Guild Wars 2

I was wondering. If there is some sort of seeding in the non-paid tournaments? Meaning, for example, that if the system finds a premade, it then seeks out a buch of randoms to match vs. it in 1st round etc. To ensure that there is highest chance that “best” teams will see it to the final round. Pretty much like in normal sports, tenis for example, where high ranked players start vs. lowest ranked and in this way if all bad players will be eliminated fast, only best and most popular players will see it into quarters, semis and finals.

Such system is obviously good in professional sports (marketing reasons) but I would question its viability in a computer game if no sponsored pro-gaming is involved.

The reason I am suspecting something like this might be in place is my game track from free pvp tourneys. When I solo queue I very often get paired vs. a premade team (I judge from either the guild tag or the way they react to game dynamics, ie. they obviously communicate on voice chat). Now obviously I cant be part of a premade if I solo queue so that is OK but I somehow question why I have a feeling that majority of teams I face are premades? Are there so few solo queuers in frees? I also often get a match where my team starts 4v5 and this means a swift loss. At the same time I have NEVER been in a game where enemy team starts in 4 or less. I mean, you could say about bad luck, but when I get 4’rd like, I dont know, 20 times and then I never see enemy team in same situation, it starts to get fishy. So I start to suspect there is some sort of seeding going on behind the scenes. Unless that is already a common knowledge but I am noobish enough to not be aware of it. Yes, I know there is no matchmaking system atm, but that does not negate the possibility of some other form of structurization. I am just curious at this point.

Frees and paids, no there is no seeding.

In the upcoming monthly tournaments, there will be a Qualifying Point requirement for teams to sign up. This will naturally help filter out inexperienced or unskilled teams. Depending on how strict the QP requirement will be, only the most competitive teams will have the opportunity to sign up.

Upcoming seasonal tournaments will have requirements too (minimum amount of monthly tournament wins, etc). This will also help filter out teams and ensure that the cream of the crop is competing in final rounds.

zone.1073:

Frees and paids, no there is no seeding.

In the upcoming monthly tournaments, there will be a Qualifying Point requirement for teams to sign up. This will naturally help filter out inexperienced or unskilled teams. Depending on how strict the QP requirement will be, only the most competitive teams will have the opportunity to sign up.

Upcoming seasonal tournaments will have requirements too (minimum amount of monthly tournament wins, etc). This will also help filter out teams and ensure that the cream of the crop is competing in final rounds.

Well that is all fair. But I was specifically refering to frees. The ruleset you mention will probably consider paids or whatever will be replacing them.

As a solo queuer you can only consider frees atm. And all the concerns I mentioned in original post remains valid.

For instance, my approx. “stats” from tonight. Can be off by 1-2 matches if I forgot something but not much. Played around 7 games in frees, solo queue, doing hotjoin while waiting. Those 7 games, all 7 lost. 4 matches was 100% vs. premades or partials (confirmed on chat by some. given away by guild tags). 3 times my team consisted from 4 players, 1 time we had 3 players. Enemy team was always full. Few times at start of the game I observed my team “sending” 3 people to near cap, someone else going for Svanir. Obvious signes of people not understanding how sPvP works. Meanwhile, enemy team most of the times send one invander, guardian on the central point, other bunker safekeeping home cap etc. Ie. they knew what they were doing. I guess you could say that I had a back luck today. But such experience remains consistent with my solo queue history in sPvP. I very rarely win when I join solo. Most of the times the outcome is already decided within the 1st minute. On the other hand, when I queued with team (didnt done that since a while, last time in November I guess), I remember to have quite positive experience at least in the 1st round. And none of us was really pro at this, more like just few friends joining, our only advantage was voice-comm. So again, I smell some sort of seeding going on. Also, if not seeding, why always the difficulty goes up dramatically when you reach 2nd round? If I queue in team, we stomp 1st round and in 2nd it starts to be serious business. Isnt this becouse both premades were paired vs. “random noobs” in 1st round? Im guessing, perhaps when you solo queue, it finds 5 players, forms a team, and then says “hey, now lets find some premade for you to play against”.