So The Lord Helseth (one of the most famous pro players in GW2) has spoken out in his Twitch feed calling the new League system “trash” then showing you the horrible pairing really is…
There are a lot of balance problems, but let’s put those aside and look at the big problem Helseth was pointing out. It’s the queuing/match making! The problem is with the ArenaNet programmers. They are using an algorithm designed to match chess players for 1:1 competitive scenarios. This was a very bad choice. They should hire exceptionally bright software engineers to design an appropriate algorithm for pairing that meets the needs of their product. As a software engineer and a avid GW2 pvp player, I can tell you how I would approach such an algorithm
1.) Premades should be required to queue seperately and be defined as a group of 3 or more in party at time of queue. Solo players should have the option to queue for premade knowing they will always get placed with a pa. rtial pre-made. Solo queue should also exist where matches will always be 100% Pug and both sides (can not enter with party). Adding this alone with current match making algorithm would be a huge step forward, but they should do more. Such as…
2.) The algorithm for match making should be aware of the current meta builds for sPvP. This is not out of the question in 2015 with machine learning patterns being well established. A few times a day, a process should evaluate current meta and determine changes and also be smart enough to determine “near meta”. it should also take into account other statistically data (how many games player has played with that build, etc..). This is data they probably aren’t capturing right now but they should.
3.) When players queue up it should account for players not running current meta builds, it should balance the pug team configurations accordingly so that you never have pug scenarios with a team of 5 elite spec meta builds vs 2 elite spec meta + 3 outdated non elites. There’s a lot more to this, but for the purpose of a bullet point you get the idea. Real balance for pugs and a real solo queue for pugs…. The same type of evaluation.
If this sort of balanced existed in the game you would have a fun casual PvP experience for those who just want to solo queue. This is what it would take to create that. Pre-mades would also benefit as they would no longer be handed wins for free from pug groups that don’t stand a chance.
The fact that this sort of algorithm and design is not in the game now shows a serious misstep on the part of ArenaNet. It’s a mechanical queue system balance they could work to put in place today that would have no impact on skill balancing (so they don’t have to screw up the Pro ranked season).
The honorable thing to do at this point would be for ArenaNet to admit there is a major problem. Shut down Leagues to implement something like what I’m suggesting or perhaps some better queuing approach (I’m just tossing out a napkin sketch of an idea for queuing, if I spent a day with their development staff who knows what magic we could come up with to make the game better for everyone). There are really bright software engineers who can help them with this problem if they made it a priority.
ESL Pro Season should continue on, but I feel Leagues should be put on hold until they retooling queuing. As it stands the solo queue players are being isolated and toyed with. If ArenaNet wants to keep things as it is now the best thing they can do is prevent solo queue from every happening. Make it so all in solo queue will be paired with a 3-4 man pre-made. Restrict pre-mades so that at least 3 or more must be in party. That alone won’t help much (they need the whole retooling of match making) but at least it would be a start.
(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)