Custom CC Games are way better than Ranked

[Aravell]

I'm not sure why OP is getting such hate. While I personally don't care for custom matches, I think the effort by OP is positive.

A beginner-friendly custom match environment with people to guide the beginners would likely be a great first experience with small-scale PvP for them, rather than tossing them into ranked matches where they can just die twice and lose within 2 minutes, all while learning nothing at all.

[Mawlzy]

I'm not sure why OP is getting such hate. While I personally don't care for custom matches, I think the effort by OP is positive.

A beginner-friendly custom match environment with people to guide the beginners would likely be a great first experience with small-scale PvP for them, rather than tossing them into ranked matches where they can just die twice and lose within 2 minutes, all while learning nothing at all.

Ranked matches isn't where beginners go, is it?

But I see your point and agree that there are positives to custom matches. I wish we could have them in FL.

The issue, I believe, is that many of us are a little tired of the attitudes that elements of Discord bring to PvP. They have the power to do so much good, and maybe these custom matches might fall into that category. But when one witnesses the contempt many in this Discord "community" hold for players who are not part of their clique, conflict follows. When that is compounded by abusive vote-kicking, harassment of dissenters and stalking of their FC friends who do not even play PvP, and being followed and harassed on Discord servers devoted to different games, yeah, claws get sharpened.

[gidsonBrand]

I'm not sure why OP is getting such hate. While I personally don't care for custom matches, I think the effort by OP is positive.

A beginner-friendly custom match environment with people to guide the beginners would likely be a great first experience with small-scale PvP for them, rather than tossing them into ranked matches where they can just die twice and lose within 2 minutes, all while learning nothing at all.

Admittedly, that's still a very real possibility at both servers I linked. Rising Stars definitely is geared more towards higher end players looking to break into organized play, but if we see something like that happen at either discord we'll give advice on how to play. Much healthier than ranked which just expects you to figure it out.

[Aravell]

The issue, I believe, is that many of us are a little tired of the attitudes that elements of Discord bring to PvP. They have the power to do so much good, and maybe these custom matches might fall into that category. But when one witnesses the contempt many in this Discord "community" hold for players who are not part of their clique, conflict follows. When that is compounded by abusive vote-kicking, harassment of dissenters and stalking of their FC friends who do not even play PvP, and being followed and harassed on Discord servers devoted to different games, yeah, claws get sharpened.

I see your point, personally the only interaction I had with any PvP community was an extremely toxic one back during The Feast, but I'm not about to hold every PvP community accountable for it. I'd like to believe that some genuinely want to just have fun.

Admittedly, that's still a very real possibility at both servers I linked. Rising Stars definitely is geared more towards higher end players looking to break into organized play, but if we see something like that happen at either discord we'll give advice on how to play. Much healthier than ranked which just expects you to figure it out.

I would say that as long as they learn something by the end of the match, it's probably worth it.

I notice that people dipping their toes into ranked for the first time just coast by relatively freely until about gold tier, then they get a harsh reality check where they start losing matches and have deaths from things they don't understand.

[Mawlzy]

I see your point, personally the only interaction I had with any PvP community was an extremely toxic one back during The Feast, but I'm not about to hold every PvP community accountable for it. I'd like to believe that some genuinely want to just have fun.

100%. I try to target my venom at the "community" directly responsible for my harassment.

[Bonoki]

I'm not sure why OP is getting such hate. While I personally don't care for custom matches, I think the effort by OP is positive.

I don’t know the OP or have experience with their community, but I want to offer some perspective on why promoting a community might face resistance. This isn’t about OP or their specific group—it’s a broader issue that some people have with communities.

There’s a perception among some players that communities can sometimes feel more like businesses disguised as social spaces. Instead of existing purely for the community, some groups have been known to use their platforms to promote themselves, often to grow into something bigger, like a Twitch brand or even a professional-level organization. Custom matches and events can sometimes feel like stepping stones for self-promotion, and while that’s not inherently bad, it can leave a sour taste for those who’ve seen it happen before.

The concern grows when these groups expand to the point where they influence how the game is played on a larger scale. For instance, if someone joins a community but doesn’t feel like they fit in, the group’s continued growth can still make it the dominant voice for a specific part of the game. Eventually, that influence might extend to solo play expectations, too—similar to how PF stratigies from certain Discords have become the unspoken expectation when playing in Party Finder.

For some, this kind of dominance feels stifling. They worry that as these groups grow, they’ll dictate the norms, strategies, or even culture of areas of the game that they’re most passionate about. It’s not about animosity towards the group or its members—it’s about a fear of losing autonomy in a space they deeply care about.

Again, this isn’t to say OP’s community is heading in this direction, but it’s worth understanding why some might approach these efforts with caution or skepticism. It’s rooted in experiences and concerns that are very real for many players.

[Soxforrow]

There’s a perception among some players that communities can sometimes feel more like businesses disguised as social spaces. Instead of existing purely for the community, some groups have been known to use their platforms to promote themselves, often to grow into something bigger, like a Twitch brand or even a professional-level organization. Custom matches and events can sometimes feel like stepping stones for self-promotion, and while that’s not inherently bad, it can leave a sour taste for those who’ve seen it happen before.

The concern grows when these groups expand to the point where they influence how the game is played on a larger scale. For instance, if someone joins a community but doesn’t feel like they fit in, the group’s continued growth can still make it the dominant voice for a specific part of the game. Eventually, that influence might extend to solo play expectations, too—similar to how PF stratigies from certain Discords have become the unspoken expectation when playing in Party Finder.

Hi Phoebe! I'm glad you pointed this out because this is something I have been personally grappling with on my own. If you've ever watched a big Crystalline Conflict tournament on Twitch during Endwalker, I was probably either streaming, hosting, commentating, or playing in myself. During this time I put a great deal of personal investment into the game mode while trying to stay out of the limelight for fear of coming across as self-centered.

This backfired a bit. Sure, events were successful, and I got a great deal of good feedback and it was nice to be praised, but that's about where my own personal gain ends. When not hosting a tournament, I stream on Twitch for 0 viewers. I gained no followers on any social media, and people have no idea who I am. SE themselves have pointed out that they know who I am but would never invite me to anything like a Community Championship or Crystalline Conflict Regional Championship (CCRC) because I'm a nobody.

So it's hard, because I poured so much of myself into that and got burnt. With that, I realized that the most fun I have had in this game is my thousands of casual matches of Rival Wings and Frontline with my friends where we are just messing around and having fun in a low stakes setting. Introducing people to PvP and showing them how it can be fun in the same way something like Mario Party would be fun is what excites me.

Now, I don't speak on behalf of all the leadership at Revival, but I believe they would agree with me that PvP is at its best when it is inclusive and welcoming to new players and not forcing people away with things that you mentioned previously, so we will take steps to make it just like that.

Forgive me if this was a bit rambling- this is something that has been on my mind quite a lot in the past few months.

[Valence]

Like Aravell I've never been especially attracted by scrims and LPs for the very reason of what is described with their gameplay in the OP. I do not find CC oneshots especially engaging, and it already can happen enough in crystal with randoms that I certainly do not wish to see more of this at split seconds all the time. I also feel that custom games are even more sensitive to class and comp meta, which I find frankly repelling if it's just to find the same variation of the same 5 or 6 jobs in both teams all the time because it's the best way to win. CCRC was a good example of this, and it happened in a time where balance was less rough than what it is at release like currently.

However as I said in another thread, I do wish you the best for your efforts and encourage people to join and try it out. Even myself I'm not completely sold on either side and perhaps it could make me less shit at the game. But I also understand the concerns about toxic circle jerks and malders because that's 99% of what i've seen at crystal level on certain discords, and 99.9% of the same crowd seen in old pvpaissa feast channels. I think a bit part of the pvp community really needs to clean its own bed because this is indeed, doing it a lot of harm, especially for all the nice players that try to make it less inbred.

[gidsonBrand]

However as I said in another thread, I do wish you the best for your efforts and encourage people to join and try it out.
I think a bit part of the pvp community really needs to clean its own bed because this is indeed, doing it a lot of harm.

I appreciate the support! But we've already done the job of cleaning our own bed. Of the 10-something communities in, and the 30 teams I run tournaments for, half of them I'd like to have a beer with and the other half I can trust to be normal(ish). There's some catfighting and opinionated jerks for sure, but the majority of the community is great right now.

PvPaissa was a bit before my time, so I don't know what the gig with it is, but every event I've seen "modern" groups host has some good, chill vibes. It's worth being a part of it.

[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.