Guild Wars 2

The current system has me a bit confused, and I was wondering if anyone could help me understand it.

Initially I thought that the three way match-up would do a pretty good job of mitigating server population imbalance. The two losing teams would be compelled to coordinate at least a bit in order to topple the winning team, each in hope that they could put themself in the position to be the winner if the time came. I believe this WOULD be the case, IF the ranking/scoring identified a winning server and two losing servers. The problem is that, in practice, it appears to create a first, second, and third place in each match. Because of this, the current third place team’s immediate incentive is simply to not be last place, and the easiest way to do this is to pressure the second place team, which the first place team is doing already. Combined with the snowball mechanics of orbs and supply surplus for the top team, this results in what we’re currently seeing. In most matches, the second and third place teams might swap positions, but the first place team generally remains so unless they crumble from within, which isn’t too common and doesn’t make for good sport.

So my question is, does the current ranking system simply work based on the winner in each match, or does it weight for first, second, and third place?

Anyone out there know if the ranking takes placement in the match into account? (2nd and 3rd place or just victors and losers?)