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You don’t stick your hand in the fire and think if I can just hold out long enough it will stop burning me. People will go elsewhere.
I did my daily requirement tody and there wasn’t even enough ambers to create a match. We had to play with emeralds.
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I don’t think the problem is ppl wanting a reward track so much as being rewarded as they believe they DESERVE. Somewhere deep down there something on the level of justice that bothers ppl being victim of a system (any given system) while, not surprisingly, the successful aren’t seeing it that way at all or even as a problem…
+1 Very insightful
The pathology of power and the naure of evil: A person with power becomes addicted to it and they don’t respect people who have no power.
So these forums are becoming the Stanford Prison Experiment?
As this forum is neither a prision nor a social experiment I can assume your question was rhetorical. Studies of human behaviour give us a broader understand than only within the confines of the study parameters. But yes there are some interesting and observable similarities with this league, the gaming community and the Stanford Prison Experiment. It is worth a read.
I don’t think the problem is ppl wanting a reward track so much as being rewarded as they believe they DESERVE. Somewhere deep down there something on the level of justice that bothers ppl being victim of a system (any given system) while, not surprisingly, the successful aren’t seeing it that way at all or even as a problem…
+1 Very insightful
The pathology of power and the naure of evil: A person with power becomes addicted to it and they don’t respect people who have no power.
I didn’t know either. Don’t use the beast mastery traitline. I prefer wilderness and nature for the boons and condi removal.
Diamond skin eles have as much if not more tanking ability as druids and more power. Revenants have higher damage and can be really hard to kill against multiple opponents because they evade everything and kite the rest. You can’t not have tanks with condi classes (Reaper, Rev) and massive damage classes (DH, Warrior, Scrapper). I don’t know what the state of mesmer is. And don’t care about thieves because who wants to fight imaginary people?
Healing druids are low power so if you can’t kill them bring a friend or go somewhere else. Like if you were a druid and came up against a druid or a ele you’d have to do the same thing. If you had a nerfed druid on your team against all these other classes you’ll lose.
I could believe my skill level being close to his, for whatever reason. Just that the only ones who seem to always blame their teammates are often just as bad if not worse.
So every time someone talks about their lose streaks, i wonder if they even think about what they could have done better.
Oh well.. this where we need a little faith in our intuition in deciding who is believable/trustworthy or not in any aspect of our lives. And a little bit of logic helps too in being a good judge of character. For eg. It is a falacy of logic to propose C is true based on A and B.
A. Unskilled players exist.
B. Unskilled players are likely to experience losing streaks.
C. A person on a losing streak is an unskilled player.
Another example where C is an invalid conclusion:
A. People who mapchat trash-talk sometimes have an inflated perception of their own skill. (or could be skilled with rage issues or had a bad day at the office)
B. Some people who complain in forum may mapchat trash-talk.
C. People who complain in forum are an unskilled player.
Also false:
D. People who have an inflated perception of their own skill also mapchat trash-talk.
And while possibly true we have nothing to base this assumption on:
E. Some people who complain in forum do mapchat trash-talk.
For a skilled player a losing streak wouldn’t be the end of the world and (if it doesn’t break) there are things they can do to change the situation. It’s unfortunate and incredibly frustrating that they drew the short straw in algorithmic lottery. I’d say from reading people experiences it happened a lot more than people think.
And the greatest tragedy was the system going way too far on punishing unskilled players.
So why you shouldn’t be so incredulous towards people making this claim:-
It’s humanly impossible, without stepping outside the rules of conduct, for a player to simultaneously hold 2 capture points. Therefore a player with skill holds x capture point and their teammates are incapable of doing the same for y or z capture points; given the opposing team does have adequate skill to hold y and z; or y or z plus a greater number of kills or secondary objectives: the person will lose regardless of their having a high skill level. This senario can happen quite easily and repeatedly in the current system. You must have experienced this yourself.
People who have shown they have played a number of games in the many thousands; and that they have been able to maintain a win rate of 55-60% in both ranked and unranked; and that they are or were infact in a losing streak; and have given a personal assertion that they are not an unskilled player; and have also described this exact situation above: in this circumstance we can with a certain amount of confidence accept they are not an unskilled player. (This does not suggest that people who haven’t got these same statistics are unskilled, it is just to show it is a believable situation)
The term unskilled may be a little subjective and cause some confusion. Eg. A Diamond level player may consider anyone who is less than Diamond as unskilled. As a general guideline we will define it as a skilled person has a firm understanding of game mechanics and tactics within the mid level range and up: ie. equal to Saphire -> Legendary. Unskilled being everyone else.
It is also a fact that people within the gaming community just love to behave in a highly derogatory manner towards whoever they consider “noobs”. So regardless of having been shown their behavior is needlessly disrespectful and in this case completely illogical they will continue to do so no matter what.
Finally, despite how good a judge of character that using logic and our intuition can make us, we can never definitively know if someone is being truthful or not without proof. We can strongly suspect but often regarding an individual it is best to keep that to yourself. We are not infallible. Innocent people have been put to death for looking highly suspicious. We know it is possible that some people are being truthful about their predicament so in legal terms or a sporting competition this would be what we call benefit of the doubt. You can apply this to your everyday life also. Now what you were doing instead is not trusting anyone and giving all people the disadvantage of the doubt. This is extreme and for me was a little suprising. I realise your point of view now and that many of us probaby have trust issues for various reasons and it’s really not always necessary.
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Kuya, You disbelieve every complaint of being matched with unskilled players, while you are describing a match you were in of being matched with unskilled players. This is non-sensical. Oh wait.. no..nvm.. I had something kinda funny and bit mean to add but I think I’m on probation because.. you know the story.
Great points. My main is Gaurdian and I wish Anet would make them overpowered and not make any further balance changes too!!
People enjoy ranked PvP and at the end of the season everything gets reset to zero. It’s only a temporary status. Whether it’s for fun, status, achievements or competitiveness people get upset when it’s a heavy grind and there’s a set level they want to get to. Then come here to update Anet on their current level of disatisfaction.
Last season the complaints were more universal. The lopsided disatisfaction is new and my concern is that it will cause an exodus as the OP in this thread makes some interesting points.:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/S2-From-a-High-Level-Player-s-View/first
I like to involve myself in all aspects of GW2 crafting, exploring, fashion wars, shopping, wvw, battlegrounds, fractals, dailys, bosses, aps, festivals, activities. A game like this has so much you can do and it takes time to build up that level of awareness and involvement and you become somewhat invested in it. And still so much I’ve yet to do. And you discover new stuff all the time. I wouldn’t like one aspect having such a negative impact because it could have a ripple effect on the rest of the game. So yeh that’s the basis for my current disatisfaction.
Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the making of my post.
You’re right Torafugu. Like today it was time for my dogs lunch. I have 4 dogs. The problem was there was only two slices of bread. So I gave my 2 eldest dogs a slice of bread each and beat the other two down with a stick. I tried to make it fair and 2 of my dogs were fed and very happy with this arrangement. So I’d called it a success too.
Your experience of inexplicably starting out as much the way last season games were played, running contrary to the vast majority of other peoples experiences of winstreaks or losestreaks in landslide games, tells you what exactly? You are trying so hard and it’s painful to watch.
Why thank you. Yeh.. I really only come here when I’ve got something to complain about. lol sorry about that. Ok something positive. The professions seem to have a lot more balance than last season. Everyone has roughly the same damage to sustain ratio.. baring the condis who have a little bit more of both. I love celestial but turns out it was a good thing it’s gone. Well done Anet
A lot of people complaining about S2 are saying they are being matched together with terrible teammates and that this is the cause of their lose streaks. The funny thing is, the rest of their team is probably also blaming them for being terrible.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see an entire team that just got stomped in a match, come to this forum to complain about anet matching them with bad players. Every single one of them believing the other 4 are bad, but that they themselves weren’t the cause of the defeat.
Your family, friends and colleagues are definitely irked that you make sweeping, unfounded accusations against people just for the hell of it. They tend to groan when you walk in the room and you think you hear someone mutter the work f___ but can’t be sure. You also have too much potassium in your diet and a slight body odor you think you can mask with deodorant and no one has mentioned anything.. well yet. Fingers crossed!!
Hacking. In a couple of places you see the gaurd disapear and reappear on different points. View it in HQ. Look at 1:52 he’s on mid then instantly at far. And about 1:20 you see the gaurd behind the necro marker on minimap disappear just as they appear at mid. They can’t be stomped either. Clear case.
It doesn’t even make sense why it happened like that. My first two matches we won by 300-400 then my third match on, for no aparent reason whatsoever, i’m considered as low as person who has difficulty moving and pressing skills at the same time.
You just proved yourself that why you are in a losing streak. You ignored my advice, you fail to acknowledge the change in meta and now you’re just blaming the system. With that attitude you would never advance to ruby or higher because you would never improve. According to the rule since I lost twice in amber and didn’t even participate in last league I should be losing 15~20 times in a row, but I didn’t. Seriously ask yourself if you could not do better for yourself and your teammates. Until you fix that attitude and accept that last meta just carried you to whatever division, you will never advance.
In a game I’m holding mid with a teammate and we could win if we can also hold home. So I instruct my teammates near home to hold it and they keep running toward mid. Waiting for chat to register with them. Still running to mid. So I think I’ll let them hold mid and ill speed home but they all start to run home with me. All 4 of them. So back to mid I go and someones there so I recapture it and kill them. My 4 other teammates lose home and we lose the game. Game after game it was like this playing against fairly well organised teams till I came to kitten about it on the forum. I don’t know whether they are all unskilled, or it’s intentional, or they are just that fed up with losing they aren’t even trying.
You don’t know what you are talking about and would rather blame the victim than address systemic problems.
Not at all. I can see things from another person’s perspective. That isn’t the issue with me at least. I don’t personally feel that competing with people of varying skill on my team affects my ability to enjoy a game or that carrying someone is something I loathe to do. And in no way is that the norm. It does happen but last season games with players of similar skill were just as common as players with varying skill. But you want to only ever play people of the exact same skill level in this competition. I can understand how that might be desirable for someone even if a little narrowminded. However it’s still not addressing the issues posed in the OP which is what I’m actually talking about and a lot of people are asking. I asked you directly about it and recieved no response ie. baring a “division boost” how does this new system address the fact people won’t be bothered to play? This would affect you and everyone else on this thread.
You and I discussed the l2p issue and have gone beyond that as the sole issue people are having a problem with. Which you seemed to grasp. Yet you’re returning to it like a dog with a bone.
As to the last two paragraphs we don’t know that the system will function as intended and it hasn’t as yet for a lot of people. So my answer is I would be willing to give it a try. Yes I could use my condi build and form a team that works with the system to advance quicker but that is the least desirable option I think I’d first prefer to wait a couple of weeks as you suggested. Being able to comprehend and assimilate information is valuable tool.
A lot of the people with overemphatic praise do seem to have a complete lack of empathy, ie the ability to comprehend someone elses situation without having direct experience, and cognitive function to possess foresight. Both of which the OP eloquently displayed. These are human qualities we begin to develop an awareness and understanding of as toddlers and hopefully by adulthood are greatly matured. It seems almost non-existant in some of you. I don’t know if it’s pathological or maybe the win streak affected your dopamine levels interfering with your ability to process information. It is a tad disturbing.
I’m sure if they were in the same boat having that unique perspective would impact their feelings about this topic.
TBH I don’t know. It’s an untested system. Ideally, by completely ignoring all the potential negatives as others have, the system should be intuitive enough, as you collate your wins, to raise your mmr above those you kitten whooped and you’ll have the grossly unfair advantage over other teams to regain your appropriate level. But in reality that seems as doubtful as it is likely or may require an inordinate time frame for this to occur. Who knows?
It means if you wait a couple of weeks, the theory is anyway, all the other players will be worse than you and you’ll have a much greater chance to win and do the bare minimum to get your backpack and then forget this whole nightmare ever happened.
Ron I do respect that you changed your tone that people are wholly responisble for their predicament to people are unnecesarily suffering due to the new system. It’s just insult to injury when people suggest the former.
So baring the ‘division bump’ how does this new system address the fact that people aren’t going to be bothered playing?
People were seriously annoyed last season and the matches were largely even. There are people on this forum with 5000 games and 55-60% win rate and huge loss streaks. We can safely assume that a good percentage of less skilled, less experienced players are having an equal or worse time. So your idea that things are carrying on as usual is foolish and poorly considered.
He won’t answer your question which is firmly based in logical reasoning and given the facts very likely true. I’m not sure the people arguining for this system have a mind to reconsidered their firmly held preconceived notions when presented with any alternate ideas.
snip
There may be a few swept up in unfortunate circumstances, but here’s my point. First off, these players got out on that team in the first place because the game saw them at a similar MMR. It’s not like they were placed with people that were significantly lower than their MMR (which can happen in Unranked, when they try to balance the MMRs across team). Secondly, because the old Unranked system tried to balance teams, people get under this assumption that because their win ratio is 50-55% elsewhere that they are at least average players or better. Many players have convinced themselves that they are better than they truly are, and that’s another unfortunate side effect of this new system. Some people are getting a dose of reality but they are the same people who blame the system rather than themselves.
Point is, I think people are over-attributing their losses to the “system”, and are under-attributing their losses to their lack of skill.
And I’m not sure why people get floored by the suggestion, but que up with a couple buddies to get yourself out of the rut you’re in. You have the power to fix the rut of you think you’re just being wronged, que with better players which should help your MMR.
Couldn’t say this better.
Also, this is Sunday 4 pm HotM. I don’t see that many amber icons. Apparently majority is NOT sitting in 100 games loss streaks.
Maybe the ambers on losing streaks quit to do something else more produtive and/or enjoyable and you are unknowingly arguing in favor of irrepairably damaged game.
OR majority don’t even post nor read forums. They actually play game. This is reality :P
Non-sequitur
Yeh just give me the legendary already and I’d happily return to unranked and leave the mindlessly boring zerg tactic to those who don’t seem to get how much diversity of playstyle can enhance enjoyment of the game.
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There may be a few swept up in unfortunate circumstances, but here’s my point. First off, these players got out on that team in the first place because the game saw them at a similar MMR. It’s not like they were placed with people that were significantly lower than their MMR (which can happen in Unranked, when they try to balance the MMRs across team). Secondly, because the old Unranked system tried to balance teams, people get under this assumption that because their win ratio is 50-55% elsewhere that they are at least average players or better. Many players have convinced themselves that they are better than they truly are, and that’s another unfortunate side effect of this new system. Some people are getting a dose of reality but they are the same people who blame the system rather than themselves.
Point is, I think people are over-attributing their losses to the “system”, and are under-attributing their losses to their lack of skill.
And I’m not sure why people get floored by the suggestion, but que up with a couple buddies to get yourself out of the rut you’re in. You have the power to fix the rut of you think you’re just being wronged, que with better players which should help your MMR.
Couldn’t say this better.
Also, this is Sunday 4 pm HotM. I don’t see that many amber icons. Apparently majority is NOT sitting in 100 games loss streaks.
Maybe the ambers on losing streaks quit to do something else more produtive and/or enjoyable and you are unknowingly arguing in favor of irrepairably damaged game.
Like with HoT. If any of the developers actually played PVE one thing that would be strikingly clear is the majority of people do exploration, harvesting and map completion solo. It’s really uncommon to see people in parties or even pairs doing this. So they created the HoT maps that cannot be efficiently soloed. Sure you can if you dedicate enough time.. but expect to get frustrated when you are pummelled by 20 pocket raptors and a smokescale with no one for miles to revive you and no non-perma-contested waypoint less than half a map away… or have to wait hours for someone else to come along to an obscure, difficult to reach location, to assist with a champ hero-point defender that cannot be soloed. What the devs think we want and what we actually want can be 2 completely different things.
We are not begging for fairness. We are asking for something that remotely resembles functionality.
And in a lot of ways, it does. If within a low division, as people grow out of them, you still struggle super hard to get out of the lowest division, either not enough people have left it yet or you’re just not really cut out for making higher tiers yet. It’s brutal, but that’s how competitive environments work.
About the ONLY legitimate concern I have for people losing a lot is “what happens if you’re in a tail spin on MMR?” But I think people are grossly over-attributing how their loss of MMR affects their performance. I think there is a lot of personal growth requires and more than ever, it’s becoming very obvious to people that they aren’t as good as they thought due to the Unranked system trying to create “fair” match ups.
I hate to say it, but there are just some really bad people trying to push through this “Ranked” gameplay that aren’t cut out for it. Last night, last tier of Emerald that pushed me into Sapphire, a team mate DCed over and over, couldn’t stay on. We won 500-150 4v5, and was camping them at their base… I felt sort of had for them, but at the same time, I just don’t see them being in higher divisions. I think some people would have more fun if they just cut their losses and played in Unranked so they can have their performance off-set a bit.
The way you ‘think’ the system is supposed to work is not how it works. In theory it is how it is supposed to be. If a strong player is placed on a team that can’t beat you 5v4 what about them? They’re an unintended consequence. This is what most people here are complaining about. And in theory if there was as much truth to what you are saying it’s still not healthy for the game to marginalise and exclude a good percentage of the players.
The more games you have played, the more stable your MMR becomes. And a match with big MMR difference between two teams will affect the MMR less than a fair match. Unless you have very little ranked games played before the season, the first few matches won’t affect your MMR much and therefore won’t affect your following matches.
If you have played many ranked games before and are now only losing even in amber, your MMR must have been low before (unless there is a bug in the system). It has nothing to do with losing the first few matches because you were unlucky.
Last season I got to ruby and just for fun tried to get to diamond. I never tanked to make the process easier. I went up a tier then down half a tier. Up two tiers then down one. The same way most people experienced season 1. I got to middle of the tier then went down a tier and that took about 40 matches and it seemed I could make it to diamond but didn’t think it was worth the effort.
I see you are trying to justify the new system in your own mind but it’s just not justifiable.
He’s saying if you were lucky enough to win your first matches by chance you’re MMR becomes elevated and you are placed with stronger players regardless of your skill level. The same being conversely true if you lose your first matches. And if you are losing you are placed with people experiencing long losing streaks whose moral has severely been lowered and expect to lose and some don’t even bother trying. The winning side having won many times in a row all expect to win and begin the game with a stronger team and a more positive outlook. This does not bode well.
As I understand it in season 1 the matches were based on your win/loss ratio and attempted to create evenly matched teams not favoring either side. Which upset a small fraction of the community. And people generally enjoyed themselves except for the stupid parts where you lost 2 pips because a team mate dc’d or pro teams (and pro team wannabes) matchfixing.
That’s the complete opposite of what you were saying in the post I responded to. You’re not all there are you?
Torafugu: Most teams I’m playing are solo queue as well. My team, who I don’t blame for the current problems, are selected on the basis that they will lose. Your post is irrelevant.
If they don’t relinquish their policy of not making changes to the league midseason people won’t even be back next season to see if anything has improved.
I think that’s common sense. Nearly every player I could 1v1 and 3v1 I hold up my end reasonably. Of course I come across people that can defeat me but most people in a 20 game lose streak aren’t better than me. I know that much.
If you had been paying attention it’s not just the worst tho. Decent players aren’t able to play in this system. So quiting the game is a moot point and that is going to affect everyone, even the ignorantly smug.
And watch the queue times go through the roof. If you are not sympathetic to the plight half the playerbase you will be soon enough.
They could also make an official noob list and everyone on it can wear a coloured armband to signify they are less than human, asura, charr.. and so on. That will make them fair game for noogies, name-calling, stomping and all other increasing forms of discrimination and torture. Maybe a little culling? Removing the dead weight on the rest of the borderline psychopathic community. Then we’ll go total fascist and order full assimilation into community guild groups or be exiled to a blurry spot on the Tyrian map. No inferior scum or individuality allowed. (Mordremoth is sounding like a care bear now).
Not having read through all those posts; why is MMR not solely based on personal performance, not taking losses/wins into account or at a smaller degree? I guess it would be really difficult (if even possible) to get such a system working properly, but it would be so much better.
I don’t know either. Aparently they base your skill level on your division level from last season as a solution to people complaining that higher skill level should advance quicker and that in season 1 division level was not at all indicative of skill. That is kind of odd. What one size fits all factor could you base skill on?
They could just start the pro teams in legendary. Anyone else it’s not so important where they end up in the divisions. Since they don’t seem to have an accurate method of judging skill level they obviously can’t develop a system based on skill. I certainly wouldn’t want that even if I won most of my games. You’re either winning without trying or facing an impossible battle. That works for just about everyone.
probably because the legendary backpiece isn’t for everyone hence the word legendary.
I know I will never get a normal legendary because I can’t stand pvp.Ridiculous. Anyone can get a legendary weapon.
Kinda odd you made this thread.
not anyone can only those who dedicate an insane amount of time to map completion and gathering resources and gold. I can’t do that, my personality wont let me. Anyone with enough practice can get good or at least average at pvp if you really wanna argue it that way. Both ways require work that not everyone willing to do.
If you care to read the other threads. People enjoy and are skilled at pvp and are suffering heavy loses. After last season the average players were just as annoyed with the grinding system as the pros. But many of are willing to stick at the stupid system for the backpiece. The argument that the legendary backpiece isn’t for everyone gets thrown in our faces. It’s utterly ridiculous as stated above.
probably because the legendary backpiece isn’t for everyone hence the word legendary.
I know I will never get a normal legendary because I can’t stand pvp.
Ridiculous. Anyone can get a legendary weapon.
Kinda odd you made this thread.
LOL so true. With no matchmaking, and completely random selection of players, you’d at least get an occasional fair and challenging game. ANET your efforts are a bigger fail than if you hadn’t interfered with the team decision making at all.
The problem is they have deliberately, it would seem, designed matchmaking to be uneven. Not one game I have played has had a losing score over 400. So the outcomes already decided before the match starts. Whoever concocted this system epitomises the notion of insanity. Or has never even played the game.
If you are just going to nerf gaurdian elite damage and cc and not offer any improvements gaurdian won’t be worth playing at all. You made non-elite specs not viable now youll make elite specs worthless. Gaurd is my first and main character and I had to quit playing it in league because it lost it’s survivability against other professions. Unless you want gaurds to go the way of power rangers you’ll make them unviable. If you dropped some of the damage and made the traps heal and give boons to allies in the area that would be more in keeping with the gaurdian as a damage support class. Theyd be contenders against the other bunker buff heal professions too.
In group fights gaurds can do ranged damage which isn’t very effective. Or run into the fight and lay traps and get focused down. 1v1 they can’t stand up to professions that know what they are doing. 2+v1 forget about it.
You might as well say gaurds aren’t designed for league any more and stop them competing.
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I think some people try to look like they’re not trying to throw the game. Taking their time to get to point and not putting up much of a fight. Or sit on home the whole game and get downed whenever anyone contests it. You’d get less verbal abuse for being a bad player than people knowing you’re playing bad on purpose.
In forest you can have 3 people attacking creature and someone on the other team hits and by pure luck those 25 points win the game.
I think its fine if you feel this way about the classes. Also im wondering what server you are on because the EU scene was rocking the double mesmer ele comp with at least 1 rev for a awhile now. It had helseth challenging the NA scene saying the EU scene had already figured out this comp.
Also maybe it was true for you and many others but the people i play PvP with were always frustrated with the insane amount of sustain that the scrappers and mesmers had. You can go back can check me on my posts and see even in beta i was complaining about the amount of boons people were able to sustain for long periods of time.
I wasnt surprised with the new meta and many told me it was a L2P issue and its funny because the 2 classes you mentioned are actually the 2 classes my guild mates and I wanted to see even back when HOT first got released.
It’s not suprising that Helseth figured it out early as a dedicated mesmer. But if you look at the first two weeks of pro league for NA and Europe the teams are much more diverse. You have thieves, druids, dragonhunters, reapers, eles. Most teams didn’t even have a mesmer. The Mesmer-Rev-Tempest teams didn’t become the norm till week 3-4 – about halfway into the league. And it made the whole thing a bit sad to watch.
League is worlds away from off season pvp. Going in it was a steep learning curve for everyone.
I’m on the NA server. At the start everyone was complaining about necros and dh till people cottoned on to dodging traps and bunkier builds that could outlast necros who lack healing. Then it was mesmers and revs. Then people figured out how to make druids and eles near invincible and now warriors are getting some massive payback for their shoddy treatment.
This isnt a good thing. You having to adapt for a “season” doesnt make it right. Lets just assume your a legendary level player and because you are not grinding, you just got to ruby recently and now you are far better then the ruby players you are playing now. This is not a good thing.
The reasons people have League season is so players can literally see what there skill level is. Its not fair to the hardcore PvP players of the game.
I dont know what it means to be Esports but having played real sports in the seasons meant something and you played everyone. You only played the better teams in distrcts,regionals,states,playoffs. Here in GW2 league seasons it doesnt matter. Your gonna play the same people over and over and with the new team set up you now must find people of equal skill level. If your friends are not you will lose.
With the now already spoken about win streak perk, you can see how this will get ugly at times.
Everyone had to adapt. At the start of the season Reapers were the top class and could outsustain anyone without breaking a sweat. Next to Dragonhunters who could one hit half a team. Then people began to learn how to use condi revenants and mesmers became less squishy. Next you’re getting down instantly by a druid pet. Who then got hit for 10k at a time by warriors. Builds evolved as counters to those builds developed. None of this happen overnight. Being pro pre HoT wasn’t enough to usher you through the league divisions. So pros started to exploit the system to get to legendary. Since your a fan of sports metaphors its like a pro football team having to adjust after rocketpacks were introduced to the sport.
I don’t think the win streak is a good idea either. The obvious exploit to that is to tank all your games and streak your way to the next division. Improved match balance would mean slower progress so they still need a way for people to advance quicker. Idk about the premades abusing this because they’d need to have a full team of equally skilled players or they’d be at a disadvantage.
I think they should get rid of losing 2 pips for a loss because that could take 4-10 games to win back and is such a let down. And the odd win 2 pips for an impressive win based on MMR. Then you can advance quicker without certain unscrupulous individuals having to find a way to abuse the system.