I think the reason S1 failed was because of how pips were handed out and how it attempted to infect matchmaking with division considerations. I want the matchmaking system back and I’d advice a few simple changes to its pip system. If you see logical errors, please comment.
Pros
Matches were close, competitive, and challenging.
Slightly less toxic because skill diversity wasn’t as apparent.
Matching based on a 50/50 split of skill. If you won while not expected to win, your MMR goes up a lot. If you lose while expected to lose, it doesn’t go down much. As more matches are played, statistics begin to reflect actual skill level. Creating matches based on 40/60 or 20/80 splits does not work. MMR evaluation can not do it’s job unless the split is 50/50. We need this back.
Fighting as a solo team against a 5 man premade is much more likely to remain balanced.
Suggested modifications
Internally rank players based on their percentile with pips and MMR.
Base pip rewards on a player’s MMR standing with the active player base by comparing the internal percentiles. Example: If you’re top 10% in MMR but bottom 10% in pips, you will get 5 pips for each win and -1 for each loss. If your MMR is bottom 10% and your pips top 10%, you will get 1 pip per win and -5 per loss.
This means the pips you will end up with in the end will match your MMR and actually for once represent ranking.
It means there can not be endless legendary divisions. They have to be capped somewhere. I’d personally prefer 1.
It means there can be no pip safeties.
Display player’s MMR score somewhere. It’s deplorable this hasn’t been done yet.
If they try to “rank” GW2 PvP in any other way, it won’t actually reflect rankings at all. It will be a delusional grind fest filled with attempts to exploit and competitive players will continue to quit the game. Allowing so many low skilled players to climb to the top has severely degraded the quality of GW2 ranking. The system is a joke as it stands.