A weird idea to make ranked interesting.

Blah blah preface. Blah blah blah.

This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked apart from the obvious. I might flesh it out later, leaving it here to see if the general direction is interesting.

Every season, draw a set of criteria that normally grant "Top" icons to players at game end from a pool. (For example, a "set" of criteria might be; Top Damage, Top Kills, Top Decaps)

Do not show these to the player until the end of the season. Only allow players to see whether they have progressed or not. Set a threshold for these criteria that requires active play to obtain. (10 total decaps in game +, 10 total kills in game +)

During the match, if a player satisfies all of the criteria for their designated season, they gain ladder progress. If they do not, they lose ladder progress, with the degree of progress or loss determined by their MMR vs the opponent's MMR, how close they come to fulfilling their designated criteria, etc. Have winning the match greatly increase ladder progress. Not winning the match nets no additional progress. (only lazy players get punished, in theory? decouples team progress from sabotage/ragequitters.)

Reduce the total progress gained if the player is using a class spec that is currently in meta, and increase it if they are not, to encourage people playing off-meta or counterbuilds.

Notes:Maybe not giving clear direction on what to shoot for will do more harm than good. Perhaps make the progress set visible and split them per match? per player?Might be punishing for players who have perfected a niche role?

This isn't a good idea because there's always a whole enemy team to adapt to. Even if you want to deal the most damage, chances are you won't be able to. It is frustrating when you need luck to progress even if you win, and it is equally frustrating when your teammates chase their own goals.

@Airdive.2613 said:This isn't a good idea because there's always a whole enemy team to adapt to. Even if you want to deal the most damage, chances are you won't be able to. It is frustrating when you need luck to progress even if you win, and it is equally frustrating when your teammates chase their own goals.

Understood. I suppose I got hung up on trying to reward people for actually playing, given the impact of ragequitters./willful afk and sandbagging.

Here's a better one: Teams.

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Here's a better one: Teams.

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked apart from the obvious

Agreed, but apparently metrics don't match with that idea. Devs may be leaning to keep teams in AT.

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Here's a better one: Teams.

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked

apart from the obvious

What metrics? A vote that was passed for a trial season, and then was kept as final without the promised second vote?The metrics of the spiral of decay that has hit PvP since that decision?

AT's are not an alternative to Ranked Teams, it's a nice complement, but not an alternative.

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Here's a better one: Teams.

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked

apart from the obvious

/shrugI'm not saying that team queue would not resolve the issue, I'm saying that apparently solo queue pools are too large to warrant it. If that is the case, there should be some kind of buffer to avoid ranking being adversely affected by players grouped with you as long as you do your job.Difficult to work around willful sandbagging without the obvious solution, however.

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Here's a better one: Teams.

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:This is a thought fragment on how to probably improve ranked

apart from the obvious

All those issues were more or less resolved by the time they removed it... All evidence given by the devs points towards Teams being at slightly lower than 50% win rate.There were tools for players to join in a party post match, creating ad-hoc teams.There was invitationals for world championships, guild ranks and prizes, etc.It was a much better competitive environment, and now we have a crappy farm.