. Some are helpful with a pleasant community. Others represent the worst dregs of PvP mentality that I'm sure we've all seen in other games. "Cry more salt" channels, long discussions of how inept randos and noobs are, and self-congratulatory threads centered around the misery they have inflicted on other players.

They are also liars.

Start of the game, I see I'm teamed with a premade. I say something pissy. "Another dull game with a premade."

Two immediate responses. DRK: "Every time you see a DRK you think it's a premade?" DRG: "No premades are playing this evening."

I'd just seen those two players party up on lfg-na Discord channel.

To me it’s funny. I’m lucky enough that solo queueing and being comfortable at nin/mch/war that I do fairly well. I’ve had games with a rediculously high kill and assist counts, others I struggle to get anywhere. The fact I’m lucky enough good enough to show on the weekly win rankings shows me that. But you also have a lot of people in those same premade show up on that list as well, so I guess I’m doing well enough to keep up