Guild Wars 2

So with the recent revelation of season two of WvW (codename: WvW tournament 2014), many have rightly pointed out that the top servers are pretty much already decided. This, combined with the slew of increased rewards for victory, has taken the largest problem for WvW, stacked coverage, and amplified it exponentially. It can only be assumed that many people will try to transfer to BG and JQ in the hopes of obtaining those rewards. Meanwhile, pretty much all other servers will get smashed. So how can Anet avoid this debacle?

My suggested solution: Institute server handcaps based on glicko rating (if not something else).

Take a theoretical matchup of JQ, TC, and SF (assuming they all win their first round). Most would agree that if SF managed to get about 50,000 points by the end of the match against these two much larger servers, that would exceed expectations. If this is accomplished, congratulations SF, you just won the match. This would make stacking servers essentially useless and give everyone a reason to play hard, no matter their server. Thoughts?

LOL. You really think Anet cares about even competition? They are interested in how to make Gem sales. 1800 Gems for server transfer is a great cash cow. I don’t blame them, it is a buy to play game with no subs. They have to make money somehow right?

I would like to hope that they care. In any case, I’d like to think this idea has promise as I’ve seen it used in swiss-style formats before. Anyone like the idea or want to play devil’s advocate?

NO , Just NO. Yes, I am from Blackgate a “stacked” server…………….. I understand that a lot of bangwagoners will join BG and JQ to “get” their part of the reward……. but in all honesty, only some of these people will do anything for the server as a whole in winning the battle….. Half of them will be off the commander tags doing their own thing and whining in map chat when they can finish keep takes because they do not wish to help the tag…….

All the while my guild and all of the fellow BG WVWVW guilds will be working our behinds off, pulling overtime to get that little bit more or close the gap in coverage issues….. We should not be punished for working as a community and trying to cover all timezones.

If you have a problem with coverage or numbers, either recruit for your server, or transfer to a T2 server to help make them more competitive at the coverage game. If we as a gw2 community can get the top 6 -8 servers equal in numbers and coverage in timezones , we would all have the funnest time in the tournament. Then it would only come down to skill, politics, and who wants it more.

BG and/or JQ should not be punished for having played a game consistent with the scoring system ANET has implemented.

If ANET is lucky, competitors will fail to draw people away from GW2 and WvW will recover from any perceived race to grab shinies.

Good luck all.

Neuroticgrim.8769:

If we as a gw2 community can get the top 6 -8 servers equal in numbers and coverage in timezones , we would all have the funnest time in the tournament. Then it would only come down to skill, politics, and who wants it more.

That would be true, except that it won’t happen on its own. As hard as servers try to recruit, there will always be a bias towards people joining the “winning” servers. IMO, the only way to combat that bias is to add a counter-bias. In other words, you have to add something to the system that doesn’t guarantee numbers equal absolute victory (for the server, not in battles).

As for punishing the large servers, the beauty of a handicap system is that it isnt punishing larger servers for their coverage, nor is it rewarding small servers for their lack of said numbers. Larger servers have more people, ergo they should do better in WvW on the average. The glicko system supports this assertion and we all know it to be true. Therefore, large servers are expected to do better in points than smaller servers.

As an example of why this system works: take billiards. In a billiards tourney, you are given a handicap number. Say I’m new and I’m assigned a 2 and I’m facing a professional (say numbered 6). The way the system works is that I only have to win one game but he has to win the difference in our ranks number of games to claim victory (so 4 in a row).

The billiards handicap system is set up to try and even out the difference in ability and give a reasonable chance at winning to both players. In the case of WvW, the difference is in numbers and the handicap is a way to give a reasonable chance of victory to smaller servers.

TL:DR – You have the numbers, you are expected to use them and dominate points. If you under-perform with those numbers, you lose. Coverage no longer equals automatic victory. Problem solved.

Neuroticgrim.8769:

NO , Just NO. Yes, I am from Blackgate a “stacked” server…………….. I understand that a lot of bangwagoners will join BG and JQ to “get” their part of the reward

Nothing in the page on it states that the reward for victory will be anything greater than what it was in S1. The page refers to rewards for completing the meta achievement.

Neuroticgrim.8769:

NO , Just NO. Yes, I am from Blackgate a “stacked” server…………….. I understand that a lot of bangwagoners will join BG and JQ to “get” their part of the reward……. but in all honesty, only some of these people will do anything for the server as a whole in winning the battle….. Half of them will be off the commander tags doing their own thing and whining in map chat when they can finish keep takes because they do not wish to help the tag…….

All the while my guild and all of the fellow BG WVWVW guilds will be working our behinds off, pulling overtime to get that little bit more or close the gap in coverage issues….. We should not be punished for working as a community and trying to cover all timezones.

If you have a problem with coverage or numbers, either recruit for your server, or transfer to a T2 server to help make them more competitive at the coverage game. If we as a gw2 community can get the top 6 -8 servers equal in numbers and coverage in timezones , we would all have the funnest time in the tournament. Then it would only come down to skill, politics, and who wants it more.

Agreed. The rewards shouldn’t be all based off of how you place. It should be mostly done by amount of participation. If you work your butt off but place last, you should be rewarded more than some one that only did the minimum but was on a server that placed first.

Yes. I’d like to see it all about achievements and individual playtime. Server ranking is pretty much predetermined.

Any ‘fabulous rewards’ they give out will worth less than the 3600 gems it would cost to transfer and move back.

Of course, this won’t stop people from doing it, and that’s what Anet is counting on.

morrolan.9608:

Neuroticgrim.8769:

NO , Just NO. Yes, I am from Blackgate a “stacked” server…………….. I understand that a lot of bangwagoners will join BG and JQ to “get” their part of the reward

Nothing in the page on it states that the reward for victory will be anything greater than what it was in S1. The page refers to rewards for completing the meta achievement.

Players will receive tournament tickets based on how their server ranked, which will be exchanged for weapon skins and ascended accessories.

“All players who complete the meta achievement will receive a set number of tournament tickets based on world placement which can be exchanged at a vendor once the tournament has completed for a variety of items. These include two brand-new sets of weapon skins that can’t be found anywhere else in the game, obsidian shards, dragonite ore, ascended accessories, and more.”

Gatharin.2674:

Neuroticgrim.8769:

If we as a gw2 community can get the top 6 -8 servers equal in numbers and coverage in timezones , we would all have the funnest time in the tournament. Then it would only come down to skill, politics, and who wants it more.

That would be true, except that it won’t happen on its own. As hard as servers try to recruit, there will always be a bias towards people joining the “winning” servers. IMO, the only way to combat that bias is to add a counter-bias. In other words, you have to add something to the system that doesn’t guarantee numbers equal absolute victory (for the server, not in battles).

As for punishing the large servers, the beauty of a handicap system is that it isnt punishing larger servers for their coverage, nor is it rewarding small servers for their lack of said numbers. Larger servers have more people, ergo they should do better in WvW on the average. The glicko system supports this assertion and we all know it to be true. Therefore, large servers are expected to do better in points than smaller servers.

As an example of why this system works: take billiards. In a billiards tourney, you are given a handicap number. Say I’m new and I’m assigned a 2 and I’m facing a professional (say numbered 6). The way the system works is that I only have to win one game but he has to win the difference in our ranks number of games to claim victory (so 4 in a row).

The billiards handicap system is set up to try and even out the difference in ability and give a reasonable chance at winning to both players. In the case of WvW, the difference is in numbers and the handicap is a way to give a reasonable chance of victory to smaller servers.

TL:DR – You have the numbers, you are expected to use them and dominate points. If you under-perform with those numbers, you lose. Coverage no longer equals automatic victory. Problem solved.

It all sounds good on paper, but in reality is exactly what i said it was…… a punishment for the servers who have built a community and worked to get where they are.

Also, the billiards thing is BS. If I spend half of my life practicing my behind off to become an amazing billiards player, go to a tournament and be told I am being given a handicap so that a “new” or “cruddy” player can even compete with me…. i would be irate at best (They should get back to the practice board and work just as much as i had to)….. Any sport that uses a handicap system is only punishing its players and promoting mediocrity.

I seem to remember the number one issue with WvW players was population and coverage, not how to better recruit from within.

Neuroticgrim.8769:

It all sounds good on paper, but in reality is exactly what i said it was…… a punishment for the servers who have built a community and worked to get where they are.

Also, the billiards thing is BS. If I spend half of my life practicing my behind off to become an amazing billiards player, go to a tournament and be told I am being given a handicap so that a “new” or “cruddy” player can even compete with me…. i would be irate at best (They should get back to the practice board and work just as much as i had to)….. Any sport that uses a handicap system is only punishing its players and promoting mediocrity.

You’re really going to talk about punishing players and mediocrity when you’re on a T1 server? Players area already being punished by the people who jumped ship to go to T1 servers. T1 servers are also filled to the brim with mediocre players who are using numbers to cover it up. WvW zerg play is probably the least skilled form of combat in this game.

So if you don’t want mediocrity being promoted and players being punished then get out of T1. Until then other measures need to be implemented in order to help the players getting punished back in the fight.

Neuroticgrim.8769:

Gatharin.2674:

Neuroticgrim.8769:

If we as a gw2 community can get the top 6 -8 servers equal in numbers and coverage in timezones , we would all have the funnest time in the tournament. Then it would only come down to skill, politics, and who wants it more.

That would be true, except that it won’t happen on its own. As hard as servers try to recruit, there will always be a bias towards people joining the “winning” servers. IMO, the only way to combat that bias is to add a counter-bias. In other words, you have to add something to the system that doesn’t guarantee numbers equal absolute victory (for the server, not in battles).

As for punishing the large servers, the beauty of a handicap system is that it isnt punishing larger servers for their coverage, nor is it rewarding small servers for their lack of said numbers. Larger servers have more people, ergo they should do better in WvW on the average. The glicko system supports this assertion and we all know it to be true. Therefore, large servers are expected to do better in points than smaller servers.

As an example of why this system works: take billiards. In a billiards tourney, you are given a handicap number. Say I’m new and I’m assigned a 2 and I’m facing a professional (say numbered 6). The way the system works is that I only have to win one game but he has to win the difference in our ranks number of games to claim victory (so 4 in a row).

The billiards handicap system is set up to try and even out the difference in ability and give a reasonable chance at winning to both players. In the case of WvW, the difference is in numbers and the handicap is a way to give a reasonable chance of victory to smaller servers.

TL:DR – You have the numbers, you are expected to use them and dominate points. If you under-perform with those numbers, you lose. Coverage no longer equals automatic victory. Problem solved.

It all sounds good on paper, but in reality is exactly what i said it was…… a punishment for the servers who have built a community and worked to get where they are.

Also, the billiards thing is BS. If I spend half of my life practicing my behind off to become an amazing billiards player, go to a tournament and be told I am being given a handicap so that a “new” or “cruddy” player can even compete with me…. i would be irate at best (They should get back to the practice board and work just as much as i had to)….. Any sport that uses a handicap system is only punishing its players and promoting mediocrity.

I disagree. It’s entirely possible with the system they are talking about that the top ranked #2 will face the bottom ranked #1’s; meaning BG/ET/SF (with standings as they are) BG would win handily with less than 1/5 of it’s current population. I would think that the margin for victory should be higher when you end up with that kind of matchup.

Is the difference between a T2 and T3 server really big? Right now, there aren’t any T2 servers that could keep up with the numbers and coverage that BG and JQ have. I don’t think handicapping either server would solve anything but it would sure cause a lot of complaining. A native player shouldn’t be penalized on rewards or anything of the sort because of where they chose to play when they bought the game. It just means that rewards need to be based on your personal participation but not too out of reach for casual WvW players. The only rewards you can give based on placement in the tournament would be novelty ones such as finishers.

Blackarps.1974:

Is the difference between a T2 and T3 server really big? Right now, there aren’t any T2 servers that could keep up with the numbers and coverage that BG and JQ have. I don’t think handicapping either server would solve anything but it would sure cause a lot of complaining. A native player shouldn’t be penalized on rewards or anything of the sort because of where they chose to play when they bought the game. It just means that rewards need to be based on your personal participation but not too out of reach for casual WvW players. The only rewards you can give based on placement in the tournament would be novelty ones such as finishers.

Yes there is a big difference in numbers between t2 & t3 server (EU), surely this will be the same on NA servers. You will find big disparity in numbers between tier 3 servers, tier 2 servers & no doubt tier 1 servers without matches between the different tiers.
The match we had two weeks ago was 19vs18vs14 in ranking. 14 totally dominated the round winning by between 150,000 – 200,000 points. Not only did the 14th ranked server have vastly superior numbers they also had around the clock coverage.
Servers two places higher in rank can be a difficult proposition.

Distaste.4801:

Neuroticgrim.8769:

It all sounds good on paper, but in reality is exactly what i said it was…… a punishment for the servers who have built a community and worked to get where they are.

Also, the billiards thing is BS. If I spend half of my life practicing my behind off to become an amazing billiards player, go to a tournament and be told I am being given a handicap so that a “new” or “cruddy” player can even compete with me…. i would be irate at best (They should get back to the practice board and work just as much as i had to)….. Any sport that uses a handicap system is only punishing its players and promoting mediocrity.

You’re really going to talk about punishing players and mediocrity when you’re on a T1 server? Players are already being punished by the people who jumped ship to go to T1 servers. T1 servers are also filled to the brim with mediocre players who are using numbers to cover it up. WvW zerg play is probably the least skilled form of combat in this game.

So if you don’t want mediocrity being promoted and players being punished then get out of T1. Until then other measures need to be implemented in order to help the players getting punished back in the fight.

First I am in a guild that runs around 15 to 20 players… 99.9% of the time these are the numbers we run, we prefer to not run entire maps and to be havocy (i.e. split into smaller groups) ……. I dont really feel punished by the bandwagoners as when BG tries we can usually fill maps with WVW guilded players. BUT I will NOT be punished by anet for bandwagoners, or lower teir servers inability to recruit. Especially after I spend over 8+ hours commanding many nights of a season…

NO, I will not leave T1, I am a BG born player and always have been, and definitely not after having put the work I have in to help Blackgate become what it is. A community like ours takes a lot of people; Web Site operators, Team Speak Gatekeepers, Event Organizers, recruiters, leaders, commanders, Line Soldiers, etc……

If anet wants to do anything, they should drop a few of the really low population servers and start balancing out the system……… but lets be honest….. they wont do that LOL………

Neuroticgrim.8769:

Distaste.4801:

Neuroticgrim.8769:

It all sounds good on paper, but in reality is exactly what i said it was…… a punishment for the servers who have built a community and worked to get where they are.

Also, the billiards thing is BS. If I spend half of my life practicing my behind off to become an amazing billiards player, go to a tournament and be told I am being given a handicap so that a “new” or “cruddy” player can even compete with me…. i would be irate at best (They should get back to the practice board and work just as much as i had to)….. Any sport that uses a handicap system is only punishing its players and promoting mediocrity.

You’re really going to talk about punishing players and mediocrity when you’re on a T1 server? Players are already being punished by the people who jumped ship to go to T1 servers. T1 servers are also filled to the brim with mediocre players who are using numbers to cover it up. WvW zerg play is probably the least skilled form of combat in this game.

So if you don’t want mediocrity being promoted and players being punished then get out of T1. Until then other measures need to be implemented in order to help the players getting punished back in the fight.

First I am in a guild that runs around 15 to 20 players… 99.9% of the time these are the numbers we run, we prefer to not run entire maps and to be havocy (i.e. split into smaller groups) ……. I dont really feel punished by the bandwagoners as when BG tries we can usually fill maps with WVW guilded players. BUT I will NOT be punished by anet for bandwagoners, or lower teir servers inability to recruit. Especially after I spend over 8+ hours commanding many nights of a season…

NO, I will not leave T1, I am a BG born player and always have been, and definitely not after having put the work I have in to help Blackgate become what it is. A community like ours takes a lot of people; Web Site operators, Team Speak Gatekeepers, Event Organizers, recruiters, leaders, commanders, Line Soldiers, etc……

If anet wants to do anything, they should drop a few of the really low population servers and start balancing out the system……… but lets be honest….. they wont do that LOL………

Low tier server’s inability to recruit? I don’t think you even know what it’s like on a low tier server. I work my butt off every day in WvW, mostly fighting but I do allot of recruiting. You know what most ppl say who I ask if they want to switch to my server? What do I get. Yeah and I can’t really come up with a response. Not only does it cost just as much to transfer to my server (gates of madness) as a tier 1 but no one wants to come to a server just to maybe win on some nights.

Why come to a low pop server when you can just pop on a high tier. The whole system is setup to encourage bandwagoning and your insensitivity to the plight of the low tier servers just continues the arrogance that I see from most T1 players.

I don’t think there should be handicaps but it’s awfully unfair to award high tier servers just for having more ppl. I suspect that you will see even more ppl leaving low tier for the rewards. As if it wasn’t empty enough.

Gatharin.2674:

As for punishing the large servers, the beauty of a handicap system is that it isnt punishing larger servers for their coverage, nor is it rewarding small servers for their lack of said numbers.

A non-penalising handicap?

No such thing.

If people think that servers like JQ and BQ just turn up and win, then they don’t don’t get the sustained and significant effort that goes into recruiting, organising, managing, training and maintaining those numbers and coverage. Not to mention coordinating and managing the WvW guilds that form their core.

It’s this effort that lays the foundation for WvW success and – in a positive feedback loop – attracts bandwagoners.

I actually this proposal as symptomatic of the attitude that produces noncompetitive servers. Rather make the effort to recruit, organise, and – if necessary for a competitive WvW experience – move, there is a call to ‘handicap’ those who do.

I see it as, essentially, WvW welfare.

Cuddlepie.8109:

Gatharin.2674:

As for punishing the large servers, the beauty of a handicap system is that it isnt punishing larger servers for their coverage, nor is it rewarding small servers for their lack of said numbers.

A non-penalising handicap?

No such thing.

If people think that servers like JQ and BQ just turn up and win, then they don’t don’t get the sustained and significant effort that goes into recruiting, organising, managing, training and maintaining those numbers and coverage. Not to mention coordinating and managing the WvW guilds that form their core.

It’s this effort that lays the foundation for WvW success and – in a positive feedback loop – attracts bandwagoners.

I actually this proposal as symptomatic of the attitude that produces noncompetitive servers. Rather make the effort to recruit, organise, and – if necessary for a competitive WvW experience – move, there is a call to ‘handicap’ those who do.

I see it as, essentially, WvW welfare.

I’m sure every server has their share of players who play hard and put in a ton of effort (and I certainly don’t want to discredit their efforts), but if you think it’s solely your supposed amazeballs recruiting prowess that keeps you at the top, you’re sadly mistaken.

You have a game mode that uses a scoring system heavily reliant on population and coverage. You have a reward system that’s based on server ranking with only a minor amount of participation actually required to “earn” said rewards. And to top it all off, you have a transfer system that somehow assigns the same exact cost to transfer for T8 servers that T1 servers have. Naturally, people will choose the route of minimal effort and maximum rewards by stacking servers that are already at or near the top of the rankings. Zero recruiting is required for any of that. I’ll concede that managing all of those people and maintaining healthy morale requires some noteworthy effort, but that still doesn’t change the fact that easiest way to get handouts (or “WvW Welfare,” as you call it) is to simply transfer up.

That said, I’d hate to see a scoring handicap because that’s just lame and takes away the satisfaction for those who enjoy fighting hard. However, creating a dynamic population cap per map that prevented any server from fielding 10-20 players more than the other servers at any given time… I’d see that as a pretty fair setup. In the past it couldn’t be done because T1 players would complain about having to sit in a queue, but luckily EOTM is here to fix that.

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

That said, I’d hate to see a scoring handicap because that’s just lame and takes away the satisfaction for those who enjoy fighting hard. However, creating a dynamic population cap per map that prevented any server from fielding 10-20 players more than the other servers at any given time… I’d see that as a pretty fair setup. In the past it couldn’t be done because T1 players would complain about having to sit in a queue, but luckily EOTM is here to fix that.

Then what happens when one server just doesn’t show up in WvW? You can only have 30 players play? That reeks of potential abuse. Better way is to allow as many as you want on a map, but change the scoring to be based on a ratio of the number of players involved on each server with a minimum for holding each objective. That way it scales, but if your server doesn’t show up it can’t just shut down everything.

Doesn’t really matter though. A-net wants all of that sweet sweet transfer cash it seems… and kitten the long term health of WvW.

Well, yes, GW2 became a pay-to-win game somehow. If you are on a T2 or T3 server in EU, even the PvE events like Tequatl are rarely done simply because you don’t have enough players to fight those more-difficult-events. The jungle worm? No way you will ever see him down on any low polpulated server. What happens is that most players on those T2/3-servers guest on the higher populated servers. This started with Tequatl and is now the more or less only and common way to get those achivements. With WvW it’s almost the same – excepts, you can’t guest. So if you like MMORPG-style fights, you move to a T1. If you don’t really care about the “massive”, than you can do some small scale fighting in T2 or T3. But with this S2 and the expected reward system, most casual WvW players will move to T1. And it’s only a matter of time till PvE players will start to follow. And ANet won’t pool the lower servers until they got almost all money/gems from the moving players.

Bao Lin Nda.1042:

Well, yes, GW2 became a pay-to-win game somehow. If you are on a T2 or T3 server in EU, even the PvE events like Tequatl are rarely done simply because you don’t have enough players to fight those more-difficult-events. The jungle worm? No way you will ever see him down on any low polpulated server. What happens is that most players on those T2/3-servers guest on the higher populated servers. This started with Tequatl and is now the more or less only and common way to get those achivements. With WvW it’s almost the same – excepts, you can’t guest. So if you like MMORPG-style fights, you move to a T1. If you don’t really care about the “massive”, than you can do some small scale fighting in T2 or T3. But with this S2 and the expected reward system, most casual WvW players will move to T1. And it’s only a matter of time till PvE players will start to follow. And ANet won’t pool the lower servers until they got almost all money/gems from the moving players.

Hey, there’s this fantastic new thing called guesting! It was implemented a while back to solve the dilemma of world events not being completed on low pop servers, and it’s completely free! I’m sorry nobody ever told you about it. Must’ve been a shame trying to do it all with your own server.

This won’t be fixed unless the reward structure or scoring is changed.

Logically it would make more sense to transfer to the server, which is most likely to win the silver (or bronze) league. If the rewards are similar level compared to before, winning the silver league will give better rewards than ending up 2nd or 3rd in the gold.

At least here in the EU majority of the best Guild v Guilds (GvG) guilds are now residing on servers, which have ranks from 8 to 18. Thus you get the best quality opponents and witness the most devious strategies and amazing PuG commanders as well.

Previous league wasn’t exciting: Vizunah Square won all its match ups and so did Desolation. The winner was more or less clear after few weeks.

I just hope the leagues won’t bring massive queues again. Right now we haven’t had any queues for over a month, besides some short temporary on one map if there is guild raids going on or a similar thing. I like the fact that you can enter WvWvW without any waiting (and I hate EotM). Nobody likes being outnumbered (happens to us, even at reset) and well that is the downside, but luckily my server is once again in the right position to be in the silver league and then dominate it. ;-)

I don’t think they should allow weaker servers to win/gain more points if they beat their ratings since that really skew the match-up politics (like two strong servers focus on the weakest server because it has gained ratings, which won’t be fun for weaker server).

What ANET should do is to give additional reward to servers that beat their expectations. So if a server that was expected to be 9 actually get to 7, it should receive just as much reward or more as the server that wins the whole season.

Vabbi… no rewards. YAY

Aberrant.6749:

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

That said, I’d hate to see a scoring handicap because that’s just lame and takes away the satisfaction for those who enjoy fighting hard. However, creating a dynamic population cap per map that prevented any server from fielding 10-20 players more than the other servers at any given time… I’d see that as a pretty fair setup. In the past it couldn’t be done because T1 players would complain about having to sit in a queue, but luckily EOTM is here to fix that.

Then what happens when one server just doesn’t show up in WvW? You can only have 30 players play? That reeks of potential abuse. Better way is to allow as many as you want on a map, but change the scoring to be based on a ratio of the number of players involved on each server with a minimum for holding each objective. That way it scales, but if your server doesn’t show up it can’t just shut down everything.

Doesn’t really matter though. A-net wants all of that sweet sweet transfer cash it seems… and kitten the long term health of WvW.

My suggestion was per map, so that would still be 80+ total players if both servers decided to troll. Besides, exactly how many people do you think we have down here in the lower tiers? Pulling everyone out of all other maps (including EB) to help with emergency borderland defense usually nets us an army of maybe 30-40. And that’s a pretty generous figure assuming it’s primetime.

Bao Lin Nda.1042:

Well, yes, GW2 became a pay-to-win game somehow. If you are on a T2 or T3 server in EU, even the PvE events like Tequatl are rarely done simply because you don’t have enough players to fight those more-difficult-events. The jungle worm? No way you will ever see him down on any low polpulated server. What happens is that most players on those T2/3-servers guest on the higher populated servers. This started with Tequatl and is now the more or less only and common way to get those achivements. With WvW it’s almost the same – excepts, you can’t guest. So if you like MMORPG-style fights, you move to a T1. If you don’t really care about the “massive”, than you can do some small scale fighting in T2 or T3. But with this S2 and the expected reward system, most casual WvW players will move to T1. And it’s only a matter of time till PvE players will start to follow. And ANet won’t pool the lower servers until they got almost all money/gems from the moving players.

Even more so if you’re a non EU/NA player. No chance of getting any of those events done. Also a hindrance for trying to get map completion due to contested areas in Orr always being contested. Commonsense dictates guesting elsewhere, even when you do it does not guarantee any success either.