I feel like there has been a lot of hatred towards SPVP and leagues lately and I truly believe that it is misplaced. Take a step back and look at spvp and leagues objectively: the gamemode has improved. Here’s why I think so:
Queue times and population
I only have started SPVP only 4 days ago and it seems to be extremely more active and dynamic than it has ever been. My opinion might be biased by the fact that I’m division 2 (nearly 3), thus I’m in what I think is the most populated division so my queue actually pops within 2-3 minutes, but the amount of new names I’ve seen is massive. I almost never get matched against the same guys.
Back in the days my queue took 5+ minutes to pop and I knew half of the players in the match because well, I played with them all day long. The queue times have definately improved, for the average player.
Queues are definately something that still needs to be worked on, since even a 3m queue is actually rather long, especially if we think that a match usually lasts for 10m + 2m of map selection and warmup. Spending around 25% of your playtime sitting in queues is not fun. But we can’t obectively say that queues have not improved (again, in average, I am aware of diamond/legendary queue times issues).
The population on the other hand seems to be improved. I can’t be sure of that because of course I don’t have the metrics, but a lot of players in my guild who previously didn’t even touch SPVP if not for dailies have now started to play it consistently. Why? Because of prestige.
Leagues and pips
Leagues are good. The system is good. The theory behind the implementation is crystalline clear and absolutely flawless. The goal is to try to keep people at 50% win ratio and at the same time to give players a feel of accomplishment and success.
The divisions are a good implementation of that theory, since each divsion has a particular ruleset: you can’t lose pips if you are on division 1, for example. That means: if you are new to the gamemode, don’t worry! Just keep on playing and you will achieve better results.
The “win 1 , lose 1” system is actually perfect for division 1 since it maximizes everyone’s satisfaction: if I lose, I lose nothing, if I win, I get something, so why not playing? This is a good way to get new people to try SPVP and not to get completely disheartened because they’ve lost 3 matches in a row. In fact not only that happens rarely but it also doesn’t affect your pips score.
Division 2 and Division 3 are also rather good. Tiers in between division are used as checkpoints to make sure that an extremely negative streak doesn’t affect the work of days and weeks. The fundamental idea is: “keep on playing, sooner or later you will reach that tier/division”. This is where the competitive spvp idea is being formed: you really have to struggle to win, if you want to progress. Being carried is an option, but not as feasible as it would have been in Division 1.
From Divion 4 things start to get more serious. You can lose tiers now. It basically is a “welcome to real spvp, where if you want to progress you have to tryhard”. Which is also rather good, as it should be that the higher the division, the higher the effort that needs to be put into achieving results.
Speaking on a micro-level, leagues have introduced “pips”. Pips are a healthy and balanced way to understand how much effort you should put into a game, how much time you have to spend to get to a certain treshold (tiers) and how much progress you have made, match by match. Pips are good because they give players a feeling of progress and achievement, which is what we have been asking for a lot of time. The gold reward is not that bad and it is a nice addendum: I actually get gold for playing well.
Balance and mmr
As I wrote above, I consider leagues as being an extremely healthy addition to SPVP. So why all the hate? The first culprit in my opinion is balance, closely followed by mmr. Balance is not good at the moment because 2 out of 18 possible options (nine core specializations + nine elite specializations) are currently dominating the scene. And yes, you guessed it right: it’s chrono bunker and herald. I believe that all new elite specializations could have a spot in the meta. Right now tempest, scrapper, dragonhunter and reaper are pretty strong in capable hands and are solid choices in mid level spvp. The very problem is that 2 specializations (daredevil and berserker) are almost unplayed, and the 9 core specializations are in a pityful state. Why are they not played? Because there are other options, chronomancers and revenants, which, althought offering different playstyles and not really directly competing with some other elite specialization, are much more valuable in a team.
Basically, what I’m saying is that it is not true that a viper herald fully outshines a condi reaper: they both are solid options but herald is better because it is much more valuable in a team setup than a reaper.
Another important point is that I could pick a chronomancer bunker for the first time and still be able to mechanically perform good. The player ability is now completely shifted from “being able to play your class effectively and having good map awareness” to “having good map awareness” alone.
Last but not least: mmr. A solo player should never be faced against a 4-5 man premade let alone losing pips. I have faced a premade only twice since I started leagues, and I remember losing 500 to 300 (it was a good match) and still gaining 2 pips. That was good. I lost against a premade, but I myself cannot suffice the coordination that they have because it is phisically impossible. The game aknowledged that and gave me pips for having tried my best. I didn’t mind losing because I knew it wasn’t really my fault.
However, a solo player constantly facing premades is not fun. This is very true for high division players who are often forced to play against premades. These premades “abusing” the mmr tanking to get shorter queue times (I can’t really blame them tbh) get matched against solo players from lower divisions. I have no idea of how to fix this, but making diamond/legendary division “team queue” only might be an option. Meaning that a legendary player wanting to queue for spvp with his diamond team can literally only face another premade, maybe from a lower division, but a premade still.
TL;DR
SPVP is better than ever. Leagues are good. Balance and match making are not.