Guild Wars 2

I know it has been suggested a few times before. It’s just that I have become very aware of this missing option today.

I want to try out a class I haven’t played before. So I’ve made the build and go into Hotjoin… Which turns out to be completely useless for me. Most games are 4v5 at best and Zergfests. There’s just no way I can try out what I want to try out with that.

I could go into Solo Q, but that would be really unfair to my team mates, since I don’t have much of a clue with this class.

Can we please get an unranked Queue?

custom arena = unranked Queue , fixed for you

Umm… show me a custom arena that is not empty (and non-duel/farm)?

how bout make your own ? or scrimm other guilds for practice ?

I’d love a no-stress, unranked Q that would utilize matchmaking, and still give regular Q rewards.

I think the answer is pretty clear – just admit mistake and remove rankings from soloQ already. They are meaningless anyway. Make mmr restrictions much more free, maybe tone reward down a bit and this will be the nice training mode for real team queue.
Idea of separating team and solo queues in team-based mode just doesn’t work.

I think an unranked queue is a great idea. I hope is added.

Community is asking for an unranked queue since the solo/team arena was added
And NO, custom arenas are NOT the solution. Not even close.
I’m just wondering why developers choosed hotjoin instead of unranked queue (like every other single game in the world does).

Oni Link.4621:

Community is asking for an unranked queue since the solo/team arena was added
And NO, custom arenas are NOT the solution. Not even close.
I’m just wondering why developers choosed hotjoin instead of unranked queue (like every other single game in the world does).

Well it works with games like team fortress, counter strike etc. But those are an other genre…

Arcturus.8109:

I think the answer is pretty clear – just admit mistake and remove rankings from soloQ already. They are meaningless anyway. Make mmr restrictions much more free, maybe tone reward down a bit and this will be the nice training mode for real team queue.
Idea of separating team and solo queues in team-based mode just doesn’t work.

While I definitely agree with you… What about this scenario would keep SoloQ from essentially being hotjoin? The mentality would essentially become parallel to hotjoin with no consequence for losing.

Mythoryk.7984:

While I definitely agree with you… What about this scenario would keep SoloQ from essentially being hotjoin? The mentality would essentially become parallel to hotjoin with no consequence for losing.

Hotjoin features such things as maximum player capacity of 16 (on small gw2 maps this is zergfest), ability to choose team (if at the beginning of the game blue has 10 lvl player and read has 45 – be sure game will end as 200:500, every experienced player will go into second team), ability to switch teams and ragequit w/o dishonarable debuff, games that start without full teams, skyhammer and capricorn and much. much more.
The only part of “hotjoin mentality” that comes from the absence of ranking is people using fun builds and being much less stressed and agressive. But is that bad?

Arcturus.8109:

Mythoryk.7984:

While I definitely agree with you… What about this scenario would keep SoloQ from essentially being hotjoin? The mentality would essentially become parallel to hotjoin with no consequence for losing.

Hotjoin features such things as maximum player capacity of 16 (on small gw2 maps this is zergfest), ability to choose team (if at the beginning of the game blue has 10 lvl player and read has 45 – be sure game will end as 200:500, every experienced player will go into second team), ability to switch teams and ragequit w/o dishonarable debuff, games that start without full teams, skyhammer and capricorn and much. much more.
The only part of “hotjoin mentality” that comes from the absence of ranking is people using fun builds and being much less stressed and agressive. But is that bad?

SoloQ is already becoming the new hotjoin anyhow.
As there are apparently not enough players to have a gold/silver/bronze league system, I still think that Anet should simply at a layer in soloQ and teamQ where they give new players their own playground; e.g. have ranks 1-20 queue separately from the rest.
Would spare us much drama especially in soloQ.

A better system would be to have separate rankings per character on the leaderboard. But the odds of that ever happening is next to none, and so is an unranked queue unfortunately.

Since they’ve gone against just about everything in the manifesto, they could make HotJoins more punishing when you leave.

Mythoryk.7984:

While I definitely agree with you… What about this scenario would keep SoloQ from essentially being hotjoin? The mentality would essentially become parallel to hotjoin with no consequence for losing.

Proper use of matchmaking, even in the unranked Q, would help alleviate this I think.

I agree with the OP the ranked solo Q is mostly the reason I dont play much latelly, I don’t feel like being tested in a game after coming home from college. Its also the reason none of my friends even played soloq. Ratings should be removed and duoq should be possible for soloq matches.

While I enjoy messing about in hotjoin- that’s just it, I can only mess about. People constantly leaving and switching teams due to hotjoin’s uber-casual nature makes winning lose its sense of earning.

Hence if I don’t feel up for a ranked match, it is impossible for me to have a decent match, which makes me sad

Also, I’ve been playing with a few friends new to the game…hotjoin makes for a chaotic and strange place to teach the ways of spvp…

tl;dr- A normal queue with hidden matchmaking would be fab!!

Solo queue has everything you’re looking for in unranked queue. Just don’t care about your soloQ rating. As long as you aren’t playing an absolutely worthless spec and your rotations are fine, you shouldn’t drop all that much. Even if you do, it’s really easy to climb back up. Otherwise, try hotjoins. Say, they implement unranked queues that nobody gives two kittens about. What’s going to stop people from leaving whenever they want like they do in hot joins? It is going to be a much more frustrating experience than the current solo queue since people don’t have to worry about their ratings anymore. Not to mention further splitting the population.

Rome.3192:

Solo queue has everything you’re looking for in unranked queue. Just don’t care about your soloQ rating. As long as you aren’t playing an absolutely worthless spec and your rotations are fine, you shouldn’t drop all that much. Even if you do, it’s really easy to climb back up. Otherwise, try hotjoins. Say, they implement unranked queues that nobody gives two kittens about. What’s going to stop people from leaving whenever they want like they do in hot joins? It is going to be a much more frustrating experience than the current solo queue since people don’t have to worry about their ratings anymore. Not to mention further splitting the population.

Very good points. -However if it were up to me I’d just replace hotjoins with normal queue. New players/casuals might actually get to play a proper game that way at least!

I would never play any unranked arena. It would be just too boring for me and I would have no motivation at all. If I have a build to test I just do it in solo arena.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

i think ranked and unranked of both should exist and hotjoin should diaf.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

I would like this!

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

I’d prefer ranked solo v anything team.

I don’t have the time to make an organized, regular group of people to team with. I can always just play one solo match and log off.

I know you can join a team of other people, but the organized team of 5 will still usu beat the 4 + 1, or the 3+2 teams.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

I would choose unranked team arena. I’ve always found one of the biggest shortfalls with GW2 PvP is that I can’t simply queue up for some PvP games with my partner unless we either do serious, ranked games or worse, step into hotjoin where we’ll likely just get ‘autobalanced’ onto separate teams.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

I don’t think it should be a choice; it should be both. This way the end state would be:

1. Ranked team queue (with improved matchmaking)
2. Ranked solo queue (with improved matchmaking)
3. Unranked team queue (matchmaking not needed since this is for practice)

The why? Ranked team queue is good for those who really want good coordination among team members. Solo queue is good for those who want to see how skillful they are without a set team. Unranked queue would be good for those wanting to practice with a team, looking to try new specs, or are looking to step up from hot join.

Although I really like the concept of solo-queue, I think I would slightly prefer an unranked queue if I had to choose (Though I’d still have it replace hotjoin :p). Here are a few pros and cons mostly based on my previous posts in this thread.

Pros:

+Casuals can play without the fear/responsibility of ‘ranked’ and get away from the playground of hotjoin.

+Dedicated players have better incentive to team up with their casual friends and play together.

+Dedicated players can enjoy a proper match if not feeling up for playing ranked.

+Still a good method of queuing up solo (hopefully).

Cons:

-Can be frustrating to be matched up against organised players

-Can be frustrating to be matched up with/against players of a very different calibre.

-Only ranked play would be in team arena (obviously).

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

it should be

Unranked Q – same as teamQ we have now (joine as 1-5 ppl)

Ranked soloQ – solo join only
Ranked teamQ – FULL team join only and not players are ranked its team ranking in leaderboards

I prefer an Unranked Team Arena, since you have the choice to solo or team up with friends.

Additionally, I would really appreciate a (ranked) matchmaking for guild teams with a proper ladder (like in GW1) and Guild Rewards (e.g. bronze, silver, gold capes or bonus which you get by guild missions). Guilds should be much more pushed in GW2, since it is one of the most important thing in a MMO.

So:
1) Unranked Team Arena
2) Guilde Queue

style.6173:

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

I don’t think it should be a choice; it should be both. This way the end state would be:

1. Ranked team queue (with improved matchmaking)
2. Ranked solo queue (with improved matchmaking)
3. Unranked team queue (matchmaking not needed since this is for practice)

i would even go further and do it like this:

1. Ranked team queue -> team of 5 ONLY (maybe split into “teamQ” and “guildQ”)
2. Ranked solo queue -> “as is” with exception of showing ranking instead of rank
3. Unranked team queue -> 2-team / 3-team / solo; but imo MMR is pretty much needed everywhere, because even getting rolled while practicing isn’t fun at all

I would prefer Unranked team arena, so I could play with all my friends that are mostly casual instead of having to always play alone or to keep having a terrible Team Q rating.

Remove hotjoins, it does more harm then good. There is just no way to learn proper rotations. Then it is also high ranks just farming new players. If you used the MMR system for the UnrankedQ you could get new players fighting new players instead of zerg farming rank points. Custom Arenas will be where you make the money for the 1v1, 2v2, and TDM servers. Right now theres prob 50+ custom servers empty, I’m not sure why anyone would buy one at this time.

Add what others have said..
UnrankedQ – join with 1-5 friends, this way you won’t be auto switched like in hotjoins
SoloQ Ranked, even though it is terrible
TeamQ Ranked

kito.1827:

style.6173:

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

I don’t think it should be a choice; it should be both. This way the end state would be:

1. Ranked team queue (with improved matchmaking)
2. Ranked solo queue (with improved matchmaking)
3. Unranked team queue (matchmaking not needed since this is for practice)

i would even go further and do it like this:

1. Ranked team queue -> team of 5 ONLY (maybe split into “teamQ” and “guildQ”)
2. Ranked solo queue -> “as is” with exception of showing ranking instead of rank
3. Unranked team queue -> 2-team / 3-team / solo; but imo MMR is pretty much needed everywhere, because even getting rolled while practicing isn’t fun at all

This is actually also my favorite. But I think, Queue Times would be way too long if PvP population is not high enough.

Thats why I think that team and solo queue should be mixed up (choose 1-5ppl) and only unranked (ranked and unranked would split the base as well). Why unranked? In my opinion, ladderboards for single player is pretty useless.
And the second mode is Guild Queue with some good rewards as I mentioned above.

i would love to have the option to play unranked tourneys to test new builds, other classes than my main and play with my mates, even if we arent five

I really would love to see:

RANKED TEAM Q ( to climb up the ladder with your Team or trusted FL players)

and

UNRANKED TEAM Q ( to participate in serious tournys (not like hj) to test and train players or just queue for fun with friends or alone)

NO SOLO Q

This makes no sense to me…how would having an unranked queue be any different than hot join? If you made an unranked queue don’t you think that most of the Heros will just play that instead?
There needs to be a penalty in hot join for leaving and minimal rewards for losing. Also need to make it so you can’t switch when match starts. I don’t think there should be a leaving penalty but definately should not be rewarding people for switching teams at the right moment. Why not turn hot join into something that people can actually learn from and get rewarded for it rather than rewarding horrible play and the best Zerg.
I would also like to point out we had unranked ques for a long time and all people did was complain that there was no ranking system.
Soloq is a breeding ground for horrible play anyways unless you are high on the ladder and even then you sometimes get scrub teams. I recommend that if you are playing solo to just go solo in team q…you get better teams / better matches IMO.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

unranked Team Arena, as long as there was no wait.

Josh Davis.6015:

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena?

Definitely ranked Solo Arena.

I think the hot-join system has its flaws, and we need to try to move the players to a more structured environment, but not for the cost of the SoloQ.

All the PvE & WvW I talk to are mostly complaining about three core points, why they do not enjoy SPvP:

• Transition from PvE/WvW is too difficult, they cannot play the same way they are playing PvE/WvW, too to stat, rune and sigil limitations.
• There is no reward involved, which would interest them to play more SPvP.
• SPvP is just a mindless zerg fest.

While the first two points hopefully will get fixed with the feature patch, the third one remains a problem.

In hot-join you just jump into a most likely ongoing match, follow the zerg from one point to another, farming other players or getting farmed, resulting in constantly leaving players on the loosing team, auto-balance and more leaving players. I don’t think you can really get a good playing experience out of this mess.

The only good thing from hot-join is that you can test out your trait setup for the first time, and jump out immediately if you forgot something or made a mistake somewhere.

Changing the ‘play now’ button from 8vs8 to 5vs5 might help as a start, but it will not fix the problem.

A perfect league system coupled with a good reward structure might help to lead the players to the better structured play experience in the form of the SoloQ or TeamQ.
I just think, that a lot of players are afraid of their performance in the rated queuing system. Other people will see them at a the low end of the ladder or after climbing it, they are afraid to loose their achievement, and therefore they are looking for a unranked queuing system.

Since the player skill level can be very different, you’d still need a MMR-mechanism in this unranked queuing system, to avoid unbalanced matches and frustrated players.

BTT: Since we cannot have both, I’d still prefer a better league system, taking care of those fears (mentioned above), instead of completely removing the SoloQ.

We have enough players who wants to play on a casual-competitive level, achieving in SoloQ as much as possible, to show off their individual achievements, without being forced to play TeamQ to do so. [Not to mention, that I don’t like the idea of better TeamQ rewards per match, which pulled a lot of players from SoloQ into queuing TeamQ alone. The MMR system is only good as long as the pool of players is big enough, and with the higher teamQ-rank point rewards, the SoloQ playerbase is far too small.]

We all want a good league-based system coupled with rewards for better incentives. With the removal of the ranked SoloQ you’d take those incentives away from of your players.

I’d really like to see an unranked teamQ, rewards should definitely be worse than ranked, so that it doesn’t become a free rankpoints farm. Top 200 teamQ can be hard at times, when you have to face top 30 teams, cuz noone is queuing. Keep ranked SoloQ and TeamQ though, make it an addition to the already excisting stuff.

Josh Davis.6015:

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena?

Unranked Team.

I don’t see much point in the Solo Leaderboard. Since you (obviously) get teamed with randoms, IMO there’s no way to accurately measure a single player’s skill in a game mode, that by definition requires a team.

Unranked Team would let you practice builds, classes, strategies for groups-of-people who want to play together, or on your own. Once refined, you can take these into Ranked Team.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

I do the PvP team arena win dailies every single day. So if the unranked team arena still rewarded credit for those dailies, I would prefer the unranked team arena.

I hate the idea. I like the solo and teams arenas just the way they are. We just need to have some improvements in the matchmaking. We also need for there to be a significant increase in rewards for a win in these queues so people will care more about winning. We also need for people to stop testing new builds in these matches as well, nothing worse then a person that can’t play worth a dang because they think Solo or team is the place to try out new builds. Try your builds in hotjoin where you belong. If you made it so there was little to no reward for a lose and high reward for a win I think we could fix some of the issues. I would also like to see a cap in joining solo queue at level 30 or something to avoid losing a match because of one poor player. I also like the leader boards but they seems to be broken and need to be tweaked. I also wish there where more stats available on the leader boards and or be able to search for people and see ranks and kills and such. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Ranked Solo Arena by far.

Unranked Team Arena seems like it should replace Hotjoin not Solo Arena.

I would be extremely disappointed if you were to remove Solo Arena.

If we take a look at a functioning esports title, from where do they get new players to join their teams? → They take a look at the SoloQ ladder.

Teutos.8620:

Josh Davis.6015:

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena?

Definitely ranked Solo Arena.

I think the hot-join system has its flaws, and we need to try to move the players to a more structured environment, but not for the cost of the SoloQ.

All the PvE & WvW I talk to are mostly complaining about three core points, why they do not enjoy SPvP:

• Transition from PvE/WvW is too difficult, they cannot play the same way they are playing PvE/WvW, too to stat, rune and sigil limitations.
• There is no reward involved, which would interest them to play more SPvP.
• SPvP is just a mindless zerg fest.

While the first two points hopefully will get fixed with the feature patch, the third one remains a problem.

In hot-join you just jump into a most likely ongoing match, follow the zerg from one point to another, farming other players or getting farmed, resulting in constantly leaving players on the loosing team, auto-balance and more leaving players. I don’t think you can really get a good playing experience out of this mess.

The only good thing from hot-join is that you can test out your trait setup for the first time, and jump out immediately if you forgot something or made a mistake somewhere.

Changing the ‘play now’ button from 8vs8 to 5vs5 might help as a start, but it will not fix the problem.

A perfect league system coupled with a good reward structure might help to lead the players to the better structured play experience in the form of the SoloQ or TeamQ.
I just think, that a lot of players are afraid of their performance in the rated queuing system. Other people will see them at a the low end of the ladder or after climbing it, they are afraid to loose their achievement, and therefore they are looking for a unranked queuing system.

Since the player skill level can be very different, you’d still need a MMR-mechanism in this unranked queuing system, to avoid unbalanced matches and frustrated players.

BTT: Since we cannot have both, I’d still prefer a better league system, taking care of those fears (mentioned above), instead of completely removing the SoloQ.

We have enough players who wants to play on a casual-competitive level, achieving in SoloQ as much as possible, to show off their individual achievements, without being forced to play TeamQ to do so. [Not to mention, that I don’t like the idea of better TeamQ rewards per match, which pulled a lot of players from SoloQ into queuing TeamQ alone. The MMR system is only good as long as the pool of players is big enough, and with the higher teamQ-rank point rewards, the SoloQ playerbase is far too small.]

We all want a good league-based system coupled with rewards for better incentives. With the removal of the ranked SoloQ you’d take those incentives away from of your players.

Great post – I agree with basically everything you just said.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

Ranked soloq for sure. Why does it have to be choice tho? Why do i have to pick between meat and potatoes if id like to have both?

Id make unranked queue work like this:

• Joinable with 1-4 players
• Same rewards as soloq
• MMR
• Not working towards position on the ladder
• The only accesable rated games untill 100 games won.

After you won those 100 games you get acces to the current solo or teamqueueus. Your MMR during your first ladder games will be based on how well you do during your games in unranked queue. Putting you in a position between the bottom and the middle of the ladder.

Ranked solo q can already pretty much be replaced by team q since you can always queue by yourself. I don’t think getting rid of it would really make that big of a difference.

2p worth

Without SoloQ I would not be doing spvp every day.
I started pvp when I first started playing when you needed tickets paid, free etc and teams. I found it hard to get a regular team due to my play hours and all of my online friends being into pve and paying to PUG for a tournament was a bit lame.
So I took a break from it and cam back to it later and found the SoloQ worth the time in rewards (not so much right now while we wait for whatever is coming) and less chaotic than hotjoin.

Its not perfect, I get a lot of 4 vs 5 (either due to people not turning up or 1 person sitting out because someone didnt go close, theres 4 hambows, decap engis on the other team etc (way too many sulkers but thats not an issue for anet))

I still am struggling to get a team, have advertised and spam map chat or ask in matches for pvp guilds but nada. So removing more value or splitting the numbers on the soloQ would mean probably no pvp for me.

Before cries of so what, QQ etc, Im just adding another perspective to the discussion

There must be more in the same situation as me, as I always get a match in 10 mins or less…

What about this:

1) TeamQ = 5vs5. Group of 5 man in the same team at the start. If you are in 3 players, let’s find other 2 calling some friends or LFG. Somenthing like HA, TA or GvG in GW1. You can start only if your party is composed by 5 people. MMR check is based on the team. And of course…GIVE US MULTIPLE WINS IN A ROW WITH RANK POINT BOOST FOR EVERY VICTORY IN THE SAME ROW.

2) SoloQ = 5vs5. Single player queue and 5 man team. Based on single player MMR, check if someone is AFK before the match start, and the only requirements is: YOU NEED TO BE AT LEAST RANK 20. This is a ranked Q, so why experience people have to get a free lose because played don’t now how th game work? LESS FLAME FOR NEW PLAYERS, MORE PEOPLE WILL ENJOY PVP WITHOUT LEAVING IT AFTER 5 MATCH.

3) Unranked SoloQ = 5vs5. Like soloQ but without leaderboard effect. Of course MMR is check for matchmaking (I need to try my build in team that have similar experience) but NO RANK REQUIRED. In this Queue, new players can learn more about maps and positioning, and gaining rank point to finally join RANKED QUEUES.

4) Hotjoin = removed.

Peace.

Josh Davis.6015:

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena?

If I had to choose, I’d go with ranked solo Q over unranked team Q.

Personally, I don’t see the need for an unranked queue. I think a far more ideal (and hopefully would take far less development time) option is to fix hotjoin so it can be a viable place to play. I’m afraid a third queue plus keeping hotjoin would just stratify players even more than they are already.

Tightening up autobalance to provide far more fair teams would be my choice.

Proposed changes:
-When joining a match in progress and the teams are even, players should be put on the losing side.
-When one side has more players and is 100+ points ahead, autobalance should force someone onto the other team.
-Much faster activation. Right now it takes 10-20 seconds between the point a team is 2 members short and when autobalance activates. It then takes an additional 10 seconds to find a person to switch. This shouldn’t be any longer than 5 seconds each.
Risks:
-Longer matches. I don’t really see this as an issue, but rewards may need to be adjusted upwards (which is already happening soon, right?).
-More people feeling like they are getting bounced around. It can’t be any worse than what we’ve got now, and if it leads to more balanced matches, I’ll take that risk. And anyway, this is for hotjoin – we have arenas for stable teams (and arenas are much more accessible now than tournaments were when the current autobalance was created).