Guild Wars 2

The current matchmaking system is flawed. The reasons are widely known, so I won’t put much effort into explaining why.
First off, the system will cause “tier islands” to form. 3 servers will be dragged into an endless slugfest unless a server comes in from the outside. With the server transfers now being shut off, the tiers will only solidify more and more. Especially tier 8 servers are being stuck in this because for them, the only change they can hope for is for some server to drop down from the higher rankings.

The ranking system is made to rate skill according to random matches, not according to fixed rankings, so it might cause matchups to float indefinitely as it is used now.

So basically what I suggest:
Give servers a shot at other tiers. Instead of waiting for the servers to drop to a point where their points overlap, just throw them into the matches and have the rating system take care of the rest.
I don’t want a system of constant chaos. What I am asking for is only a slightly more aggressive approach:
Once in a month, matchups will not be decided by points but by who won/lost the last matches in their tier.
The winner gets a shot at the next tier while the loser will have to show their worth in a lower tier.
In the next match, the servers are matched according to points again.

What does it change?
Well, let’s say, there are these 3 awesome servers, who for some random matter are stuck in a very low tier. The servers above them never played them. They just slug it out with each other, cause they are almost at equal strength. However, there is no way to compare their strength. They are “floating”, while the rest of the servers are seperated by a wall of points.
Now we have one match, where one of the three servers gets matched up against the higher tier. If the server actually steamrolls the higher tier, it will get lots of points. Possibly even enough to stay there in the next match. If it gets stomped, that’s that.
Same for the other server. It needs to earn its right to stay in a higher tier. If it loses, the point loss will be severe because it has more points than the opponents.

What did we do?
By adding one semi-random encounter into the equation, we solidified the integtity of the glicko rating, while allowing the servers to actually prove their worth.

What would change?
Say, the wildcard match is always the first matchup of the month.
The last matchup of the month will be contested heavily because dropping down a tier for one match might pose a huge risk to a server, if the tiers below are actually competitive. Rising up a tier is a huge chance for a server to prove its worth, so everyone will try to get that spot which will allow them to shine. It’s suddenly not merely a matter of just playing good consistently, it’s one match which can change the fate of the server. The outcome of this one match will decide who gets to prove their strength. Then comes the next week. A heavily contested match. Maybe one sided but the server gets a fair chance to prove its worth. The Glicko rating will make sure, no matter the outcome, the server will get a rating according to the performance.

With the first match of the month over, there might have been huge changes in the matchup(a lower tier server 400k-100k-100k’ing the higher tier, rising by 4 ranks in the progress, for example), there might have been not, but the matches will now continue normally until the end of the month, where the servers will once again compete for a shot at the throne.

What are the risks?
There might be one sided matches. Seriously, that’s all, I can think of.

Dear god another T8 thread.

Ruprect.7260:

Dear god another T8 thread.

They are breeding! Multiplying infinitely! I’m drowni…..glugglug

Ima gonna bump this because there seems to be a shortage on the front page today. I only see 3!!!

naphack.9346:

The current matchmaking system is flawed. The reasons are widely known, so I won’t put much effort into explaining why.
First off, the system will cause “tier islands” to form. 3 servers will be dragged into an endless slugfest unless a server comes in from the outside. With the server transfers now being shut off, the tiers will only solidify more and more. Especially tier 8 servers are being stuck in this because for them, the only change they can hope for is for some server to drop down from the higher rankings.

snip.

This would only help T8. Alot of the other tiers are having good matches at the moment. This would mean 2 weeks out of the month the fist and third place server would roflstomp/get destroyed. How would that be fun.

EditL:

Honestly at this point I wish this would happen for a week so HoD could move down roflstomp the kitten out of T8 and we can move on past these threads. There will be no more wondering.

Is it so hard just to change server……………

Ruprect.7260:

naphack.9346:

The current matchmaking system is flawed. The reasons are widely known, so I won’t put much effort into explaining why.
First off, the system will cause “tier islands” to form. 3 servers will be dragged into an endless slugfest unless a server comes in from the outside. With the server transfers now being shut off, the tiers will only solidify more and more. Especially tier 8 servers are being stuck in this because for them, the only change they can hope for is for some server to drop down from the higher rankings.

snip.

This would only help T8. Alot of the other tiers are having good matches at the moment. This would mean 2 weeks out of the month the fist and third place server would roflstomp/get destroyed. How would that be fun.

EditL:

Honestly at this point I wish this would happen for a week so HoD could move down roflstomp the kitten out of T8 and we can move on past these threads. There will be no more wondering.

I don’t think any T8 server could compete with a higher tier. If one were to move up, they’d be stomped back down the following week. It would be an endless cycle.

Ruprect.7260:

naphack.9346:

The current matchmaking system is flawed. The reasons are widely known, so I won’t put much effort into explaining why.
First off, the system will cause “tier islands” to form. 3 servers will be dragged into an endless slugfest unless a server comes in from the outside. With the server transfers now being shut off, the tiers will only solidify more and more. Especially tier 8 servers are being stuck in this because for them, the only change they can hope for is for some server to drop down from the higher rankings.

snip.

This would only help T8. Alot of the other tiers are having good matches at the moment. This would mean 2 weeks out of the month the fist and third place server would roflstomp/get destroyed. How would that be fun.

EditL:

Honestly at this point I wish this would happen for a week so HoD could move down roflstomp the kitten out of T8 and we can move on past these threads. There will be no more wondering.

Just sayin, I’m not even a t8 player.
Just thought, this change might help actually comparing the servers…
And if the t8 guys get crushed… At least, they got no right to complain anymore, right?
win-win. The t8 whining will stop either way, while servers get some more incentive to actually win a week’s match.

And honestly, your second sentence just made me realize, you didn’t read my post anyway, as it is only one match per month that will be scrambled up a bit.

One of the devs, I think it was Collin, mentioned an idea they tossed around using something like EPL’s (English Premier League) regulation system, I’d love to see ANet’s take on that in the context of WvW.

I definitely think they could come up with something more interesting than we currently have but there are obviously other issues that need to be solved first.

No thankyou, maybe everyone posting QQ threads about T8 should just buy a transfer, I know I would if I was that unhappy with the situation.

Sevenn.3085:

Is it so hard just to change server……………

YES…. yes it is.

We are trying to claw out of T8… with our fingernails!

Let THIS be the reason…

naphack.9346:

Ruprect.7260:

naphack.9346:

The current matchmaking system is flawed. The reasons are widely known, so I won’t put much effort into explaining why.
First off, the system will cause “tier islands” to form. 3 servers will be dragged into an endless slugfest unless a server comes in from the outside. With the server transfers now being shut off, the tiers will only solidify more and more. Especially tier 8 servers are being stuck in this because for them, the only change they can hope for is for some server to drop down from the higher rankings.

snip.

This would only help T8. Alot of the other tiers are having good matches at the moment. This would mean 2 weeks out of the month the fist and third place server would roflstomp/get destroyed. How would that be fun.

EditL:

Honestly at this point I wish this would happen for a week so HoD could move down roflstomp the kitten out of T8 and we can move on past these threads. There will be no more wondering.

Just sayin, I’m not even a t8 player.
Just thought, this change might help actually comparing the servers…
And if the t8 guys get crushed… At least, they got no right to complain anymore, right?
win-win. The t8 whining will stop either way, while servers get some more incentive to actually win a week’s match.

And honestly, your second sentence just made me realize, you didn’t read my post anyway, as it is only one match per month that will be scrambled up a bit.

Maybe I misunderstand, I thought what you were saying was that the first and last match of the month would be changed and the 2 in between would stay the same. So ex. first in T5 would go up to T4 and vice versa. They would play it out and week 2 would go on as it was before the change. Then the last week thay would switch and the next month would start off with the average of the ranking for the month.

But now re reading I see I was way off base.

Either way, based on personal experience. We would have blowout matches once a month then. This really would do nothing other than switch up the matches for the worse for a week.