The important thing to remember is it is not about whether you’re an amazing group player with an awesome guild that loves the current pug stomping set up and thinks casuals don’t belong in tournaments, or a casual who hates being stomped but wants to be part of the real pvp experience at his own pace and thus only pugs.
Ultimately the fact is- ALL competitive sports separate the best from the worst, casual from pro. You don’t go down to your local arena for a pick up game of hockey and suddenly your group of old people, children and buddies who exercise twice a month are up against the LA Kings.
Yet, there are tournaments in children’s sports, college leagues, state leagues, national and international- there isn’t a huge skill or organizational gap for the most part between competitors in those tournies.
As long as GW2 decides to ignore that this form of pvp cannot be called competitive to anyone- it’s not to the best, the decent and organized, the decent casuals or the awful.
The idea that fighting the best teams will make you better has zero basis- there isn’t a single scientist who would support that bashing your face against a brick wall over and over is going to make you stronger than facing obstacles that provide a challenge BUT you can overcome.
Nevermind the fun factor- yes, I said it, fun, that magical word that somehow vanishes whenever we talk about video games.
Be honest- who has fun when TP squashes a midcard team? Or when a guild squashes a bunch of casuals with zero organization? People who like competition like even matches- where they can win, or they can lose, where they are challenged- and more importantly, for this to be called ‘tournament’ pvp that aspect of challenge should be there.
That’s why smarter games have ELO and separate pugs from premades.
Of course- yes, there is a group that loves easy matches- but the casuals they need to face an easy foe will start to leave as they grow bored of being stomped, and then those easy match lovers will only face each other- and they will hate that and leave. Trying to build a game for those people results in an empty game over time- every time.
But, build a game where the best face the best, casuals face casuals, teams face teams and you have a system people who won’t flake out will love. The current system doesn’t give satisfaction, competition or fun by design- and it never has. There’s a working system out there that’s been used by real sports for decades- maybe it’s time to stop using archaic systems that drive players away.
Or, you can keep with the ‘maybe casuals should not be in tournaments’ logic that pretty much destroyed the pvp in TOR- are the two most anticipated mmos of the year really both going to fall to the same problems? I’ve given up on Bioware, it’s a long wait for another decent sounding mmo if Anet’s going to be the same.
Guess what- casuals will stop playing tournaments- and the game altogether. Most people use pugs as a way to test a game before looking for a commitment to a guild/pvp group- but if everyone is too disgusted by the game early on, you are going to see less premades too- think about it.
I’m sorry the discussion could not be more rewarding.