Guild Wars 2

Does this soloq/duoq only ranked mean that anet finally gave up on esports and decided to just hand out money for existing pro league players?

If they’d want to grow up the scene they just have to add in-game pro league qualifier system like we had in gw1.

I am not saying that the gw1 system is perfect and it might need some changes but at least it would make the scene grow maybe instead of soloq/duoq only.

From gw1 wiki:

[ Automated tournaments are swiss-style tournaments for Guild Battles. These competitions take place three times daily, and are staggered to allow players from different timezones to take part. Competitors, by performing well through the automated rounds for a month, will have the opportunity to participate in the tournament at the end of each month which offer large amounts of Tournament Reward Points as prizes. ]

Ladder / rating change

[ The tournament system interacts with the ladder rating system, but victories in the tournament reward greater ladder adjustment modifiers (K-values), with a K value of 25. Monthly tournaments have even greater rating modifier with K=50. The current ladder system has a K=15.
Since the 20 March 2008 update a guild or player will now lose K value (25 for daily, 50 for monthly) rating if the guild or player signs up for a tournament and forfeit the first round.
Be wary that rating change for win/losses is significantly higher than in a normal rated GvG match. ]

I think that the most important thing to remember about this soloq/duoq only ranked in Season 5 is that it is meant to be a short-term trial/test. Here is a quote from Josh Davis: “In the scenario that Season 5 as solo/duo goes well and the community decides to keep it long-term, the PvP team will look at ways to accommodate competitive team-based play.”, from this forum post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Extended-Off-Season-and-Other-Updates .

When you have a complex system or can`t predict/model a system`s behaviour, it is good practice to “change and observe only one variable at a time, then combinations” to gain a proper understanding; it is what Anet do not do when it comes to inter-class and skill balance patches, so it is welcome to see such an approach being taken for the PvP infrastructure. The variable in this case is what type of queue, in terms of roster allowance, do the majority of PvP players prefer for rated matches.

Yes, it has been 4 years of experimentation when it comes to this issue and yes, the devs should be able to make their own decisions about this by now, based on gathered statistics and past iterations. Better late than never. Also, considering how an influx of new players was attracted into PvP by HOT and Leagues, I would rather have the devs dedicate a bit more time to go through “trial & errror” and polls when it comes to big changes, such that any proper infrastructure that gets born out of the process has unquestionable validity.

In my opinion, a proper PvP infrastructure, which would emerge somewhere down the line after the solo/duoq trial, must address the two big gaps that exist right now in the player base:

1) between people that are missing basic knowledge when it comes to PvP (rotations and/or mechanical skill) and people that are able to perform proper rotations + are mechanically capable but play in ranked instead of within teams or tournaments;

2) between capable people (rotationally and mechanically) without full teams and the ESL pro level players.

A proper tutorial system is needed in-game so people do not develop distorted views about the PvP side of the game (rotations, mechanical skill, using terrain etc.). A soloq/duoq ranked queue is a good middle ground between casual and competitive play; it can provide a proper incentive for learning PvP while maintaining fun matches, it is the proper medium for development towards higher tier play (since you must first enhance your personal mechanical skill & rotations before coordinating with a team), and it allows to best of players to rise to the top by carrying matches. The people that perform here very well have the opportunity to move forward into high tier competitive play, which is based on teams, since they will get noticed or find each other.

Tournaments and organising scrims are great resources for competitive team play indeed, but they must be integrated and supported as parts of the game. It is important that Anet itself promotes such a step for the development of players (in hierarchy, after soloq/duoq and before ESL) – a medium where people can practice the highest level of PvP play, team play, without having to organise things by themselves. The system should be the one that offers the incentive and reasons for people to want to come together to practise at high-tier, in teams, and the incentive for top teams to play as well, such that other teams have a chance to improve.

Queue times would most likely be a problem for a “Team Arena” like we had in the past, so why not introduce a system similar to professional chess, in the form of regular automated tournaments? Whatever team wants to show up shows up and if too few show up, adapt accordingly. A team gets rated (visible) based on the performance in the tournament with an ELO sort of rating system (visible, made public) and appears on a leader board of teams. Introduce decay of ratings with time. Have some sort of qualification method based on these ratings such that other teams than the current top ESL ones (which will most likely be at the top of the leaderboard if they play) can have a chance to compete for a spot in the ESL events – in place of what Guild Challenger League is now. There are ways to make this work within the game itself and it would get the top-tier play a lot more recognition.