Guild Wars 2

Hello all. For background, I’d like to point out that I’m a PvP casual. After 3 years, I’m only Rank 76 as my gaming focus has been mostly PvE and WvW. With WvW falling apart on TC for the past few months (another story altogether), I find myself doing more PvE and PvP.

With doing a lot more PvP and refining my gameplay, I’m noticing a very sad scenario. This PvP matchmaking seems to be quite off. The more I lose, the more my MMR goes down I assume. So then I also assume that the MMR system takes “pity” on me, and puts me together with higher rated players in hopes of achieving balance to game play. Fair enough. Win more, you get a handicap by being auto matched with lower rated players. Lose more, and you get a bonus by being auto matched with better players. On paper, this seems to work well.

Why is this sad? Because the system seems to penalize winning. As a casual Solo Que player, I’m moving up divisions much slower, because just as I’m about to cross that tier threshold, I’m teamed with a lot of weak players, causing me to lose up to 2 pips. By the grace of the Six, I made it as far as Sapphire. At the end of matches, I view the details, and I see that a bunch of Emerald/Sapphires are teamed together to face all Rubies. Is this really working as intended when you win a match or even have a hot streak of 2 match wins?

As with other threads here and on Reddit, players have abused this system to gain division ranks much faster than normal. Lose on purpose when at the bottom of each tier, tank MMR, and get a lot easier matches. GM Chris has stated that he’ll go after players who abuse this. But honestly, how is Anet supposed to differentiate between players who lose on purpose, from those who are just having a bad match? Game logs will show only so much. Numbers won’t show a player running head first into a bunch of opponents and dying, unless GMs have an actual replay mechanic at their disposal. But even then, who has the time to watch dozens of matches and police the individuals who appear to be tanking?

And this isn’t just some casual’s rant about PvP. For those who know me, I’m one of the whitest of knights for this game. I crusade against Entitlement in the former BLTC forums, and now in the General forums. To conclude this thread, I’d like to offer a suggestion. For the next PvP season, Anet should only match players against others in their own division up to Sapphire. MMR be kitten ed. That means Amber will never fight anyone higher, unless that person is partied with higher ranked people. Once a player hits Ruby, then they can be match against other Rubies up to Legendary. The assumption here is that they’re good enough to where skill differences between Ruby and Legendary are minor (except for the hardcore pro competitors).