Guild Wars 2

Right now there’s maybe 30-50 alt accounts on the top 250 on NA and at least 4 of the top 25 are alts lol.

Now I know I’m not gonna get in top 25 or even 100 anyway but still it feels wrong to me that these players are ruining the competition for the rest of the people who try to get there like the #1 Maguuma player tabbynachos.

I feel like it’s a legit concern if you want PvP to be competitive that the top ladder shouldn’t consist of smurfs and alts lol.

What’s your plan to counter this ANet?

fishball.7204:

Right now there’s maybe 30-50 alt accounts on the top 250 on NA and at least 4 of the top 25 are alts lol.

Now I know I’m not gonna get in top 25 or even 100 anyway but still it feels wrong to me that these players are ruining the competition for the rest of the people who try to get there like the #1 Maguuma player tabbynachos.

I feel like it’s a legit concern if you want PvP to be competitive that the top ladder shouldn’t consist of smurfs and alts lol.

What’s your plan to counter this ANet?

Lol Anet wont do anything, they made money off the sales of it.

Serious note, we all see it. AMong the higher end players there is a ton of DUO queing.

Not to mention some of the better players are not really playing but for some reason are playing in unranked. (why do i have to see you in unranked)

If we are being honest this is really the first decent season so Anet has alot of stuff to work out.

The use IPs to track hackers. Seems like they could do the same, one ladder spot per IP.

In theory you could have 1 guy fill the entire ladder with F2P accounts.

Fluffball.8307:

The use IPs to track hackers. Seems like they could do the same, one ladder spot per IP.

In theory you could have 1 guy fill the entire ladder with F2P accounts.

If one guy manages that, he deserves it!

Fluffball.8307:

The use IPs to track hackers. Seems like they could do the same, one ladder spot per IP.

In theory you could have 1 guy fill the entire ladder with F2P accounts.

Someone had already pointed out that a few Pro players had 3-4 alt accounts in the top 250 with there main and another person made a thread about how he had 3 accounts in the top 250.

Im with you 100%, im just trying to be honest and say Anet probably doesnt care.

Our build diversity is based on traits instead of having vital utility skills that force players to have one or the other. it has taken Anet 5 seasons to put out a decent league system which many of us are asking questions for alot things.

Anet probably puts alot time into these things and they are kind of falling on there faces and i just dont Anet will do anything about this for maybe another 4 seasons and when they collect the money from there new expansion which will come with a new PvE spec line that drives other game modes into the gutter.

Boy im just being negative negative but its honest

Since is allowed to have multiple accounts and to reach top 250 they have to play X hours in each account and put out effort in every account, I think it is annoying for everyone else but arenanet can’t do nothing about it

Step #1, use an Alt account that has no ranking. Win your top 8-10 games which will put your MMR at 2000+ (you should do this with a partner to ensure this happens).

Step #2, play 1 game a day (win or lose) and your MMR will adjust ~33 points at most.

Step #3, ignore playing RANKED for the remainder of the day.

Step #4, collect top 250 prize.

A borked system is borked. The problem is really step #1 where the MMR for new players is way too artificially low when not established.

I use alts to learn classes without the stress of ruining my own mmr. I can’t get the same competition in hotjoin or unranked. The ranking let’s me see how well I’ve done.

Artaz.3819:

Step #1, use an Alt account that has no ranking. Win your top 8-10 games which will put your MMR at 2000+ (you should do this with a partner to ensure this happens).

Step #2, play 1 game a day (win or lose) and your MMR will adjust ~33 points at most.

Step #3, ignore playing RANKED for the remainder of the day.

Step #4, collect top 250 prize.

A borked system is borked. The problem is really step #1 where the MMR for new players is way too artificially low when not established.

Not sure if it works exactly like that but its a problem. To be fair to a-net the system as a whole is promising but as usual it needs a ton of fixes. Part of the fix is top players not being kittens with alt accounts. Hey top players, a lot who do come here, stop being aholes.

Ryan.9387:

I use alts to learn classes without the stress of ruining my own mmr. I can’t get the same competition in hotjoin or unranked. The ranking let’s me see how well I’ve done.

Having multiple accounts isn’t bad, but taking up multiple slots in the top 250 is pretty obnoxious for the guys that are rank 251-350ish. Alts should have normal MMR, just not be placed on the ladder.

What if some people want to play more and aren’t getting enough matches? This happened a lot when the queue times were insane.

cgMatt.5162:

What if some people want to play more and aren’t getting enough matches? This happened a lot when the queue times were insane.

What does that have to do with being placed on the ladder multiple times?

Artaz.3819:

Step #1, use an Alt account that has no ranking. Win your top 8-10 games which will put your MMR at 2000+ (you should do this with a partner to ensure this happens).

Step #2, play 1 game a day (win or lose) and your MMR will adjust ~33 points at most.

Step #3, ignore playing RANKED for the remainder of the day.

Step #4, collect top 250 prize.

A borked system is borked. The problem is really step #1 where the MMR for new players is way too artificially low when not established.

I should have done this…

Fluffball.8307:

cgMatt.5162:

What if some people want to play more and aren’t getting enough matches? This happened a lot when the queue times were insane.

What does that have to do with being placed on the ladder multiple times?

Do you really not see the correlation between the quality of matches, number of accounts and hours played? Some people obviously enjoy the climb more than others.

cgMatt.5162:

Do you really not see the correlation between the quality of matches, number of accounts and hours played? Some people obviously enjoy the climb more than others.

We’re talking about not having multiple ladder spots taken up by the same person, not banning MMR on alt accounts. By all means achieve 2100 MMR on 15 accounts, but don’t take up 15 ladder spots.

Actually since last night there are 2 players that have 6 accounts in top 25 (both duo queuing). I wont name any names but yea considering these players have participated in world championships, most other players don’t have a chance to beat them unless they add all of their accounts and queue dodge….

This is getting a bit absurd really, also having AP associated to these pvp tiers makes no sense. Please remove the Achievement points at least.

Fluffball.8307:

The use IPs to track hackers. Seems like they could do the same, one ladder spot per IP.

Bad idea. What with 2 different people who share an IP but have two separate accounts? I won’t mention people who have to use proxies and VPNs. Banning by IP address is the worst form of banning.

vove.2768:

Fluffball.8307:

The use IPs to track hackers. Seems like they could do the same, one ladder spot per IP.

Bad idea. What with 2 different people who share an IP but have two separate accounts? I won’t mention people who have to use proxies and VPNs. Banning by IP address is the worst form of banning.

I thought about that after I posted. I think F2P accounts should be limited to 1 per IP if there is a pay account on the same IP. That should clear up most of the mess. And if someone buys multiple accounts I guess they’ve paid to have multiple ladder spots…? In that case all we can do is to ask them to not be a jerk.

Proxies tend to wreck pings as far as I know. I’m no computer expert though.

Surely the flaw in the design is the limited ladder spots — not that people legitimately put in the effort of time to attain that rank, even on multiple accounts. They put in the time and effort to be good at this game so shouldn’t that be rewarded? People wanted exclusive titles and skins for PvP so that’s what this is and maybe that is a questionable implementation if someone could place (hyperbole) 20+ spots to prove that it is an exploit of the reward system.

ZilentNight.5089:

Actually since last night there are 2 players that have 6 accounts in top 25 (both duo queuing). I wont name any names but yea considering these players have participated in world championships, most other players don’t have a chance to beat them unless they add all of their accounts and queue dodge….

This is getting a bit absurd really, also having AP associated to these pvp tiers makes no sense. Please remove the Achievement points at least.

Worse than I thought but comes as no surprise.

I already suggested this would happen before S5 started citing a previous example in S1 where team PZ had all the top Guild Challenger leader spots. People were like yeah dude nah these pros will fight for the top spot and not bother doing this! Guess what, they have and are doing this lmao.

Hope this gets addressed pretty soon.

I think there is also another issue. Since they don’t play their alt accounts as much but slots are taken it means there are actually not that many people that queue in that rating so system tries to make up for it making top 250 facing teams below 1700 which leads to lopsided games and only 2 pts gains per win (yes it is a thing).

fishball.7204:

ZilentNight.5089:

Actually since last night there are 2 players that have 6 accounts in top 25 (both duo queuing). I wont name any names but yea considering these players have participated in world championships, most other players don’t have a chance to beat them unless they add all of their accounts and queue dodge….

This is getting a bit absurd really, also having AP associated to these pvp tiers makes no sense. Please remove the Achievement points at least.

Worse than I thought but comes as no surprise.

I already suggested this would happen before S5 started citing a previous example in S1 where team PZ had all the top Guild Challenger leader spots. People were like yeah dude nah these pros will fight for the top spot and not bother doing this! Guess what, they have and are doing this lmao.

Hope this gets addressed pretty soon.

Yeah. NA top scene feels pretty lame as the players seem to be content with stomping the lesser again and again. Not sure about EU as I heard the competition is healthier over there.

But this really feels like a complete player issue rather than something Anet can address though.

Shadowstep.6049:

I think there is also another issue. Since they don’t play their alt accounts as much but slots are taken it means there are actually not that many people that queue in that rating so system tries to make up for it making top 250 facing teams below 1700 which leads to lopsided games and only 2 pts gains per win (yes it is a thing).

I can confirm this. I am only low diamond but keep having to play against PZ players again and again. The climbing slope seems to be really steep past that point.

The alt accounts are becoming an issue, but there’s so little that can be done about it. There is no rule against players having 5-6 alt accounts in the top 250 and thereby pushing others out.
From the top tier player’a perspective, it’s fun and provides an additional challenge that reconfirms one’s status/ego within the pvp community. It’s hardly ever considered that bringing an alt will have a negative effect on others, and I personally believe the consequences need to be better advocated. Especially considering those just shy of the 250 rank mark and are dedicating themselves to get there. It really is an injustice.

Of course, I doubt that any player will realistically stop grinding their alts only because of the fact that they are pushing others out. As cynical as this sounds, most top tier players generally don’t really care that much about the community as they are getting out so much value from it. Heck, Nos this evening was streaming and grinding alts to legend just this evening, perhaps unintentionally encouraging the practice. There isn’t enough attention or concern in the community.

I don’t know how anet is going to address this issue, but it is one that can only really be solved by the company itself.

keep in mind if they don’t rank their alt accounts where they belong they will be trolling the lower tier players. That probably was one of the main reasons for people griefing under the old system where you had to play x amount of matches to get out of sapphire/ruby/diamond.

I can’t speak to how much of a problem this is since I don’t track that kinda stuff, but if it is a prob, I don’t think engaging the community is the best way to fix it. How could we incentivize the top tier players to refrain from doing this kind of thing? Appeal to their better nature? Not watch their streams? Not watch the competitive tourneys? We’re pretty limited as a community in how we could actually address this. Honestly, if it’s important to those top tier players to have multiple accounts rocking ranked, I wouldn’t want to take that from them.

I think a more realistic measure would be to challenge A-Net to tweak the system to account for the behaviors of its inputs (players). Instead of making the rewards (i.e. titles) available to a fixed number of accounts, make them available to a percentage of active participants in the season. The top tier players would potentially have a smaller percent of the share of rewards (if Anet used an appropriate formula), and the “masses” or us non-pro-players could do the same as the pro-players and maintain multiple accounts, which would give players the opportunity to effectively counter the effect (somewhat) of top tier players on alt-accounts. Would take a little work on Anet’s part to figure out an appropriate reward formula, and a fixed number is certainly simpler. It would be pretty hilarious if their formula ended up rewarding less players than previously indicated by the fixed number.

Just a thought. I’d be happy to play core builds in unranked if anet wasn’t shoving gold down my gullet for increasing the ranked player pool. Hope ya’ll get in the top 250 if it’s what you’re shooting for. Best of luck!

Ennui.1597:

I can’t speak to how much of a problem this is since I don’t track that kinda stuff, but if it is a prob, I don’t think engaging the community is the best way to fix it. How could we incentivize the top tier players to refrain from doing this kind of thing? Appeal to their better nature? Not watch their streams? Not watch the competitive tourneys? We’re pretty limited as a community in how we could actually address this. Honestly, if it’s important to those top tier players to have multiple accounts rocking ranked, I wouldn’t want to take that from them.

I think a more realistic measure would be to challenge A-Net to tweak the system to account for the behaviors of its inputs (players). Instead of making the rewards (i.e. titles) available to a fixed number of accounts, make them available to a percentage of active participants in the season. The top tier players would potentially have a smaller percent of the share of rewards (if Anet used an appropriate formula), and the “masses” or us non-pro-players could do the same as the pro-players and maintain multiple accounts, which would give players the opportunity to effectively counter the effect (somewhat) of top tier players on alt-accounts. Would take a little work on Anet’s part to figure out an appropriate reward formula, and a fixed number is certainly simpler. It would be pretty hilarious if their formula ended up rewarding less players than previously indicated by the fixed number.

Just a thought. I’d be happy to play core builds in unranked if anet wasn’t shoving gold down my gullet for increasing the ranked player pool. Hope ya’ll get in the top 250 if it’s what you’re shooting for. Best of luck!

What happens if it is a percentage? People just create accounts to raise the total number and therefore artifical create more ‘top’ ranked places

Or just ask their non pvp guild members to become a bronce pvp player for the percentage….

decay should counterfight that, if only it was 3 days instead of 7. Mulit accountant would be very tired to play every single acc every 3 days.

Urejt.5648:

decay should counterfight that, if only it was 3 days instead of 7. Mulit accountant would be very tired to play every single acc every 3 days.

Its already 3 days. Decay should be 24 hours to be honest. I got 3 accounts myself and dont think I would play them all in the span of 24 hours just to keep the position.

Faux Play.6104:

keep in mind if they don’t rank their alt accounts where they belong they will be trolling the lower tier players. That probably was one of the main reasons for people griefing under the old system where you had to play x amount of matches to get out of sapphire/ruby/diamond.

Because people have too much time and are stupid? What kind of people do you know?

Tiefsee.3647:

Ennui.1597:

I can’t speak to how much of a problem this is since I don’t track that kinda stuff, but if it is a prob, I don’t think engaging the community is the best way to fix it. How could we incentivize the top tier players to refrain from doing this kind of thing? Appeal to their better nature? Not watch their streams? Not watch the competitive tourneys? We’re pretty limited as a community in how we could actually address this. Honestly, if it’s important to those top tier players to have multiple accounts rocking ranked, I wouldn’t want to take that from them.

I think a more realistic measure would be to challenge A-Net to tweak the system to account for the behaviors of its inputs (players). Instead of making the rewards (i.e. titles) available to a fixed number of accounts, make them available to a percentage of active participants in the season. The top tier players would potentially have a smaller percent of the share of rewards (if Anet used an appropriate formula), and the “masses” or us non-pro-players could do the same as the pro-players and maintain multiple accounts, which would give players the opportunity to effectively counter the effect (somewhat) of top tier players on alt-accounts. Would take a little work on Anet’s part to figure out an appropriate reward formula, and a fixed number is certainly simpler. It would be pretty hilarious if their formula ended up rewarding less players than previously indicated by the fixed number.

Just a thought. I’d be happy to play core builds in unranked if anet wasn’t shoving gold down my gullet for increasing the ranked player pool. Hope ya’ll get in the top 250 if it’s what you’re shooting for. Best of luck!

What happens if it is a percentage? People just create accounts to raise the total number and therefore artifical create more ‘top’ ranked places

Or just ask their non pvp guild members to become a bronce pvp player for the percentage….

That would be where the definition of “active” comes in. Arenanet would want to have a definition of active that excluded folk who came in, placed, and bounced. Besides, if Anet modeled the formula well, it could take a lot of extra accounts to offset duplicative placements from some of the pro-players. As far as artificially creating more rewards… what made them decide to set the cap at 250 titles? I’m sure it wasn’t an arbitrary number, but the title has no context as it is because you don’t know where you placed relative to the entire population. In an extreme example, a title would be a lot less meaningful if you earned it from a sample of 500 people than 5000.

edit; I can’t speak to how meaningful a title would be considering the value is entirely subjective.

shagwell.1349:

Faux Play.6104:

keep in mind if they don’t rank their alt accounts where they belong they will be trolling the lower tier players. That probably was one of the main reasons for people griefing under the old system where you had to play x amount of matches to get out of sapphire/ruby/diamond.

Because people have too much time and are stupid? What kind of people do you know?

Maybe they want to try alternate builds without lowering their rank on their main account. I don’t see the issue with people playing more than one account or ranking them properly. If you have enough rating points for a top rank now, you will end up losing ranks by the end of the season if you don’t advance it because some of the people below you will maintain a steady increase in MMR and pass you. You already see it with the top MMR players. The #1 slot now has more points than it took to get it on day 1. Playing multiple accounts is only going to lessen the amount of total points a player can get as the season wears on…provided they are good enough to have a top rank.

Rukia.9860:

In every competitive game I’ve played if you make it to a certain rating you get your reward / achievement / mount / skin / title / whatever with no limit, because regardless, it takes skill to reach that level. Why the kitten would you even put a limit is beyond my brain to comprehend.

I like to be competitive but I do have a life & a job. I just wanna play a few matches after work. Meanwhile randomdbag#3243 is using 3 different accounts with a friend to take up more spots on the miniscule top 250 ladder all day. Cool beans, bro.

Cool beans indeed. Two things I want to say here.

Firstly, we all have lives, wives, and a job, friend. None of these things will keep you out of the top 250. The problem, while egregious in the top 10 to 25, is not enough to edge you out of the leaderboard entirely. I was sitting at #120 this afternoon despite (1) not really playing this game much over over the past year and only coming back around Thanksgiving (and still being kinda bad at PvP in this game in general anyway), (2) solo-queuing 70% of my games, and (3) exclusively playing the engineer, a class that would hardly be considered “thriving” right now.

The PvP community just isn’t that large, and the number of people actually doing this to the point where it’s an actual problem could be counted on one hand. That at multiple points this week I’ve sniffed the top #100 despite the above conditions says enough about the state of NA’s competitiveness in 2016. There’s plenty of open positions to compete for, and pro league players farming on five accounts, while crappy and kind of petty, won’t impact your chances of getting a title no one will probably ever stop in their tracks in the middle of their Auric Basin multi-mapping route to admire.

Secondly, PvP does offer rewards, achievements, skins, and titles without limitations. You can farm your champion titles in unranked “rated” matches and you can get 5/6ths of an ascended armor set entirely for free even with a sub-1k glicko rating. This has been the most rewarding PvP has ever been, and it has been successful at drawing in numerous players from my guild (unfortunately most likely to the detriment of those around them) that have never PvP’d before but are now hooked for that reason. As a returning player from WoW: Legion, Black Desert, and ArcheAge, not only does GW2 have the best reward paradigm as far as competitive PvP is concerned compared to all other MMOs on the market, it actually gives gear that’s useful outside of it (unlike the Versatility gear WoW consistently throws at you every week). For years I wavered one foot in and one foot out of this game following the closure of LS1 and the ending of the WvW tournaments. I’ve never held a firmer conviction of this game’s future than I do now, and a lot of that is ironically based on exactly what you’re complaining about.

The only limitations that currently exist are the leaderboard titles, but what exactly is the alternative? What more of a hand-out, “thanks for playing” consolation prize do you need than a system that rewards you close to 15 gold an hour with the Candy Corn Gobbler and a free set of ascended armor? Jesus.

There has to be some sense of exclusivity still, even if it results in some career “four time legendary” Stronghold-queuers being kittened off that they’re not actually as good as they thought they were.