thats some list of excuses there even if you did bury them a little.
Sure SBI are suffering at present however they have a 50 man zerg running around their BL at present so I don’t think they are dead and buried yet and I hope they keep the faith and stay in T1. Any server that makes the points deserves to be in T1, rather arrogant of you to suggest otherwise. Love to know which guild you represent on SoS. If BG want another shot they need to earn it. Good luck to them.
Oh and I should add, congratulations, you have completed the 2nd part of my bet this week. Was a bit worried no one from SoS would cough up that rather obtuse excuse but you have supplied it. Many thanks
I don’t care that SoS lost this/last week, it’s unfortunate you can’t see past your own server bias to critically look at how a weak tier one server negatively impacts on the competition. It’s not arrogant to suggest we could have a better tiering system, it’s how a critical mind approaches a competitive match up and what’s best for that competition to stay as healthy as possible. Just because you did well five weeks ago doesn’t mean you are the top server (or even one of the top three servers) today. The current rating system lets your server become bloated and hold their position for multiple weeks without performing as strongly as your rating suggests. Each week becomes about maintaining rating and not about competing for first place, this impacts on how servers compete with each other and there are several scenarios where a server is able to boost their rating despite not having the presence or coverage to be truly competitive.
I’ve always maintained (and publicly) that SoS wins because of coverage not because of superior 1 vs 1 guilds or players. That’s one of the biggest flaws in GW2 PvP – it’s either sPvP or a a coverage war which largely doesn’t care too much about skill, there is nothing like old school FA here, but that’s the game we play, WvW is a coverage and zerg war. It’s discussed every week that servers are sick of tier one, many SBI people themselves want to move down – one of their biggest guilds and a huge part of their coverage was WM, even with them they were the weakest of the tier 1 guilds, without them they are slowly fading away, and we all have to play in a gimped tier because of it.
I think most competitive WvW players would agree, the best situation for WvW to be in would be to have three strong and active servers with the motivation and coverage to shoot for a first place win, we are seeing posts on the forums from SBI players saying they want to hold onto tier one for as long as possible. These people aren’t saying they want to win tier one, they just want to remain there. That’s a sad state for your competition to be in (though they don’t represent everyone). From what I’ve seen from the server as a whole, this is how their performance in WvW translates, trying to hold onto tier one, not gunning for first.
I don’t think SBI is dead. I don’t think any of the servers in tier 2 are dead, to imply leaving tier 1 is something you only do when you are dead is an insult to every other server in all the lower tiers. I strongly believe that it’s easily possible one of the three servers in tier 2 could be as competitive or more competitive than all three tier one servers, that first place in tier 1 could go to a tier 2 server. I just think the competition and coverage SBI is bringing out at the moment isn’t competitive enough for tier 1. You know what? The score tends to agree, especially now that WM is gone and people are coming back from holidays. If SoS dropped to third place this week as a result of placing last in the tier, I would still strongly support swapping with first place of tier 2.
I want to see a new guild in tier one every week. Real consequences for placing third and a real reward for placing first. This gives people the drive to actively compete for points and positions rather than holding onto tier one even if it means accepting third. This prevents servers from settling into the stale dynamic we’ve had for weeks.
Admitedly changes could result in servers fighting over second and third place instead of first place (which still happens with ratings), I’d still rather see a more dynamic change happen in the tiers and less emphasis placed on rating bloat.
